Not bad for $4.01

I'm not an autograph collector per se but I do add them to my collection when I come across ones that fit and are not too costly. Case in point the six Orioles signed items I nabbed for four bucks and a penny on eBay.

Half my 'saved searches' are Orioles related so I guess that's why the listing turned up on my eBay feed (that row of stuff they tempt you with on the bottom of your pages). I'd probably have ignored it but six pieces with a $2 start price caught my eye. I tossed in a small bid and ended up winning. When you look at them they are really not that much of a bargain but the 8x10's will be fine on the walls over my desk at work. I can spend my last year there repping the Birds.

The Frank Robinson photo had a stain but in a cheap from from Dollar Tree it'll hang just fine.

The 1960 Topps Ron Hansen comes from one of my favorite subsets ever. That's 57-year-old gum residue on the front. I've been pretty successful at removing that gunk so I'll give it a whirl. I'll stick this one in my 1960 set after I clean it up a bit.

Ken Singleton was a class act with the Orioles. Signed '83 Donruss Singleton? I have a spot for it.

Here is a slightly abused Orioles team postcard of one of my all time favorites. Ellie was a fan friendly as they come. RIP

Finally a couple of flawed photos. One from Boog Powell.....personalized to someone whose name isn't readable (I'll make believe it's to me) and.....

...my umpteenth Brooks Robinson sig. Looks like the Sharpie was petering out. Oh well.

All in all a decent buy for the price. Hey I spent a dollar more than this on a hanging pack of '17 Topps Series 2 and got nothing I was remotely interested in. When I look at it that way I figure this buy was a real bargain!

Drake's Cakes Kenny Singleton (also paging Ana Lu!)

I was poking around the net for a project I am doing and came across this little blurb on Ken Singleton's Wikipedia page:

In the 1986 edition of the Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, James' wife Susan McCarthy picked Ken Singleton and Carlton Fisk as the best looking players in the 1970s. In a subsequent edition, James wrote that, upon reading the entry, Singleton sent her a thank you card.

That made me laugh. I was a big fan of Singleton when he was spending a decade as an Oriole but it never crossed my mind that he'd be admired for his looks. His swing, sure, his class, definitely, but not his looks. Shows what an un-observant guy I am.

That's a Drake's Cakes Big Hitters Singleton from 1982, the heyday of oddball licensed and unlicensed food issues. Here is the back. Looks like a typical Topps card.

BTW.... when I think of Drake's Cakes I fondly remember these:

Icing-less cupcakes that I ate regularly with an RC Cola after throwing my Newark Evening News route as a kid. Good times, baby.

Here are a few shots of Singleton as a player and today. What say you, Ana Lu?