I told you I was serious…

It took me a little time to get organized, but now that I am, I will be going on another autograph through the mail request spree!!!

For this round, I am hitting up a few guys for a second time but also going after many new ones too.

I just got home from dropping these off at the post office:

The players:  Steve Avery, Fernando Valenzuela, Kelly Gruber, Jeff Kent, Don Mattingly, Bill Russell, Lee Smith, Don Zimmer, Bobby Thomson, Ron Cey, and Jeff Reardon.

And like always, I will share each and every success and failure with you as they are returned back to me.

And if all goes according to plan, I should be able to put together another round of mail after I attend a baseball card show this weekend and scoop up some more cards.

Wish me luck!!!!

19 days was all it took for Roberto Alomar to return this perfectly signed baseball card back to me!!!

Alomar was one of the biggest stars during the 1990’s and has a legitimate shot at being voted into the Hall of Fame in January.

A 12-time All-star and 10-time Gold Glove award winner, Alomar was as gifted of an infielder as there was during the 90’s.  With a career batting average of .300 alongside his 2,724 hits, Alomar excelled on offense.   He compiled 210 home runs, 502 doubles, 474 stolen bases, while also scoring 1,508 runs and driving in 1,134.

Alomar was also a member of the 1992 & 1993 World Series champion Toronto Blue Jays.

I am now 2/5 on the TTM requests I sent out just 3 weeks ago.  Who will come home next: Charles Johnson, Jim Palmer, or Bobby Richardson???  We’ll see…

These are this Tuesday morning’s top 10 analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen in Wall Street research calls:

Adobe Systems (NASDAQ: ADBE) Started as Market Outperform at JMP Securities.
BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) Started as Underweight at HSBC.
Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ: CLWR) Raised to Neutral at UBS.
Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Itron Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI) Started as Equal Weight at Barclays.
Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) Cut to Neutral at Merriman Curhan Ford.
Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX) Started as Overweight at Piper Jaffray.
Tata Motors (NYSE: TTM) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) Started as Buy at Lazard.

You can join our open email distribution list to receive daily emails with analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader alerts, market rumors, merger activity, IPOs and secondary offerings, Warren Buffett and guru activity and more.

JON C. OGG

I sent this one out about a week ago thinking i’ll get it back after the NLF playoffs but Mr. Theismann was nice enough to return it to me in less than a week!!! now i’m not much for non Fins autos but Joe’s auto was a must have. I still can picture the hit that ended Mr. Theismann career…Ouch! But he took it like and man and never blamed anyone. A ture badass in every way!

A few years ago I did some research on the excellent Paul Brown Cleveland football teams of the early-mid 50’s.  While my work was Cleveland centric, I ran across a few names of other players that I thought were intriguing, often because of their success in the league despite going straight from college to volunteering to fight in World War 2, and then being discharged and joining the NFL.  What really blew my mind is how many of these guys volunteered (in the end, about 1,000 guys) to go to war instead of waiting to get drafted, and how a vast number of them ended up fighting on the front lines instead of being some sort of behind the lines support personnel.  Obviously, this was a different time: many NFL players were not particularly famous or rich, and they certainly could not expect special treatment from the War Department.  Joe Dimaggio might expect special treatment, Alex Agase could not.  It was still a sacrifice that I respect, and refreshing considering the petulant thugs that make of your average current NFL roster.

In my experience in collecting signatures, you would be hard pressed to find a group of better signers than post 80’s NFL guys.  I am not sure why, and it’s ironic since current NFL players are some of the worst signers TTM (through the mail) that you are going to find.  This goes double for guys from the 50’s and 60’s, and while some may ask for a small donation, it is still very much worth ones time to write to these guys.  At the time I was not aware of what good signers they were, and did not take this into account when I wrote a dozen or so non-Browns guys.  I was really blow away on how well I did (returns began less than a week after I started sending stuff out), but one return, from a player named Bill Dudley, was particularly exciting.

