Through The Mail Success (Hockey Style) – Larry Robinson

I’m showing a bit of hockey love today.  Larry Robinson was lightening fast with his return, I think it was just 11 days, he even sent a note saying how much he liked the card which was a bit of a feather in my cap.

Although my Mark Howe autograph attempt fell on deaf ears, Marry Robinson was only too happy to send me his.  Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1995, he is widely considered one of the best defensivemen ever to play the game.  He played from 1971 to 1992 and tallied 958 regular season points in his career.  He has been a successful coach since his retirement as both an assistant and head coach.  He won the Con Smythe Trophy once and the Norris Trophy twice.

Overall a great signing from who many consider one of the nicest guys in hockey.

Example of certified signature:

Rookie card:

Through The Mail Success – Tedy Bruschi

This one came back about two weeks ago.  As many of you know I am an University of Arizona alumni.  I thought it would be great to post a pro – Wildcat TTM success.  I was at U of A from 1989 – 1993, right in the thick of Desert Swarm.  I met many members of this defense over the years while I was a part of KAMP student radio, serving as the Sports Director.  Bruschi is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet.  He was great to do interviews with (of which I did quite a few) and was just so down to earth.  I have a bunch of his autographs that I have gotten over the years, but I wanted one that was on my new design, so off it went on a three week journey.

His awards are as follows:

• 2× Consensus All-American (1994, 1995)
• 3× First-team All-Pac-10 (1993, 1994, 1995)
• Morris Trophy (1995)
• Pro Bowl (2004)
• 2× All-Pro (2003, 2004)
• 3× Super Bowl champion (XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX)
• 5× AFC champion (1996, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007)
• 2× Ed Block Courage Award (2000, 2005)
• AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year (2005)
• PFWA NFL Comeback Player of the Year (2005)
• New England Patriots All-2000s Team
• New England Patriots 50th Anniversary Team
• College Football Hall of Fame inductee (2013)

Where I sent it:

Tedy Bruschi
c/o ESPN
935 Middle St.
Bristol, CT 06010

Turnaround time: 25 days

Number of cards signed in the set: 4

Finally, I hope that U of A gets the number one seed in the west later today.  They deserve it, they won their conference and the conference tournament, unlike both Virginia and Duke.

Through the Mail Success – Jim Bunning

Got this one back mid last week. What an amazing through the mail success.  I love players like Jim Bunning who is widely considered one of the top 50 pitchers of all time, take the time to sign and send back ttm autograph requests.  His career was legendary, two no hitters, including a perfect game. At the time of his retirement he had the second most strikeouts, currently he sits 17th. He appeared in 9 All Star games, he won 17 or more games in eight of his 17 seasons, a three time strikeout champion, and a World Series champion.

If that’s not enough he then led a life of a politician for his home state of Kentucky for the next 30+ years.  Including being a member of the US House of Representatives from 1987 – 1999, and a US Senator from 1999-2011. What an amazing life he has led.   I had decided to make the card of him as a Tiger for a few reasons. First, it’s where he won his most games and second he won a World Series there.  However it should be noted that most people remember him as a Phillie.  I apologize Phillie fans, for taking him away from you, but I had to make the card of him as a Tiger.

Turnaround time: 14 days

Player’s Baseball Reference Page: Jim Bunning

Player’s Wikipedia page: Jim Bunning

Current Number of Cards in the set: 5

Card Number: VC-JB

Multiple Through The Mail Successes – Cory Snyder / John Cappelletti

Cory Snyder

 

This one I chased after, even though it doesn’t fit into my personal collection profile of All Stars and Hall of Famers.  It doesn’t even matter though because it’s Cory Freaking Snyder.  Anyone from the 80s knows why this autograph is awesome!  Snyder is from the heyday of my childhood collecting.  I still have north of 50 of his cards, and I will probably not get rid of them.  He has long since left the sport and the value of those cards will remain at a constant 50 cents a piece (a full dollar less than I paid for them), but I can’t let them go.  He was my first prospecting card.  After Mark McGwire’s cards went through the roof, I started gobbling up those beautiful orange and blue cards, Shane Mack, John Marzano, and Odibie McDowell.  I couldn’t get enough of them, they were going to be my college education.

In the end though, they all became good players, but not super stars and certainly not Hall of Fame members.  Cory Snyder is a reminder to me, never fall for prospecting, ever!  One out of a thousand prospects turns into a star, an even smaller percentage become superstars and a minuscule amount become Hall of Famers.  Just ask all those Dice-K collectors.  Still, this autograph will be among my favorite in the collection. It will go right up there with Kevin Elster’s when I get that one back.

John Cappelletti

 

Before there was Reggie Bush / Darren McFaddon / Adrian Peterson, there was John Cappelletti.  I know you’re all like who? Here is a list of awards won during his senior year (1973) at Penn State, Heisman, Maxwell, Walter Camp, Chic Harley, UPI Player of the Year, and first team All American.  He was the 11th overall pick of the 1974 NFL Draft.  Joe Paterno once said that of all the players he has ever coached, Cappelletti was his favorite.  He was one of the best college players of all time and in 1993 he was inducted into the College football Hall of Fame.

He had a decent NFL career, nothing spectacular.  He played for the Rams and the Chargers, never amassing more than 700 yards in any one season.  His NFL career is not why I went after his autograph, it was his college play.  Growing up in NJ, you hear of all the great PSU players and I always knew about Cappelletti as one of the best running backs in PSU history and that’s saying a lot since for years it was known as Running Back U.

