Willie mays raleys 1967 info
 

Hi all, just joined. I was told that this was the place to learn and am excited to be here.

Does anyone have any information about this rare mays I picked up. My research tells me that is from a 1967 one day only meet/greet with Willie at a Raleys supermarket in Sacramento. There is one other forsale on eBay and only 2 solds show up on worthpoint. Google was useless, it’s also not in PSA registry. It’s 5x7 and on a photo like card stock.

Any Info would be appreciated

We need a bat signal to call Larry. A Larry signal perhaps? :cool:

The one that sold on eBay for a Buy-It-Now of $180 seems like a bargain.

I almost bought that one as well, It’s so strange to me that I can’t find any info anywhere!

Here is one that was autographed that day!

That picture Fred posted is mine. We are buddies. Anyway that came from 1962. Raleys is in Sacramento California and that Grocery market chain had Willie Mays come out for signings one winter day. At the Raleys we were at he, stayed for a half hour or 45 minutes. They gave you the picture and Mays signed it. Free. Then he was off to another store. My assumption is he hit them all, but I don’t know that for sure. I was 12 at the time.

There couldn’t have been more than 20 people there that day. He answered some questions with most of them being about the 62 World Series Game seven, and if he thought Matty Alou could’ve scored on his double with two outs in the Ninth inning in a game the Giants lost one to nothing. Would’ve tied the game.

Around that time Raleys also had John Brodie come out and do the same thing for them. The picture they gave you that day does not have the Raley’s notation on it.

Raley's Brodie Photo
 

Here is Ken's Brodie photo

Thanks for the information, so it is from 1962 and it is quite rare. Willie mays is my main PC, I have a decent collection and have seen some of the crazy rare pieces. This was one that i have never seen, and couldn’t find any documentation on.

If you could flash “Odd Ball Inquiry” that might do it

I’d be interested in knowing the basis for the original thought of 1967. I guess there could’ve been other Willie Mays promotions with the same picture in different years. But with four boys in my family and everybody being a Willie Mays fan, I’d be surprised if that happened unknown to us. It’s not hard to imagine that they ordered a lot of pictures and all of them didn’t get handed out that day and signed by Mays. So they could’ve been passed out later in the various stores perhaps. And then the surplus filtered into the hobby over the years. Anyway it’s a good item and I’ve only known one other Collector that had one. Of course he was a big-time Willie Mays collector also. (Another reason I believe this is 1962 was because Mays also signed a baseball for me that day. It was a used ball with my name written on it in big red capital letters from my little league days. Still have it too.)

I found that on a description of an old eBay item on worthpoint. Literally cannot find anything anywhere.

Great !
 

Wow, Ken, that's a great story. I'm glad you were able to keep your photo for all those years. So many things disappear over the long passage of time.

Mays
 

thanks Wayne. Mays, like a lot of us kids, was my favorite player growing up. So I kept it. I also have this old beat=up little league baseball he signed that day too. Still has my name written in large red block letters that were on the ball when he signed.

I have two brothers who were there with my Dad and myself that day (and the 49ers day too). I asked them their recollection on when the Mays appearance happened and they agreed it was around 1962, They even remembered also what a cold overcast day it was. So not sure where that WorthPoint 1967 citation came from, but it is not accurate (unless there was another promotion then, but that is pretty hard to believe as we would have known about it as Raley's was the grocery store the family shopped at).

Undoubtably, they had to have printed decent number of those photos for this appearance. And likely they were not all used as there was a very limited number of folks that day at the store we went too. So the Raley's probably distributed the unused to customers later in some manner I would imagine (un signed). But no knowledge of that.

rare
 

John Brodie...no ?

I'm a Waldbaum's and King Kullen kinda guy from Long Island, but we had a Raley's hear nearby that was pretty awesome. It recently closed down. Bummer.

Any chance we can see the baseball signed by Mays (with the added inclusion of your name written in large red block letters). :D

Darren

Here is Ken's photos of the ball you asked to see. He asked me to post them.