A true Forever PC item?. A collectors story.

alifaxwa2

I grew up collecting in the late 80s and early 90s with my dad. He grew up in Pittsburgh suburbs and passed his love of Roberto Clemente down to me. We went to many local shows in Northern Virginia where I grew up, and his focus was always Clemente stuff. In 1993 we went to Pittsburgh for the All-Star and all the convention activities. We are able to get Clemente's wife Vera autograph at one of the events.
He worked on run of Topps cards (that he still has) and one time found a 1960 Topps autograph at a show. He paid $400 for it. We have since learned it is likely a clubhouse signature by Clementes driver, who did lots of his signing.

In 1998, I was 17, and working in a Burke Virginia card shop, when Topps had Clemente as the focus of its inserts and giveaways, including 5 of each of Clementes original topps cards.
I bought a few boxes from my store and was lucky enough to pull the a redemption for a 1963 Topps card!.
I have had bigger pulls from boxes, but never anything SO perfect for my collection.

Over the last 15 years my collection has gone from high grade low value modern rookies, to low-value non-sports, to better non-sports. I was always a Pirates and baseball fan, slowly adding some nicer cuts (Wagner, J.Robinson, Walter Johnson, etc) and putting them into my favorite custom design. I also acquired some more less common higher value Non-Sports pieces (Alec Guinness on SW, Sean Connery on Indiana Jones, etc). These were all pieces I thought would be in my 'forever PC'.

I have since learned over the last 5-10 years that my forever PC is never forever.
In the back of my mind for years I had been wanting a real Topps Clemente.
I'd always loved the 1957 Topps cards and been looking out for a signed Clemente. Never saw one come up and then by luck, a 1963 popped up on eBay at a price I liked.

Spent the last 2 months selling the Walter Johnson custom, Alec Guinness SW 8x10 (an $800 piece), Sean Connery on Indiana Jones pic ($1000+ piece). Still not enough. So, while I wanted to keep my Pirates customs together, I decided to sell of the Clemente custom to get the last I needed to raise.

After a few offers to DACardWorld, this beauty arrived today.

This will likely be a Forever PC piece.

frankhardy

Yowsers!

Definitely a keeper!

Kid4hof03

What a beautiful Clemente autograph. The story of how you got there is awesome, thanks for sharing.

craig44

That is a great story. Thank you for sharing

KingBen

That is disgusting!!! 😱

I remember the days people used to worry about vintage cards, and wouldn’t think of getting it autograph as it would decrease value... but how wrong that was! Autographed vintage cards of so rare, and nice! I actually just saw a clip of Pawn Stars on YouTube just before showing a 51 Bowman Mantle autographed in PSA Authentic slab. They gave it a value of 10k (the card was is really rough shape, and even trimmed) but man was it pretty! Such a nice and vintage looking autograph. Looks like it was signed a while back.

Anyway, great Clemente! 👌🏼

JBrules

Great story. Congrats on landing a keeper!!

vintagefun

Damn Dude! Very cool. You just don’t see many Clemente autos. I really dig his auto too. My family is from Spain and a lot of the older generation has what I’ve called a Latin script to their writing. This has always appealed to me when it comes to Clemente’s auto. I have his whole Base Topps Run and I try to do one auto for each player I PC...but unfortunately when I comes to Clemente, I doubt I’ll ever own one. Great pickup!

mrmopar

@KingBen said:
That is disgusting!!! 😱

I remember the days people used to worry about vintage cards, and wouldn’t think of getting it autograph as it would decrease value... but how wrong that was! Autographed vintage cards of so rare, and nice! I actually just saw a clip of Pawn Stars on YouTube just before showing a 51 Bowman Mantle autographed in PSA Authentic slab. They gave it a value of 10k (the card was is really rough shape, and even trimmed) but man was it pretty! Such a nice and vintage looking autograph. Looks like it was signed a while back.

Anyway, great Clemente! 👌🏼

Never understood this, but then again I have always been a collector. My theory was that the nicer the card you had signed, the better it would be in the long run. I can't stand seeing cheap, ugly reprints or beat up cards that were sent to be signed. Such a waste! No matter how rare a card might be, odds are pretty good that a signed copy is going to be that much rarer than an unsigned one. I've seen the same argument applied to modern 1/1 cards, with a lot of people actually angry that anyone would have such an epic card as a 1/1 signed. I say go for it.

I thought long and hard about sending a 1949 Bowman Duke Snider in the mail for him to sign. I understood he was a pretty reliable TTM signer, but I could not get over the fear of possibly losing it. I still have regrets of not sending it off, now that he has passed.

Similar story, but better ending. I was able to take advantage of an in person signing opportunity a friend of mine had with Ralph Branca before he died. This was a paid signing, but since my buddy handled the cards and signing himself in person, there was no risk. Sent him two 49 Bowman and a 50 Bowman and so glad I did.

maddux69

Congrats! Glad that you and your father have that great connection, priceless!

pdub1819

Jeff,
This is so awesome! I didn't know the back story, but it's great to hear it's in your forever collection. I am a little saddened that you had to let go of your other Clemente. I remember a long time ago when you first shared it on the boards and your Robinson. You do such great work!

alifaxwa2

@pdub1819 said:
Jeff,
This is so awesome! I didn't know the back story, but it's great to hear it's in your forever collection. I am a little saddened that you had to let go of your other Clemente. I remember a long time ago when you first shared it on the boards and your Robinson. You do such great work!

Thanks Paul.

It was tough to let it and the Johnson go, as it destroyed what had been a fun focus that allowed uniformity, which I love.

Now also makes it hard to figure out what’s next.