It Came from the Mail #2: TTMA Edition

For the past three weeks or so I've been trying out TTM Autographs. Being away from the hobby for nearly 20 years, a lot has changed. The amount of parallels a certain company releases, they have have one where they intentionally damage the card, make it smell like gum and it's worth more. What the hell? LOL

One of the better changes, I think anyways, are TTM Autographs. I wasn't smart enough to send any out when I was collecting as a kid, firstly I don't know if I would have had the resources to pull it off and secondly information is a lot more easily obtainable these days. Like where to send your cards to get them autographed.

Before I show my first success, I'm going to go over a few rules that I did for myself:

Rule 1: Handwritten letter. Don't just print out something a plain piece a paper, hand write it. Oh, always go with Mr./Miss/Mrs. Whomever. It shows respect and whatnot.

Rule 2: Self-Address Stamped Envelopes. So, roughly a dollar per autograph. This kind of weeds out sending an autograph to everyone under the moon. So if you don't want to lose a dollar, make sure they sign and get back.

Rule 3: Never send more than three cards and make sure they're doubles. I haven't sent three cards to anybody yet, but more than three seems like you're asking for too much. The doubles rule is simple. You're never sure it will return and what if it's a fake autograph? Maybe they pay their friends to sign for them. You're out a card and have a fake autograph on it.

Rule 4: Use the cards for your own private collection and show them off. This is much like the double rule, don't sell your TTM Auto on eBay because you never really know. You shouldn't be thinking of monetary gain when getting a TTM, you should be sending to players you enjoyed watching not thinking of "hits" and "scores."

Those are the rules, the main four anyway. Now onto my first TTM Auto I actually got back. No "return to senders" yet. Drum-roll please...

Ron Gant, 1996 Ultra. I broke rule #3 here though. I don't have a double of this card. I figured I have so few of the set, the card is awesome looking and I'm a sucker for Ultra.

Another drum-roll...

 Ron Gant, 1997 Upper Deck Collector's Choice. This was a double.

So my first return back was a Cardinal and one of my favorites from my teens, when I was just getting out of collecting cards. I went into this a month ago thinking - I'll give it some time and if doesn't get any returns I'll stop. - I'm 1/7 so far and that one is a pretty nice one for me and means I'll keep doing it for a little longer.