Signatures for Soldiers, a non-profit started to aid veterans and their families with various expenses that we wrote about earlier this year, continues to grow. Georgia collector Tim Virgilio began the project last fall. In 10 months, Virgilio says he’s been able to raise over $5,000 and obtain the support of 235 players, past and present, from various sports.
Virgilio asks players for support via mail and social media, providing documentation about his cause. If the answer is yes, sends items to the players to be signed. He then sells the autographs and other donated items and turns all of the proceeds over to Military Missions in Action. The money helps with such things as construction of wheelchair ramps for disabled veterans and/or disabled children of veterans.
Among his most recent additions: Brian McRae, Sean Casey, Ron Gant, Jay Johnstone, Eric Davis and Jason Grilli.
Many of the autographed trading cards and photos feature up and coming minor leaguers or players who aren’t necessarily superstars and that enables him to keep the costs for some items under $10 on the Signatures for Soldiers website.
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Mark Anderson has joined James Spence Authentication. Anderson is the former director of grading at Beckett and also spent time at COMC not long ago. Most recently, he’d been a consignment specialist with Heritage Auctions in Dallas.
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Richard Davis collects Wade Boggs memorabilia so when he spied an autographed ball bearing what was touted to be the signatures of Boggs and fellow Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg that didn’t have any authentication, he looked to social media for help—and according to this post on The Hall of Very Good blog—got an answer directly from the source.
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One of the Mike Trout ‘holy grail’ cards is on the auction block.
Bidding for the 2010 Bowman Platinum 1/1 Superfractor autograph is already over $10,000 as the auction heads for a Thursday night close.
The card has been graded ‘9’ (mint) by PSA.
You can follow the bidding here.
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Signatures for Soldiers Turns Autographs into Assistance
2012 Topps Tier One Baseball Information, Checklist and Sell Sheet
