General TTM Question - Player Selection

[ferronimc]

Ok, so getting back into the hobby I loved as a kid and have a general (theoretical) question for those that have been doing this a long time...

While I understand player selection is the most important factor for success, does a typical player necessarily either sign or not sign so black and white? Meaning does even a guy like Trout or Harper who get thousands of letters a week as opposed to say Aaron Altherr who might get a handful still on occasion pick up one or two and sign? Don't you believe even the stars in the league from time to time feel this "give back to the fans" and answer a few requests or are they just so inundated with mail they literally refuse to answer any? Now it might be 1% of all their mail as opposed to 80% by Altherr based on the shear volume, but is it still worth a shot from time to time to send to a star player? I mean the whole fun of the hobby is the anticipation and sort of playing the lottery excitement to me, not just the "hey i got a success from this guy" so let me just send out to the sure things.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Any success stories from guys who traditionally never sign but you got lucky cause they were in a good mood that day and decided to open your letter?

[arfmax]

It's a good question. Obviously, we are talking here about current players and mailing to a stadium or training facility, because retired players are a completely different ballgame. I think that there are certain teams that offer an option to players, such as, we will not deliver you any mail, and instead send out a "too busy" form letter with a preprint. I feel like this was the case with the Phillies and Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, and Ryan Howard. Other players have all of their mail dealt with by someone else, whether it be an assistant or agent or whatever. So maybe the mail for player x is always put in a certain box, and then it is picked up by the handler once a week, and the player never even sees it. Others just immediately trash your envelopes, others open them and take out the cards or photos or balls and donate them to charity or the local hospital (I remember a former Yankee or Mets player said he did that). Again, not sure that is the player themselves, or a handler, but I really don't think Trout or Harper sits in the clubhouse opening each envelope, and taking out the item, and then donating them.

Maybe a player who gets tons of mail and never signs any of it does decide that for 3 days in June, he will sign everything that comes in. But, that seems to be pretty rare. I have been told that Alex Rodriguez used to show on social media him signing things sent in by fans when he was with the Yankees, but I have never heard of anyone getting a non-preprint A-Rod back TTM during that time, so who knows.

Certain players used to wait and do their mail once a year, Josh Hamilton would sign all of it around Christmas, Clayton Kershaw would sign at a certain time, so anything sent to them would sit for however many months until that time period. Mark McGwire signed during spring training one year when he was a coach for the Cardinals, but never did that again. There are always successes reported that I am skeptical of, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers come to mind. I suppose it is possible, but I would think it is extremely unlikely. Heck, some of these players won't even sign for the card companies, who pay them a ton of money in a contract to sign, that's why there are so many redemptions!

It never hurts to send it to a player, even if they have never signed TTM, but also, even if you do luck out, you really never know that what you get back is the real autograph, and not the clubhouse attendant, unless you are physically handing the card to them and watching them sign.

-arfmax

[ferronimc]

Thanks for the great reply, arfmax and for maintaining such a helpful website for the hobby! Totally agree that even if you luck out from time to time with a star the likelihood it was actually signed by them is so small, would almost rather just get no response than a forge.

On a bit of a separate note, did you ever get an answer on what Pat Neshek is planning on doing with the money raised for Phillies autographs? I am also a lifelong Phils fans and would love to add some of these guys to my collection, but honestly if the money is actually going to the player I have mixed feelings about it. I've always thought it a little counter intuitive for the average fan who makes say $40-50k a year to pay a guy who makes $500k+ $10-20 for an autograph that takes all of 3 seconds. I get the sort of paying for their time and effort, but to me that only makes sense if a guy is retired or in the minors or something. Now, if they're donating it to charity or something that's an entirely different story and I would pay for autos for every guy on that list. Also kinda wonder if his ability to keep up with requests is gonna change when he comes off the DL, but it's a very interesting proposition.

I've often thought about including a check with each TTM request for like $5-20 for a charitable donation (and maybe even writing on the envelope "Charitable donation enclosed" to have a better chance of it being opened) also figuring unlike cash you're not losing anything if the envelope goes unopened as this could be quite expensive.

[JustStartingOut]

I suspect that the money the Phillies players are asking for is more a deterrent than anything else. I doubt they care about the money. They probably think that charging for autographs will stop a lot of people from asking. If they continue to get tons of requests I wouldn't be surprised to see the $5 fees go to $10, the $10 to $25, the $25 to $50 and so on.
As far as the original question, my daughter saw me filling out so many requests during spring training and asked if she could send some. So I wrote a template of a letter for her and let her send some out. She really wants to send to Trout but I told her she'll probably never get it back and they will just be a waste of two stamps. But I wonder if seeing an envelope written in a kid's handwriting might increase the chances of her getting a return from Trout. Now I'm considering letting her send to him for the heck of it. It's only a buck and the reward for her would be much greater than the risk to me.

[ferronimc]

Ha love that idea, maybe I’ll start writing out my envelopes with crayon left handed! Best of luck with your requests.

You’re probably right about the deterrent factor - what does that say about KRod then at that ridiculous $100. Has anyone actually had reported success with this? Again mixed feelings- would rather they do this I guess than a blanket we won’t sign as a team like the previously mentioned Phillies of ten years ago, but it really selects out for the more affluent fans who have extra money to throw around and sends that message to kids that money buys you access to famous people. Again if going to charity totally different story. I’m probably reading into it too much and am a hypocrit because I’ll probably take advantage myself. Not sure what I’d prefer, maybe just that every player had this “give back to the fans” from time to time mentality and agree to answer like x amount of requests every month at random as opposed to all or none. Too much to ask?

[yankeesfan1324]

I think I saw somewhere that Neshek gives the money to the player and then it's up to them what to do with it.

I think most of these players don't really want to spend their valuable time signing autographs but since they know Neshek is a collector and know how much people value autographs, they're willing to do it but want to charge enough so people are only doing it if they really want an autograph. Keeps away the casual collector who just kind of wants an autograph but is still a great deal for anyone trying to complete a set or collection who really needs that autograph.

I bet most players would sign for free for kids and vets if they had a good way of figuring that out. It would take a ton of time to open everything up and read notes and see who fits that criteria. Plus that doesn't account for the fact that people will lie.

This hobby is absolutely way more fun if you have a lot of money to spend. You can get anything you want for a price. I've paid for 1 TTM ever and that was Mike Mussina. Should be hall of famer who played for my favorite team for the entire period where I got into baseball and collecting.

On your original question, I send out a few longshot TTMs per year each spring training. I'll also send out whenever I see a couple of successes in a row from someone who is usually not a good signer. I also send to guys with no attempts yet, mainly minor league guys. Most of my requests go to guys who I know I will almost certainly will get back though. I'm thinking of starting a couple projects soon in which I would send out to players who sign less often and possibly paying for a few.