Whitey Ford TTM

[MrBelvedere]

I put a ball and a donation in the mail to Whitey Ford using the TTM. I sent on 11/1 and have not heard back yet.

I was just perusing the Steiner site and it says that Whitey Ford is a "Steiner Exclusive".

Does this mean I won't get my ball back any time soon?

[39special]

I got him earlier this year.Sent$20 and an Exhibit.Got it back in 6 days.His success rate lately doesn't look real good.
He's asking $40 per auto.Not sure if being with Steiner has anything with it. I hope it works out for you!!

[dsolzman]

I got him earlier this year on an 8x10 after mailing a check for 20 or 25. I had tried to go via his website but the folks there never got back to me.

[MrBelvedere]

Thanks for the info. I checked my mail today and still no luck. I put $30 cash in the envelope plus the ball so I'm getting concerned. The TTM Manager for Whitey seemed to range from $20 to $40 during 2013, so I split the difference. If $30 was not enough, I understand, kind of, but he should still return everything in my SASE. Now I see his partly-broken web site says $50.

In addition to seeing if others could shed any light on this, I also wanted to post an update to let others know about my experience.

[lizard-jd]

He will likely sign & return your ball in time, especially if you included $30. His graph looks pretty bad lately but he eventually does return your item.

After you send out at least 300-400 TTMs, you will notice that 15%-20% of your items are never returned. Of course, if you only send to the easy successes (check the TTMM for the 100% successes), then your returns will be high. You may want to do this to start but eventually you will want to hit some more risky players...

[MrBelvedere]

Do you recommend sending a follow-up letter -- or a different approach -- when you get no reply?

On one hand, I know that "you win some, you lose some". On the other hand, I don't want to be too cavalier about losing about $50 ($30 donation plus ROMLB).

He will likely sign & return your ball in time, especially if you included $30. His graph looks pretty bad lately but he eventually does return your item.

After you send out at least 300-400 TTMs, you will notice that 15%-20% of your items are never returned. Of course, if you only send to the easy successes (check the TTMM for the 100% successes), then your returns will be high. You may want to do this to start but eventually you will want to hit some more risky players...

[39special]

Sometimes it takes awhile to get an item back.I have had stuff come back after a
year or more.TTM's are win some lose some.It sucks when you lose,but not much
you can do.I wouldn't send a follow up letter.If he's not gonna sign,he's not gonna
sign.Just wait it out.I hope you get your ball back signed!

[lizard-jd]

Sometimes it takes awhile to get an item back.I have had stuff come back after a
year or more.TTM's are win some lose some.It sucks when you lose,but not much
you can do.I wouldn't send a follow up letter.If he's not gonna sign,he's not gonna
sign.Just wait it out.I hope you get your ball back signed!

I totally agree with 39special's recommendation. Be patient and wait it out a little longer. Remember, it's the start of the Holidays. The only times I have sent a follow up letter was for a few custom type pics that had been multi-signed. I'm always nice stating that they maybe too busy to sign and/or not able to sign the item as the other players graciously did. I then asked them to "please" send my item back - be warned, I never have gotten any of these items back when I wrote...

[MrBelvedere]

Everyone, please congratulate me on my first FAILURE. LOL.

Whitey returned my ball and my money to me in my SASE. He included a sheet of paper which serves as an advertisement for Steiner. This reply seems pretty lame. On the ad, Whitey wrote "thru 12/16". I'm not sure if that means I have the green light to resubmit on 12/16 or not. If so, since 12/16 is only 11 days away, I wish he would have just held on to my ball until then rather than wasting the postage both ways. Oh well.

[lizard-jd]

I wouldn't bother sending him a ROMLB again. Do yourself a favor, if you absolutely have to have a Whitey signed baseball - see below:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Whitey-Ford-...item20dc18ed9c