Baseball Cards TTM. First Attempt.

[MrBelvedere]

I have been enjoying my HOF project, largely TTM, and I am going to continue with it. I have been mulling over a small baseball card TTM project, and decided that I'll give it a shot. I just purchased the 1989 Topps glossy All Star set on Ebay. 22 cards. Originally they could be found in rack packs only.

Again, I am going to use this as a trial run to see if I enjoy getting cards autographed TTM. I've never tried cards before and I would welcome any tips. I picked '89 Topps All Star glossy for sentimental reasons and also because the small set contains Bobby Doerr and Wade Boggs. Like shooting fish in a barrel.

On one hand, it sounds like consensus is not to protect the cards in a holder. On the other hand, creased cards are terrible.

Today, I bought 40 Mead envelopes (security) at Target. Dimensions: 4 1/8 x 9 1/2.

1. Do you use two of these envelopes (1 for sending, 1 as a SASE)? If not, what kind of envelope?
2. How do you prevent the card from getting creased?
3. Do you write DO NOT BEND on the envelope?

Thanks in advance!

[yankeesfan1324]

1. Yes, I do 1 going out and 1 folded into 3 for the SASE. Some players throw in a 4x6, if you use a smaller SASE envelope you would miss out on that.
2. They usually don't. I've received 60+ back and only had 2 damaged, 1 of which a toploader wouldn't have saved. If you feel a need to, throw in one of those fillers in packs.
3. I don't, some people do. I've heard reports that if you do, you need to pay 20 cents extra to stop it from being machine sorted but I have also heard 1 stamp works fine.

[dsolzman]

1. I use the 3 5/8 x 6 1/2 envelopes as my SASE. Of all the sure signers, I only know of one card that's gotten lost but it was a duplicate. Unfortunately, it was a 2000 Topps card of Wade Boggs that I had included $5 cash for donation.

2. I don't use top loaders for cards TTM.

3. Nope. I only do that for my 8x10 requests.

[MrBelvedere]

Thanks guys. I'll buy some 3 5/8 x 6 1/2 this weekend if I can. I like the idea of putting a smaller envelope inside of a larger envelope (as opposed to folding an envelope into thirds).

[dadandsoncards]

I have literally mailed out thousands of ttm letters, and have a success rate of around 73%. For cards I mail out I do use a top loader and has always worked well for me. No complaints. I also include some index cards for some cards ( older players) and they sign those too. I have had years of fun with this, hope you do too.