An Interesting Card-Less Valuable Once Signed

Bobby Bonner 1980-83
Jeff Schneider 1981

I think that this is the only autographed card that I own that is worth considerably less because it's signed. I have a few autographed Vladimir Guerrero rookie cards that this could apply to as well, but not to the extent as with this card.

As most of you probably know, this is Cal's rookie card, and while it's not as rare as his '82 Topps Traded card, is still considered his de facto RC. I remember when my dad and I first got this card in the late '80s or early '90s: it went in one of those extremely thick top loaders and was worth $100+ dollars; not that I cared about that part. I had my favorite player's rookie card!

Now, this card might be worth near it's current book value of $40 if Cal had at least completed the triple auto, but since it's only signed by Bonner & Schneider, I don't imagine it's worth much. However, since I do this blog for the autographs and not for the value of anything, I present to you my Bobby Bonner & Jeff Schneider autographed card. I'm pretty sure that my dad gave me this card, which was very nice of him.

Bobby played with the O's for four seasons 1980-83 but only appeared in 61 games over that stretch. He retired from baseball after the '83 season and along with his wife became a missionary, traveling to Africa to spread his faith. It appears as though he's currently running a youth baseball league.

Jeff appeared in relief in 11 games over the 1981 season. He earned one save and had a 4.88 ERA over those games, his only action in the Majors. The O's took him from the Phillies in the 1978 Rule V draft and he was traded to the Angels in January 1982 along with Doug Decinces for "Disco" Dan Ford.

My Dad's O's autograph collection

This is something that I should have written about well before this, but my dad has been trying for the few years to put together an entire autographed set of (preferably Orioles and/or '83 Topps) cards from the '83 Orioles World Series Championship team. He is trying to get the entire roster of players, not just those who were on the field for the last out. Many of the guys don't have '83 Topps cards, so he is substituting them with (in order of preference, at least I think I have this right) an '82 or '84 Topps, an '83 card by another card manufacturer (Donruss, etc.), or a Minor League card from 1983.

I know that he is getting close to his goal and just received a signed TTM Dave Huppert card today. That is actually what motivated me to blog about his project since it was his first successful TTM autograph. He also was sending requests to Mike Boddicker, Bobby Bonner, Leo Hernandez, John Lowenstein, Dan Morogiello, Allan Ramirez, John Stefero & Bill Swaggerty. I will be able to get his Stefero & Swaggerty autographs thanks to the O's Alumni Autograph series at OPACY, but if anyone else might be able to help him out, please let me know. He also still needs an Aurelio Rodriguez autograph, but that is tough since he died in 2000.

Let's hope the O's can take another game from the Rangers tonight in that bandbox of a ballpark in Arlington! Three series wins in a row sounds really nice to me...