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Date sent: 3/17/09
Date returned: 3/25/09
I decided to send off an item to Lenny Wilkens because he holds the all-time mark for coaching victories in the NBA and he's a great TTM signer. Knowing how reliable he is, I decided to purchase his rookie card on ebay to have signed. I think I only had to pay $3 for it. It does have a crease across the top left corner of the card but that doesn't really bother me. I like to get vintage rookies signed, the condition isn't a large concern for me.
I think Lenny's autograph looks great on this card. This card in particular is also a great looking card with plenty of room for a nice autograph.
I'll pass up sending a rookie card from time to time if the card isn't attractive. Some cards just won't look good autographed. I haven't been able to find any Topps Heritage blasters locally. As soon as I do I'm going to get a couple. Those cards are perfect for TTM autographs. I love that 1960 Topps design.
I'm wondering how much thought other TTM collectors put into the cards that they send off. Leave a comment and let me know.
I just ran across this on ebay, it's a 1/1 Bruce Lee autograph from 2008 SP Legendary Cuts. The card isn't attractive at all, in my opinion, but would be a pretty awesome autograph to have. Although, I doubt that anyone will jump on it at the $20,000 asking price. The seller has received 22 offers so far and declined them all.
I have to imagine you could find a Bruce Lee autograph out there that's on something much more attractive than this card for a much cheaper price.
What would you be willing to pay for this item?
Date sent: 3/2/09Date returned: 3/26/09I've sent 20 total requests to spring training sites and this is the only one that I've received back. The majority of my requests were sent to prospects, with only a few to established veterans. I guess I don't feel too bad as most members at sportscollectors.net are reporting the same lack of success for spring training requests.Of all the prospect requests that I sent, this would be the one that that I wanted to get back the most. Matt Wieters is rated by most as the top prospect in all of baseball. The Orioles sent him back to AAA last week but you can be sure he won't stay there long.Wieters doesn't have too many cheap cards so I decided to purchase a Razor rookie on ebay for a couple bucks and send that. I think you have to send out your requests with the mindset that you're not going to get them back. That way you won't send anything too valuable and won't end up being too disappointed if your request never comes back.
I went to Target this morning and purchased two blasters of their exclusive Topps retro designed cards. You can identify these only by the number on the bar code box. The number you're looking for is 1-825-50-12-9. The boxes come with 10 packs of 8 cards per pack plus a bonus pack with one historical commemorative patch card. The retail price is $19.99 per blaster.
I personally like the design of these cards. I've read many opinions on these and most people prefer the Wal-Mart exclusive all-black design. I still prefer these. They have the cool retro Topps logo on the front and the grey cardboard backs. I agree with those that say Topps could have done more to change the front of the card. That would have been nice but I'll take them as they are. I think they're much sharper than the regular base cards.
Here are scans of the front and back of the retro design as well as both patch cards that I got:
I used to send cards to athletes through the mail to have them signed when I was a kid. I did some googling a couple months ago to see what kinds of information was out there and realized that people still do this. There's a whole TTM (through the mail) community. I joined a great site called sportscollectors.net that provides all the successes and failures of the community as well as address information. You can keep track of everyone's requests, not just your own. It's a great site.
I decided to start mailing out requests focusing mainly on older Hall of Famers and young prospects. I just started this blog today so I'll be posting successes from the last two months. I'll add the date to each success just in case that information is helpful to anyone. I'll eventually catch up and add requests if and when they come in.
I decided I'd start off by posting one that just came in last week. I'm very lucky to have received this request from George Kell because he passed away on Tuesday, March 24th. I received this in the mail on Thursday, March 19th. This may have been one of the last items he signed. I had read on sportscollectors.net that he was one of the best TTM signers out there so I decided to get something nice for him to sign. I purchased a 1952 Topps card on ebay and sent it off on Friday, March 6th.
RIP Mr. Kell.
I sent an order to BGS last month taking advantage of the February Grading Special ($7 per card). The results were about as good as I could hope for. I sent 20 cards and received seven 9.5's, eleven 9's and two 8.5's.
Here are all the cards I sent listed with their grade:
View scans of the entire order by clicking here
BGS 8.5 - 1975 Topps Mini Enos Cabell
BGS 9.5 - 2004 Bowman Chrome Aflac Cameron Maybin
BGS 9.0 - 2004 Bowman Chrome Aflac Cameron Maybin
BGS 9.0 - 2005 Bowman Chrome Aflac Chris Tillman
BGS 9.0 - 2005 Bowman Chrome Aflac Chris Tillman
BGS 9.5 - 2006 Topps Aflac Promo Madison Bumgarner
BGS 9.0 - 2006 Topps Aflac Promo Madison Bumgarner
BGS 9.5 - 2006 Topps Aflac Promo Jason Heyward
BGS 9.0 - 2006 Topps Aflac Promo Jason Heyward
BGS 9.0 - 2006 Topps Aflac Promo Jason Heyward
BGS 9.5 - 2006 Topps Chrome Josh Johnson Autograph
BGS 9.0 - 2006 Topps Chrome Josh Johnson Autograph
BGS 9.5 - 2007 Topps Aflac Promo Robbie Grossman
BGS 9.0 - 2007 Topps Aflac Promo Aaron Hicks
BGS 9.0 - 2007 Topps Aflac Promo Aaron Hicks
BGS 8.5 - 2007 Bowman Chrome Refractor Madison Bumgarner
BGS 9.5 - 2007 Bowman Chrome Refractor Jason Heyward
BGS 9.0 - 2007 Bowman Chrome Refractor Jason Heyward
BGS 9.0 - 2007 Donruss Elite TOTC Brett Anderson Autograph
BGS 9.5 - 2008 Bowman Draft Aflac Autograph Quinton Miller
Date sent: 3/17/09