I wrote to Bill Dudley after running across his name in a list of Steelers enshrined in the HOF, and was really impressed with all that he accomplished.  The write-up I was reading made a point to mention that he was football’s last “triple crown” winner in 1946, meaning that he led the league in led the league in rushing, punt returns and interceptions. He was also tops in “lateral passing,” which was its own statistical category at the time.  Dudley was drafted #1 in the 1942 Draft by the Steelers from the University of Virginia, where he was an All-American and Maxwell Award winner.  His first year in the league was a huge success, leading the league in rushing, being voted an All-Pro and winning the Rookie of the Year Award.  In ‘42 he volunteered for the Army Air Corp (now the Air Force), where he would play on the Army All-Star Team and win MVP honors.  He was not able to rejoin the Pittsburg team until the last 4 games of the ‘45 season (we will come back to that.)   While the 46 Steelers only went 5-5, Dudley did a vast majority of the work for those 5 wins, and was named the league MVP.  Now, the football they played in ‘46 was slightly different in the one they play now:  many players played the full 60 minutes on both offense and defense, and humans had not yet evolved into the fast, 400 pound, steroids enhanced human Winnebago’s we handing out concussions today, so it is hard to compare him to any man who put on a uniform in modern times.  Since I can’t compare him to anyone, lets just look at him by the impressive numbers from that season:

• led the team in rushing (146 carries, 604 yards, 3 TDs)
• led the team in passing (32 completions, 452 yards, 2 TDs)
• led the team in interceptions (10 INTs, 242 yards, 1 TD)
• led the team in kicking (12 PATs, 2 FGs)
• led the team in punt returns (27 returns, 385 yards)
• led the team in kick returns (14 returns, 280 yards)
• led the team in scoring (48 points)
• laced fifth on the team in receiving (4 catches, 109 yards, 1 TD)

OK, sure he never murdered a guy like Ray Lewis and then paid off the witnesses to change their stories;  Yea, he never “made it rain” at a strip club and then beat up one of the strippers when they attempted to collect the money like Pacman Jones; He has not–yet–choked out Tila Tequila like Shawne Marriman; He did not hold out for four months after the war, petulantly demanding a new contract from the Steelers, like Crabtree did after the draft.  He may not be as colorful as current NFL players, but hey, what can you do.

Anyway, I wrote to him on a Monday, and by that Friday I got back my letter.  Enclosed was my index card, and two extra photos that he provided–all signed.  But was more interesting was that my letter was enclosed, with a letter written on the back from Mr. Dudley himself.

He noticed I was writing from Pearl Harbor, and it reminded him of a story of his:   after being a B-25 instructor stateside for most of the war, he was shipped to the Pacific in 1945 (more than likely in preparation to support Operation Downfall and the invasion of Japan.)  But, after only two supply missions, the Japanese surrendered and the war was over.  So now Dudley, along with just about every other serviceman in the Pacific, had to be shipped home.  Dudley might have been excited at the prospect of being home in time to play in some of the ‘45 season, but he was one of millions of people being shipped home en masse, and the logistics of such an undertaking meant he (like everyone else) was not going any place fast.  Anyway, Dudley finally made it back to Pearl Harbor and was getting ready to board a boat home–there were just not enough aircraft to fly everyone–and had resigned himself to the fact that he was just going to have to wait for the ‘46 season.  But, as luck would have it, the Hickam base commander ran across Dudley’s name on a roster and recognized him as a All-Star football player, and figured that he may be able to help him for an upcoming service game against the Marines.  He ordered him to his office and gave him a choice:  play three games on my Air Corp roster against the Marines, and I will ship him home on a plane and you get to join the Steelers in time for a portion of the ‘45 season, or, don’t and get send home on a slow boat.  Dudley at first refused–thinking it really was not fair to get any special treatment–but the commander prodded him a little and finally Dudley relented.  The games were a success–Hickam won all three–and Dudley made it home in time to join the Steelers.

Dudley is not a tough autograph to get, he is generally a willing signer and as such his secondary market value is pretty depressed.  But a letter like this is a very special treat, and hold a special place in my personal collection.   The kind of people currently playing the NFL are not role models, are not people that anyone should admire,, and for the most part I would not want any of their signatures in my collection even if they were offered (Peyton Manning and Kurt Warner not withstanding).  Bill Dudley played a game that simply does not exist anymore, and I think that is a real shame.

Hello everyone! My thanksgiving was great, I got to spend time with my good friends, enjoy my dinner with my family, and I got alot of new awesome cards from some generous card friends of mine!

