Monday, January 14, 2019

2-for-2 on the TTM Front

There are some prolific Through The Mail (TTM) autograph collectors out there. Torren' Up Cards and The Lost Collector (although I hear he's cutting back) immediately come to mind. Let's make no mistake here: I am not one of them.

My first and last TTM came back successfully during the spring of 2015. I appreciated the way Theo Epstein was going about the business of remolding the Cubs and he didn't have any certified autographs that I could afford.
Success! Inscribed in silver sharpie. Glorious!

Early on in David Ross' tenure as a Cub, I thought long and hard about sending out a second TTM request, but I ultimately decided against it as I wasn't prepared to lose one of the customs that were made for me.
Eventually I was able to snag an autograph of Ross in a Cubs uniform so it made the point of a TTM null and void, at least in my mind. 

This past November I received a mini Zippy Zapping and during the ensuing Pack Wars I found a Ken Rosenthal card from a pack of 2017 Allen & Ginter.

I'm a big fan of Rosenthal's baseball reporting and charitable work through bowtiecause.com. I wasn't sure where to file his card away in my collection, as I am very organized. He didn't really fit any the descriptors of any of my binders or boxes. Typically when this happens I place the cards in the trade box and eventually they find a new home. Yet, I wanted to keep this one.

Then Zippy Zappy mentioned, through the comments, that Ken Rosenthal does TTMs. Now, there was an idea! If I had the card autographed then it could find a home in my autographed cards box!

I found a sheet of notebook paper, penned a nice letter, and shipped out my request, with a SASE, in a PWE on Thursday, January 3rd.

On Saturday, January 12th, I had a letter awaiting me in my mailbox addressed in my handwriting.
It only took nine days. A handful of those days were due to USPS delivery and one of those days was a Sunday. I figure my TTM request sat in Rosenthal's mailbox for a few business days at most. Wow!

Thank you, Mr. Rosenthal, for signing for me!  Your card has already been placed in my autograph and relic box for me to flip through on rainy nights and/or snowy weekends. 😀

10 comments:

  1. Eyyyy, congrats Tom!

    Looks like you caught him right when he was on vacation and probably had some extra time to spare.

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  2. Amazing turnaround time on that Rosenthal auto. And an inscription too..nice work! Your Rossy and Theo autos are fantastic, too.

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  3. I REALLY want to get in on the TTM bandwagon for a project idea that I've had percolating in my head for about four years now. That Rosenthal card inspired me...now to find the time (and the wherewithal) to actually do it.

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  4. Awesome! Well done! Congrats on these successes.

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  5. Congratulations! Very cool returns. I've only had one TTM experience and it was a positive one. Maybe one day, I'll give it a shot again.

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  6. Congrats on the successful return! I need to try a TTM to Ken sometime.

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  7. Did you get Theo's auto in Mesa, or was that just a photo?

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    Replies
    1. And... didn't you do any to Sandberg, when we were kids. I remember getting one back from Andre Dawson. It sticks out because he put in a slip to ask for a sickle cell donation, but as a pre-teen, I didn't have a clue what to do.

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    2. I got a pic with Theo and an in-person (IP) auto from our trip to spring training, but that came after the TTM auto.
      Nope, I never sent Sandberg a request back in the day.

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  8. This is great! I still haven't tried the TTM route. Maybe I need to do this in 2019.

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