Posts: 1205
From: Shady Side, Md
Registered: Sep 2004

posted 12-14-2008 06:36 AM               

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I am looking for information as to the value of the above cover. Some background. The Apollo-Soyuz Test project was flown in July 15-24, 1975. The Apollo capsule splashdown was on July 24, 1975. During splashdown, the astronauts breathed poisonous nitrogen tetroxide propellant fumes. Doctors closely checking the astronauts x-rays spotted a small round shadow in the lower portion of Deke Slayton's left lung while the astronauts were hospitalized 5 days in hawaii. A check of x-rays taken before the flight showed a barely discernible shadow was present that the doctor's missed the first time they studied the x-rays. The doctors performed a biopsy on August 26, 1975 and the tumor was benign. Slayton fully recovered before embarking on a world tour. Above cover was autographed by Deke Slayton and Dr. Clifton Mountain who at the time was Chief of Thoracic Surgery at the University of Texas Cancer Center. I may add that I saw an article in the newspaper about this and sent 2 covers.

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John Macco
Vice President
Space Unit
Shady Side, Md.

Posts: 1205
From: Shady Side, Md
Registered: Sep 2004

posted 12-22-2008 08:38 PM               

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I am still looking for information on the cover in the above post.

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John Macco
Vice President
Space Unit
Shady Side, Md.

Posts: 1205
From: Shady Side, Md
Registered: Sep 2004

posted 02-11-2009 07:12 PM               

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I am still looking for opinions as to its possible value.

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John Macco
Space Unit
Shady Side, Md.

Posts: 1522
From: Greensboro, NC USA
Registered: Feb 2006

posted 02-11-2009 10:13 PM               

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I think it's entirely dependent on what the audience is interested in. There might be some people who would pay a little extra above the going price for Slayton's signature for the doctor, if they're really into the history of the item. But speaking strictly for myself as a run-of-the-mill collector, the doctor's signature does not add value to the piece. In my opinion, he's not really a 'celebrity' figure like one of the crew, mission control, or support team. There might be someone out there who's much more into the medical aspect of the post-mission story, and this would be a more meaningful piece to them than it would be for me.

As for the value of Slayton's signature by itself, again it will vary. I once obtained an envelope signed by the entire ASTP US/USSR crew for $38...and another time I paid $240 for a litho signed by the entire crew. You can figure that the value of Slayton's signature might be somewhere in the low-middle of that range.

Posts: 2914
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001

Posts: 953
From: South Bend, IN
Registered: Apr 2002

posted 02-18-2009 04:55 PM               

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So these two covers are probably the only ones done for the "event".

If you haven't already, you would probably want to print out your narrative and stick it in the cover, so when the next guys finds it in a dealers dollar box, he can thank you!

I sent covers to Houston, trying for a postmark for every day that Skylab was inhabited. The local paper was putting in a line or two about what was going on on Skylab each day. I know some covers came back two for one date, so I missed some days and I moved (my family moved) during that time, so I got a bunch of them with post office scribbling on them forwarding to the new address. So while I probably have the only collection of cacheted covers for each day Skylab was manned, they probably have little value like your obscure "surgery" cover.

As in "rareness" does not always an Antiques Roadshow item make!

Regards,
Gene

Posts: 85
From: Queens, NY, USA
Registered: Nov 2008