April Showers bring May Flowers

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And Mayflowers bring pilgrims. And I had a record setting number of cards make a pilgrimage to my mailbox this month!

My last entry I mentioned being in way over my head with the combination of the 1972 project, All-Time Fan Favorites sets, and Diamond Kings; so much so that I almost decided to completely end my work on all but the 72s and trade off what I had.


Instead, no. I'm going to keep working on them, but they're definitely getting de-emphasized. When it comes to paying for players who charge to TTM, the 1972 sets come first. Then the others second. I'll still keep trading and just working on freebies and cheapies any time I can.


Sometimes you just need a momentary freakout to really clear your head.


With the fact I'm a Moderator In Training at SportsCardForum, I was asked by their assistant GM if I might make some TTM success videos. This has now turned into an entire YouTube Channel. Check it out and subscribe!





I also added on a few moderators to the Facebook groups I run.


With the fact that I'm still working from home through the current pandemic, my wife was able to get unemployment since both of her jobs shut down, and we got our Donnie Dollars, I decided to go ahead and mail off a ton of TTM requests. Several tough signers have started picking up the pen, and a few long waits have come back to me. Overall, I got 193 sigs by mail, which breaks my previous single-month TTM record of 177 set in November 2017. That month saw me set three other personal records (Most TTM successes in a day, then did it again, and most total TTM sigs in a day) but never saw a streak of more than six delivery days in a row with a success.


This month, no records for most in a day, but I've only had two delivery days without a success (with an 18-delivery day streak rolling into June) and the quality has been incredible.


MAY 1
Charlie Hall, c/o home, 3/3, 1 week
Carl Hairston, c/o home, 3/3, 2 weeks



MAY 2
Luke Walker, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks - 1972 Set Hit!


MAY 4
Cleo Miller, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks
Rance Mulliniks, c/o home, 6/6, 1 week
Russ Courtnall, c/o home, 3/5, 1 week, kept two cards


MAY 5
Lonnie Chisenhall, c/o home, 5/5, 2 weeks
Ruben Amaro, c/o home, 5/5, 1 week


MAY 6
Dave Schmidt, c/o home, 5/5, 1 year - DK Set Hit!
Jose Lind, c/o home, 5/5, 2 weeks, paid $1 per


MAY 7
Kurt Stillwell, c/o home, 4/4, 3 weeks - DK Set Hit!
Paul Assenmacher, c/o home, 3/4, 3 weeks
Mike Fischlin, c/o home, 3/4, 2 weeks


MAY 8-9
The only two mail delivery days with no successes...


MAY 11
Kevin Maas, c/o home, 5/5, 2 years - ATFF Set Hit!
Jim Lachey, c/o home, 4/4, 3 weeks
Sal Bando, c/o home, 2/2, 3 weeks - 1972 Set Hits!
Steve Bono, c/o home, 5/5, 1 week


MAY 12
Clay Carroll, c/o home, 2/2, 1 week, paid $5 each - 1972 Set Hits!

MAY 13
Rick Mirer, c/o home, 4/4, 1 week


MAY 14
Elliott Maddox, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks, paid $5 - 1972 Set Hit!
Cleon Jones, c/o home, 2/2, 2 weeks, paid $10 each - 1972 Set Hits!
Steve Kemp, c/o home, 6/6, 2 weeks


MAY 15
Rick Wise, c/o home, 4/3, 2 weeks, paid $5 each, he added an extra card - 1972 Set Hits!


MAY 16
Tim McCarver, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks, paid $10 - 1972 Set Hit!
Andre Ware, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks - Heisman CIC Set Hit!