On Friday, I got a very awesome TTM from braves ace Jiar Jurjens! This was a longshot, I sent it out waaay back on 5/29/09 and it came back on 11/27! Thats what I love about TTMs. Check out the scan!

His signature looks like a really cool dollar sign! Thank you Jiar!

Then also on friday, I got a trade package from Mr.Scott. He sent some really nice mets cards my way in trade for some yankees. Check the scan! (Scott, I sent your cards out today! Saturday Nov 28th)

Two awesome Parnells I needed, a really cool Jon Niese SP, some awesomely shiny Johans, my one and only Tagahashi card, and some cool National pride cards for my set! The Parnell auto is 637/699 and Im 99% sure the auto is ON CARD! Awesomeness! Then the gold one is 0373/2009. Always nice to add a numbered card to my collection! And those Johans are so shiny that my eyes are hurtin’!

I would have posted about these yesterday, but my friends generously offered to take me out to see a movie and have dinner for my birthday. The movie was twilight (bleh) so I politely passed, so we all went out to dinner and had a great time!

Now in todays mail, I got a very generous package from Patrica and Lucy over at Dinged Corners! I offered to trade them for a few cards I liked in their post about an update and highlights blaster, but they sent them over to me for free! also they sent in some very cool extras! Check out this nice care package from the good folks over at Dinged Corners!

Some cool Mets Sheffs, an Ellsbury I liked, a nice A+G K-Rod, a Beltran timeliness card, a really cool 1969 Mets card, and a very very cool Fernando Martinez Signed prospect card! This was a very generous package and I am soo thankfull! If you ever like any of the cards on this site, dont be afraid to ask for them!

So I pretty much had a great past couple of days, with my friends, family, thanksgiving, birthday, and some great cards! Im so thankfull for these things, people, and generosity of the card bolgosphere! Thanks for reading!

Just days after major league baseball named its American League MVP, I received a signed baseball from the 1988 winner.

Jose Canseco’s popularity and stranglehold on the hobby were at an all-time high in 1988.  The MVP was part of the most dynamic offensive team in baseball and his 40+ home runs and 40+ stolen bases during that 1988 campaign put him into elite status.

So when I read about the signing at www.sportsgraphing.com, I jumped at the chance to get his autograph and decided to go with an inscription that was as rare as his incredible feat.  Now seeing the ball in person, I know that I made the right decision!!!

Pretty sweet huh???

Another great autograph added to my growing signed baseball collection.  And if you’re keeping track at home, this signed Canseco ball is #17.

Check out this sweet looking signature from yankees hero Chris Chambliss! I sent these cards to Chris waay back on June 5th and got both back today, one of em personalized to me! Thanks Mr Chambliss!

Here’s another trade with my dog Tim over at Great Sports Name Hall of Fame….. Tim is a big time Fred McGriff fan and is trying to collect all the Crime Doggs he can… Well when i hit the card shop last week i saw two cards i knew he would want so i picked them up…. It was a bat card and a jersey card of Fred. Posted them under trade bait and good ole Timmy bit, well Tim sent over a bunch of cards which i taught where cool and some had me saying WTF…. Anyways here are the cards, Thanks Tim always good trading with you…. One thing tho you forgot the main card in this trade Manny Skybox…. holla at ya boy…

The Duke of Flatbush sent these back to me in less then a week….. I had sent him some 8×10’s before and he didn’t take that long either…. I’m really happy that i was able to get him on two baseball cards tho…. Mad thanks the Mr.Sinder for taking the time to sign!!!

I had to do it!!

I couldn’t resist!!

The results from the Andre Dawson Grab Bag #1 were so perfect for my collection, that I had to do it again.

And today, I am a happy man as the cards have arrived!!!

More incredible cards from the #1 Andre Dawson collector in the hobby.  Craig did it again and I now have 17 brand new cards to add to my Andre Dawson player collection.

Thanks Craig – You have outdone yourself again!!!

You better believe that I will be posting and sharing all of these in the coming weeks.  And you better believe that Grab Bag #3 is in my future too…

9 days.  9 days was all that it took for this Hall of Fame and Dodger great to return these 2 cards to me signed.

Of the 5 autograph requests that I put in the mail less than 2 weeks ago, I am a little surprised that Mr. Sinder is the first one that I got back.  I’m not at all surprised that he signed for me, as he has one of the best reputations of all of the HOF’ers when it comes to signing through the mail.  I’m just surprised it was back to me that quick.  

