pete rose through the mail success! and failure!

last june, i saw that a few people were reporting through the mail successes with pete rose.  no big deal, except that they weren't paying anything!  i figured it was worth a shot, and so i sent a card to the hit king.  two weeks later, my 1987 topps card was returned with an autograph!

very cool.  it's not the first pete rose auto i have (i posted about an in person adventure in one of my 'blog bat around' posts), but it's the only one i have on a card.  i was torn over what card to send, and finally went with his final tribute (all 4256 hits are accounted for on the back) over his 1978 topps record breaker and base card, even though i prefer to get 1978 cards signed.  you will find out in a day or so that pete rose was once my favorite non-dodger player, and he was only bumped from the list when steve garvey became a non-dodger, so i was over the moon to have received this signed card back so quickly, and for free. 

i was so happy that i decided to send a couple more cards - both from the 1978 topps set - dropping them in the mail in early august.  cut to yesterday, when i received those cards back in the mail.  alas, they were unsigned.  instead, there was a letter explaining that pete had signed some cards free of charge, but that led to too many requests, and now he is enforcing his pay for autograph policy.  for my convenience, there was a price list enclosed ($30 for an autographed card).  and you know what?  i think i'm going to do it.

thanks pete!