Both of these autographs are special to me since they bring me back to my childhood.  I’m so happy to have gotten a chance to get a through the mail success with either of these guys, and yes if they would have asked for a donation to their charity, I would have done it in a heartbeat!  In fact if either is reading this now, email me using the envelop in the top left corner of my site and tell me your favorite charity to donate to.

Their Autographs

Their Rookie Cards

Who Wants A Free Custom Card?

Through The Mail Failure – Mark Howe

I knew I would hook you with that title.  I mean who can pass up something for nothing?  I sure can’t and I’m hoping neither can you.  The reason for this freebie can be chalked up to this note I got back from Mark Howe:

 

While I don’t begrudge players from charging for their autograph, I don’t feel as though $15+$5 for inscription is fair.  If people are indeed going to eBay and reselling his TTM autographs, they are getting on average $3 including shipping.  After fees we are talking about $2 (again on average). Now I do understand the money is going to charity.  I get that and I am not about dismissing it, but why not sign the card and ask to donate.  I bet you’d not only get more people donating, but you’d get more money.  I’ve actually donated to the Howe Foundation before, I did it out of admiration to the Howe family.  I didn’t want or expect an autograph in return.

 

Now clearly this is a card that was made by someone.  It’s for a personal collection and if it does get resold, I will be long gone from this world.  Because it’s a card made by someone it has little to no value (which is why I am giving it away).  So all you have to do is subscribe to my blog so that you get my posts as an email, and leave a quick comment.  In return, if you are the one selected, I will send you the card and the note that Mark sent me so you know where to send it and how much to donate to get the autograph.

Again, I have no problem with athletes asking for a suggested donation, or flat out asking for money.  However if this isn’t an in person event, make the donation a suggested amount and sign the card regardless of the donation.  That’s all I ask.  In the end if he had signed it and asked for the donation, I would have donated again.  Now I’m completely turned off by it and don’t even want it in my collection which is why someone else has a chance to get his signature on his terms.

Let me know where you stand on this, I’m very curious if I’m out of line or not.  Either way good luck winning the card, I will hold the drawing tomorrow night at 7pm (entries after that will be ignored, but thanks in advance to subscribing and leaving a comment).

Offline for Three Days . . . Now Catching Up

As some of you might have heard, we have gotten a wee bit of snow here in Durham, NC last week.  The total around my house was 8 inches, which for the south is as close to the end of the world as you can get.  My power went off, then back on a few times, but it was the loss of internet that was staggering to me.  Not only does that stop the production of  custom cards, but also my posting ability! There were so many topics I wanted to discuss, but in the end I forgot some of it and others are now not worth mentioning.    I did have some things I wanted to mention.

Through the Mail Success – Andre Reed

 

Another of the mini 1959 Wad Wax Heritage Minis came back.  This one from newly elected Hall of Fame member Andre Reed.  Reed should have been in the Hall of Fame years ago in my opinion.  His ability to stretch the field might very well be unmatched in Buffalo Bills history.  With 951 receptions and 87 career touch downs, the man sits high among the all time greats.  As such he finally gets what he deserves, a bust in Canton.

The breakdown was as follows:

The Address:

Andre Reed
1058 America Way
Del Mar, CA 92014-3919

Turnaround time: 12 days

Total Cards in the set: 4

Remaining to be signed: 2 (Scott and Bruschi)

Next Through The Mail Set Going Out:

 

 

These are the next four to go out.  They actually went out this morning.  Mostly football but with a string of recent successes of Matt Williams, I had to add another one of my 80s cardboard gods.

They are as follows:

Tommie Frazier – One of my all time favorite college quarterbacks.  he was recently inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.  Saw one TTM success and decided to go for it.  Really excited to get this one back, he was up there with Michael Vick as one of the most electrifying players in college football history.

Dan Fouts – My Charger himself, a regular gunslinger from the 70s and 80s.  I used to love watching him toss the ball around.  Another HOF member that I have to have in my collection.

Terry Bradshaw – Still my favorite Sunday football analyst.  He was a pleasure to watch both on and off the field and his 1977 card was my first real valuable card that I put in a top loader.  I was six at the time.

Matt Williams – One of those late 80s guys that I had a ton of rookie cards of.  May have not been the best of his generation, but a damn good player that was probably one of the most reliable players of his generation both offensively and defensively.  Currently managing the Washington Nationals.

Most of these should come back within 30 days.

 

New Through the Mail Design – 1989 Score Rookie

It’s that time of year again.  The time of the NFL combine and the draft.  I’ve always been a QB guy and in each draft I like to follow the draft status of all the QBs that I liked in the previous college season.  This year there were four:

• Brett Hundley
• Bo Wallace
• Bryce Petty
• Garrett Grayson

I will also go after specific defensive end and offensive linemen as well, but that will be later.  I really don’t care where these guys will end up, I will root for them where ever they go.  I just liked watching them play last season.  I got home addresses for all of them and I’m sending them out today and tomorrow.  In the past I’ve done pretty well with sending out to their homes before the draft.  I’ve gotten Andy Dalton, Nick Foles and also helped out Adam from SCU with a Christian Ponder TTM as well.  This is the best time to send these requests out.  I almost never miss on these.

As for the design, I tried to imagine what a cut autograph would look like for the 1989 Score rookie card.  I am elated with the front of the card.  I don’t think I could have done better, the back is a different story.  I’m not in love with it, too much white space.  Not quite sure what to do to make it better.  If you have any ideas on how to tweak it let me know!  These are business card size and I really do wish there were cases or top loaders for that size.  It seems like 75 pt. is the perfect thickness to store them in.  I’ve recently taken on some projects from other collectors, helping them make custom cards to send out so if you are interested I can help.