My envelope had to go across the country from Florida to California and them back to me.  And Veteran’s Day was mixed in there too…

Thank you for the great autographs Mr. Snider!!  These are incredible additions to my collection.

Well, they asked, And Ill answer!

Here are my top 3 favorite On-Card Autographs in my collection!

Number 3:

Sal Yvars Signed card. Some of you may of heard of Sal, as he was a member of the 1951 NL Champion New York Giants. He wasnt the greatest player around, with a career Average of .233 and only 10 career Home Runs. But this card has a personal story. Back in the 80’s, Mr.Yvars became a Stock Broker in Westchester NY, and My mom was his secretary. My mom said he was one of the nicest and funniest people she ever met. And one day, before I was even born, or named for that matter, he gave my mom this card, which was signed in pencil that says : “Best Of Luck, Tony Jr – Sal Yvars” This card has alot of sentimental value and is really cool, because technically, it is my first autograph!

Number 2:

Daniel Murphy TTM personalized.

This card is one of my favorites because, besides Pelfrey, Murphy is My favorite Met! And also, he personalized it! I remember the day I got this TTM I was so happy! Its always great to get an auto of youre favorite player, especially when its personalized!

Number 1:

Megan Rapinoe Custom Card TTM

Of course this is a baseball card thing, but I just love this auto so much, I had to put it tops on this list! This card has a huge story attached to it, but I dont want to put you all to sleep so Ill spare you. But basically, me and my friend Denise really liked the WPS (Womens Pro Soccer) and we wanted to get an autograph of our favorite player, They didnt make cards for this league, or did we live anywhere near the stadium. So I made my first custom card, and we did alot of research and emails to the teams to find out about if they would do ttm or not. In the end, the summer full of work all paid off, with this awesome signed card (she signed 3) and a nice handwritten note, which Denise has. I go into alot of detail about this TTM in This Post.

So there you have it! Hope you all enjoyed this and thanks for reading!

I sent these out to Jim Eisenreich about two weeks ago and got them back today…. The mail has been slow around the don’s house for a couple of days now…. no new packages or ttm returns until this one came knocking….. Jim was a memeber of the World Series champion Marlins team of 1997….. What a great auto to add to the collection!! Thanks Jim!

Player’s Name: Guyle Fielder

Player’s Current Team: None (retired)

Player’s Current Address: Home in Phoenix, AZ

Date Sent out: 9/18/09

Date Returned: 11/12/09 (55 days)

Why go after this autograph: This is a very special through the mail success for me.  I wrote about Guyle a few weeks ago and made a custom card of him <link>.  He was the first professional player to ever attain 2000 points.  His name among the old time hockey players is put up there with the likes for Gordy Howe and he is in the Hockey Hall of Fame.  I highly recommend getting his autograph, as he is part of hockey history.

Any Current Certified Autographs Available: Not a single one, he does have a trading card though as mentioned in my original post about him.

I am going to start sending out TTM requests in the next few days, but figured I would showcase some of my past successes. Way back like 10 years or so, I tried my hand at TTM autographs. I was not into baseball cards at this time (wish I had been now), due to a number of reasons. But needless to say, I must have sent a ton of letters out. And the few I got back are very enjoyable. Just a fair warning, none of these TTM autographs are sports related (except the last one).

Up first is Robin Williams.

Then John Travolta.

Then Cindy Crawford.

And finally Jim Carrey.

And one of my favorite autographs I have gotten in person.

EDDIE MURRAY

This project has been in the works for over a year now.

By now any consistent follower of ‘30-YOC’ knows that Andre Dawson is my favorite baseball player and I enjoy honoring him by collecting his cards while also sharing information and stories about him.

‘Ultimate Dawson’ is a new image filled page on this blog that highlights the greatest elements in my Andre Dawson baseball card collection.  Currently broken into four sections, ‘The Inscription Set’, ‘In Person and TTM Autographs’, ‘Certified Autographs’, and ‘Game Used Memorabilia Cards’, this new page will proudly display the variety of my Dawson cards.

As I continue to add special cards to my collection, I will add them to this page as well.

Click here to take a tour.  And check back often as I have plans to build this into a very nice and deserved tribute to ‘The Hawk’!!!