MAY 18
Alex Dickerson, c/o home, 2/2, 2 weeks
Ben Petrick, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks
Erik McMillan, c/o home, 4/4, 1 week


MAY 19
Lou Piniella, c/o home, 2/2, 1 month, paid $5 each - 1972 Set Hits!
Roberto Hernandez, c/o home, 6/6, 3 weeks
Harold Baines, c/o home, 3/3, 1 week, paid $10 total - DK and ATFF Set Hits!
Terry Adams, c/o home, 4/4, 1 week
Bill Swift, c/o home, 6/6, 1 week



MAY 20
Jim Acker, c/o home, 4/4, 1 week


MAY 21
Ken Singleton, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks, paid $5 - 1972 Set Hit!
Franklin Stubbs, c/o home, 6/6, 2 weeks
Mark Chmura, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks
John Friesz, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks
Craig Paquette, c/o home, 5/5, 2 weeks



MAY 22
Jeff Andretti, c/o home, 1/1, 3 weeks
Ken Oberkfell, c/o home, 6/6, 2 weeks


MAY 23
Fredrik Modin, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks
Jeff Ballard, c/o work, 5/5, 2 weeks
Willie McGinest, c/o home, 5/5, 2 weeks


MAY 26
Steve Garvey, c/o home, 2/2, 9 months, paid $5 - 1972 and DK Set Hits!
Jean-Guy Talbot, c/o home, 4/3, 5 months, added a signed photo
Bryan Oelkers, c/o home, 3/3, 1 month
Denny McLain, c/o Top of the Mound Enterprises, 2/1, 3 weeks, paid $5, also signed protective index card - 1972 Set Hit!
Lee Elia, c/o home, 1/3, 2 weeks, returned two unsigned



MAY 27
Michael Cuddyer, c/o home, 1/1, 3 weeks


MAY 28
Jeremy Guthrie, c/o Texas Houston South Mission, 4/4, 1 week, kept a card, wrote short note back


MAY 29
Jermaine Allensworth, c/o home, 5/5, 3 weeks
Dave Ford, c/o home, 3/4, 3 weeks, kept a double
R.A. Dickey, c/o home, 1/2, 1 week, kept one card - 2013 72 Mini Set Hit!



MAY 30
Broderick Perkins, c/o home, 3/3, 1 month
Juan Marichal, c/o home, 2/2, 2 weeks, paid $10 each - 1972 Set Hits!

So if you're scoring at home, that's 19 new sigs added to the 1972 Topps set, one added to the 2013 72 Minis, four Diamond Kings, three ATFFs, and a Heisman Index Card.


And that's only the TTMs.


I've started listing my entire tradeable signed card inventory on SCN just to see if I can get a few bites. It's a hell of a process. We're talking nearly 5000 in baseball alone, another 3000 or so in hockey, and a bunch in basketball, football, auto racing, and indoor soccer. And there's no way to just upload the entire list as a spreadsheet or anything. We're talking player by player.


But boy have I ever gotten some bites...


I worked a few trades and purchases on SCN, ABC Unlimited, eBay, and Facebook. So far, I've gotten three for my ATFF sets (Tommy John and two Maury Wills) and two for 1972 (Dusty Baker and a likely-ghost-signed Joe Coleman that's at least a decent placeholder and was just a throw-in on the trade), plus I bought several signed Indians cards of Brandon Phillips. You may know he refused to sign Indians cards after being traded from them in 2006 (a policy he kept at least until 2010 and I haven't heard anything of him changing it in the last ten years).


I'm awaiting shipment on several 1972s that I bought through a long-time collector on Facebook (Tim Foli, Moe Drabowsky, Bob Lemon, Paul Blair, Duke Sims, Phil Regan, Bob Barton, Jim Fregosi, Tommy Davis, and Mark Herrmann); a 1972 Don Eddy from a trade with a collector via SCN/Facebook; DKs of Kevin Seitzer and Keith Moreland plus a 1972 of Marty Pattin from a trade with a friend via Facebook; a 1972 Bruce Kison via a SCN trade; and a John Smiley DK from eBay.


So once those are done, I'll be getting another 13 1972 sigs, and three DK sigs.


And I'm working on another potential deal for some DKs right now. A collector on SCN has eight I need, and I have ten 1991 Upper Deck needs of his...


The YouTube channel is likely going to get a lot of content put on it, even when I don't get any TTMs. Maybe a couple videos on advice for how to write letters, IP graphing etiquette, my sets, my collecting biography, spotlighting other channels and podcasts and forums and such, and anything else that comes to mind. Maybe if I get enough subscribers, some live streams and chats just showing off some items in my collection.


More...

[camsue]

Very nice returns congrats and thanks for sharing

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I always forget that my blog posts automatically get posted here haha