Signing bonus: 1967 Topps set gets special treatment

Posted Jan 9, 2012 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Jan 9, 2012 at 10:57 PM

Persistence. Creativity. Passion.

You need those qualities to be a successful autograph collector. And that’s if you just have an autograph book, baseball, photograph or a scrap of paper to get signed.

It takes far more diligence if you want an entire vintage baseball set signed, card by card.

That’s the goal of Doug Barnes of Knoxville, Tenn., who is closing in on a complete set of signed cards from the 1967 Topps set. Why 1967? After all, there are facsimile autos on the cards, but it’s the birth year set for the 44-year-old, who runs a memorabilia and sports apparel shop in Knoxville (Dugoutdug Sports Collectibles).

Besides, it’s a nice-looking set, one of the most attractive products put out by Topps during the 1960s — free of frills, the design is a full photograph with the player’s name and position across the top of the card and the team name at the bottom. It’s a perfect card to get signed.

“I liked getting autographs, but I never had a focus like this,” said Barnes, who began his quest in October 2008. Thirty-nine months later, he has 553 signatures (he got 204 during his first year), achieved by in-person encounters, through-the-mail requests and Internet auctions. And Barnes is heading to Las Vegas later this week hoping to get Pete Rose’s signature on Topps card No. 430. The hits king is doing a show at Antiquities in the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace, and Barnes is looking to get autograph No. 554.

That’s a staggering figure. Consider that there are 609 cards in the 1967 Topps set, but when you throw in the league leader, checklist, duo cards (two teammates on one card) and World Series cards, there are 691 signatures to collect. Imagine trying to get two Willie Mays autographs, for example, since Mays has his own card and also appears on the 3rd Series checklist. And also consider that many of the players depicted in the 1967 set have died (Barnes estimated the figure at 140 players), making their autographs scarce. It could be tough to find that Ray Oyler autograph on Topps card No. 352, for example, since Ray died in 1981.

More figures, since Barnes majored in finance at the University of Tennessee and has a spreadsheet that details the status of every card in the 1967 set. I think an accountant would be proud of such attention to detail.

Of the mail requests he has sent out, Barnes has had 302 cards signed and returned through the mail. In person, he has gotten 120 cards signed. The rest have come through auctions. Cards signed include 33 by Hall of Famers.

What started this obsession?

“I had a customer who told me he got a lot of cards signed through the mail,” Barnes said.

That sounded interesting. So Barnes went to www.SportsCollectors.net, which has a database of the addresses of retired sports figures, subscribed to the site and began sending out letters with cards.

His initial goal was to get 100 autographs, and recalls one of the first he received was from Cardinals catcher Pat Corrales. Barnes got more than he bargained for, and suddenly, completing the set seemed to be possible.

“It was like Christmas every day because my mailbox had signed cards in them,” he said.

Barnes said he grew up rooting for the Baltimore Orioles as a youth when he lived in Virginia (“I idolized Brooks Robinson while I was growing up.”) But his most memorable experience since he began collecting signatures for the 1967 set came in March 2010 during spring training in Fort Myers. The subject? Former Twins outfielder Tony Oliva.

Oliva had driven to camp that day with Hall of Famer Rod Carew, and both were serving as instructors. Barnes tried several times during the day to get Oliva to sign his 1967 Topps card No. 50, but to no avail.

“He was tired,” Barnes said. “He gave me a hard time, said he’d already signed a card for me.”

Barnes didn’t give up, and then finally, Oliva signed.

“He signed the card and then we shook hands,” Barnes said. “Then I asked if he would take a picture with me and he said yes.”

Reflecting on his day, Barnes felt bad about bugging Oliva. “So I wrote him a letter apologizing for it and I sent him an Outback Steakhouse gift card,” along with a Twins team card, and American League Batting Leaders card, and two 8-by-10-inch copies of the photo of him and Oliva.

He figured, why not ask Oliva if he could sign the photo and both cards and perhaps have Carew sign the team card, too.

Moxie paid off. Barnes mailed his envelope on March 10, 2010. He got a package 12 days later from Oliva, with both cards and photos signed. And Carew had signed the team card, too.

The team card, by the way, also has autographs of Harmon Killebrew and Graig Nettles on it — it’s Barnes’ lone four-signature card for now.

Barnes ran into Oliva again during spring training last season. And yes, Tony remembered him.

That was a success. Barnes’ most memorable refusal?

“Tony Perez. I was at the Marlins spring training (where Perez worked for the team), and was within three feet of him,” Barnes said. “Asked if he would please sign and he said ‘I don’t sign cards.’

Well, at least not at ballparks, and not for free, as it turned out. Perez has signed cards at shows, so it was not hard for Barnes to find a card with the Hall of Famer’s signature on it. He bought one through an Internet auction.

There are still some big names Barnes needs to complete the 1967 set — Mickey Mantle, Ernie Banks, Roberto Clemente, Mays on a regular card (“I have him on the checklist”) and Tom Seaver, to name a few. As Christmas presents last month, he received autographed cards of Hall of Famers Frank Robinson and Jim Palmer.

Barnes has plenty of stories about his in-person experiences, which can be found on his blog at dugoutdug.blogspot.com. It’s a nostalgic trip through the 1960s.

“It’s been a fun adventure,” he said. “You do a lot of research and try to be at the right place at the right time.” 

Barnes has advice for those who want to try the same thing he is doing. (My advice, by the way, is not to pick a set that has 900 cards, like the 1991 Score factory set).

“Find your favorite set and just be really diligent and do your research and make it a passion,” he said.