Continue with customs or switch to customs/cards?

[Forever A Brave]

I am long-time reader but have never posted before. I seem to have a dilemma that I can't answer on my own and I thought there was no better place to ask for input than here. I am a long-time card collector (pre-war to present) but it wasn't until after my grandfather's passing that my wife encouraged me to attend a Braves FanFest to get autographs. I didn't think I would care much for it but I absolutely loved it. My grandfather, like me, was a lifelong Braves fan and since then, I have been collecting autographs of Braves in his memory.

After getting numerous balls and photos signed, I wanted something that was easy to store, inexpensive to mail, and would provide long term consistency in my collection. After finding this site, I began making customs. Nothing major; just a 3.5x5 photo of the player, black and white, blurred background with a faded logo at the top and signature area at the bottom. This has been great because, as a husband and father of three, they are quite easy to make. My difficulty comes in when I can't locate a good photo at a high enough resolution, particularly of minor leaguers who are more willing to sign, to use. There have also been times when Braves players have asked in person about the photo and seemed apprehensive but still would sign. Finally, I often wonder if I am not getting some TTM returns due to the customs.

So, considering those variables, along with the introduction of the Topps Pro Debut and me owning every Topps team set since 1966 of the Braves, would you think it best to continue on with just the customs or would it be wise to include one custom and a card, or just switch to cards?

Thanks for any insight and direction. I really appreciate the site.

[ZombieTom]

With TTM's i use cards. But I'm interested to see what other people have to say

[djauwerda]

The majority of the cards I send out are customs, I've had pretty good success with them. I like sending the custom cards as they store a little easier. I usually get a good response to my customs, too. I've even had a few guys request copies, which is kinda cool.

Your collection sounds impressive.

[bigga]

First off welcome to SCF.
99% of the TTM's I send are customs,from time to time I will send an rookie or ticket stub but I mostly send customs.
I don't think it has hurt in any way, I have never gotten a note back when I sent a plain card but I have gotten many notes commenting on my customs. The same goes for IP I haven never had a player say anything but good things about me having them sign customs.
For the players who you can't find good pictures for you could always do a generic custom with just like a team logo.

At the end of the day it is your collection so I say get signed what ever you like to look at and display.

[mrveggieman]

As for me personally I am not into customs but again that is my particular preference. For baseball ttm autos, I use either cheap base cards or rackrs/the autograph cards.

[DeadHorse]

I usually try to get people to sign two cards....one regular, one custom. My policy is that if someone does not have a readily available card, I go custom. If they are readily available, then I go with a real card. Examples....I met Andy Katzenmoyer...had him sign a real one and a custom (I already had a few real cards signed by him). I met Maurice Wells (no cards), had him sign a custom. I met Mike Doss and could have made a custom but went with real cards. I guess that in a perfect world, I would have no customs. Unfortunately, card manufacturers do not cave to every whim I have when I have it :)

[ZombieTom]

Between Justcommons.com and Rackrs.com I always have something for them to sign.

I've just gotten into photography with a really nice camera and lens, so that will be my focus after getting my cards signed.

[DeadHorse]

Ditto to Bigga....I sent Kevin Moen (Cal-Stanford Winning TD scorer) a card of him crashing into the Stanford Marching Band and he sent me back a note telling me it was a 'first' and he really liked it. I get far more cool returns when I send something I made.

[BPensyl125]

When I have something of the athlete then I will send them a card but if I am sending to someone in college or a rookie in the NFL then I will make a custom.

[Forever A Brave]

Thanks for all of the replies guys. I kind of expected a wide variety of answers based on what everyone personally sends. I really do like making the customs for a variety of reasons. First, they are something that I have made and can determine the look and feel of. As I really love what specific images can evoke, it is nice being able to determine the picture that a player signs. Second, consistency is extremely important to me. I like the uniformity when I open my album and have a similar design of players in chronological order. Finally, I feel that the size is important. When making a 3.5x5 inch image, it is my belief that the player has enough space to make his signature more prominent.

djauwerda - thanks for mentioning my collection. I have been collecting for nearly 25 years. I have always collected Braves items; mostly cards but now it is all autographs. For the reasons mentioned above, I feel a closer connection to them than the cards. My card collection consists of mostly type cards ranging from 1887 Old Judge Braves cards to 2011 Topps team set of the Braves. When I was younger, my grandparents allowed my brother and I to do work around the house to earn spending money at the local card shop.

Bigga - thanks for the welcome. I truly respect the work that you put in as a custom maker. Your customs, along with many others here, are nothing short of amazing. I have also previously tried to make a generic image (baseball in grass where I would have the player sign the sweetspot) but I have always most enjoyed the player image being on the card. It also never felt as consistent as I would like for it to be.

I have also had guys in person also ask me for copies of images that I have made and it is a really cool thing about customs. I just regularly grow concerned that I am missing out on some autographs by sending customs and I may try sending a few cards this year to see what the response is.

Thanks again for reading my long posts and replying. I really appreciate any other feedback you can provide. I am going to try and attach a couple images of cards that I have gotten signed. The first is the image that I most regularly get signed, as it doesn't require as high of a resolution image. The second, white image is one that is used when I can locate very high resolution images. Hopefully these won't be used in any malicious manner, as I have never and will never sell an autograph.