Thanks.

Well the three cards i picked where three cards of some of the players i collect…. The reason why is easy because i collect them! I remember when i got back into collecting earlier this year. It was around Feb, after reading blogs like 30-year old Cardboard and Wax Heaven and Night Owl Cards…. It made me wanna reach out and start collecting again. Well i did start up again after dusting off my old collection and looking at it, i taught i need to start buy again and fast to catch up to these mofo’s.. Well i drop a pretty penny on wax so far this year and dudes i don’t mind it at all…. Its a fun thing to do plus i’ve made some great friends out of this… Remember homies if your ever in town holla at your boyyyy!!!

Anyways the first card i choose was of couse a D-Train card….. The card it self is from the 2007 Upper DeckArtifacts set and its a numbered card to 25….. I have allot of Dontrelle’s autographed cards but this one always stands out…. I love everything about it,even tho its a stick auto i don’t mind!! Then we have 2007 Hanley Ramirez Bowman’s Best auto…. (Thank you Mr.Waxaholic) I got this card in a trade with da Cap a while back ago and fell in love with it. I only have two Hanley auto’s and this one is the top dog in the collection. And lastly we have another card i got in a trade back a few months ago a 2007 UD Masterpeices auto of Tim Hudson on card….. Thats just it, it’s on card and i really like the black boarder around the card too… So there you have it, i have a huge collection of autographed balls,bats,gloves,mini helmets,footballs,basketballs,jersey’s….. You name it i got it but i do love me some baseball cards!!!

I first started getting in to the TTM side of the hobby last offseason in an effort to pass time until Spring Training, and I easily became addicted.  Successes for current players obviously slow down this time of year, which frees up more time for digging through old cards in search of childhood favorites (and not-so-favorites) who are turning up as willing TTM signers.  Food for thought should you be looking for something to do with your old, unwanted wax in the upcoming winter months.

The next card in line is from Garret Anderson, a veteran who still takes pride in his signature.  You really don’t see that much any more – lots of the young guys have signatures that only vaguely resemble a name.  An autograph is an autograph, I suppose, but if it isn’t remotely legible, what’s the point?  The card pictured is from 2004 SP Authentic, #6.

Got two in the mail today which as always puts a smile on my face. The first one i had sent out about 3 months ago and i taught i wasn’t going to see them again. But there back!! Nice to know that even if it takes a little while they always find there way home. Ok on to the first TTM return…. Dean Palmer, as a youngen growing up i really liked Dean. His power was great and overall a good hitter. I remember him in the 98′ All-Star Game (the only one he made) and me saying “man i would love to have his autograph”. Well the time has come, I sent Dean these cards and he sent them all back signed! Thanks Dean for taking the time to sign these for me, you made a wish, i wished a long time ago come true.

I’m Back!!!!

Back into the game of TTM autograph collecting that is…

It took some time to get organized, and I still have a ton of shopping to do for the next few rounds of cards I want to send out for autographs this off-season, but these 5 letters along with the 3 TTM/Interview requests I sent out a few days ago have gotten the ball rolling.

I’ve got a pretty exciting list of guys that I want to go after and I will do my best to chronicle this journey as the mail goes out and hopefully autographs come back home.

For this round, we have:  Charles Johnson, Jim Palmer, Bobby Richardson, Roberto Alomar, and Duke Snider!!!

Wish me luck!!!

Yesterday after getting Cat in the mail…. I was really happy but there where two more TTM returns in there too!! I taught i leave the Cat up overnight that way everyone knows shes a great signer!! So the 2nd TTm returned to me yesterday was my boy Robb Nen…. Now Nen was a memeber of the 1997 world champs Marlins team. Nen also played from 1993 to 1997 for the Marlins after being taken in 93 from the Rangers. He was a 3 x All-Star and has over 300 saves. Happy he signed for me!!

Then you have Bobby Richardson, Richardson is the only player to win the World Series M.V.P. for a losing team. But he a winner on my team because he’s a great signer!!! Bobby signed both cards i sent to him with no isues…. He’s a 7 x All-Star, 3 x WSC, and 5 x Gold Glove Award Winner…. Plus MVP of the WS in 1960….. Tell’s you allot about what kind of guy he is!! Thanks so much Bobby!!