favorite thru the mail autographs

w7imel · #1 10-22-2019, 05:42 PM

I had good luck in the 90's. My favorite was Larry Bird personalized "To Mike" basketball card. Bob Knight was another I loved. For a while i would send about 10 items a week off revieved about 60 to 70 percent back signed I would say. Never had a race driver not send me back my item signed except Emmerson Fittipaldi.

Pete Rose was my first TTM autograph I recieved when I was 8 or 10 years old. Had it not been for him sending me that signed 4x6 back I dont think I would have collected autographs my whole life. Thanks Pete!!!! You cost me alot of time and money!!!!!!!!! hahaha

egri · #2 10-22-2019, 06:25 PM

I have a couple favorites:

Bobby Doerr was my first TTM success, when I was in fifth grade. I was so excited to be writing to a former Red Sox player that I didn�t include a SASE, which I found out later was a major pet peeve of his. Fortunately, he was kind enough to address one himself. That got me started on the Teammates era Red Sox, and baseball history in general.

Wayne Terwilliger was one of the first players I wrote to when I started my 1953 Topps project. I mentioned that one of my neighbors had served in the Marines during Vietnam (Twig was at Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima). He wrote back �Semper Fi to your neighbor, and tell him thanks for his service�.

I was one of the last people Al Dark signed for. I sent his 1949 Bowman card to him in late September 2014, and it came back a couple weeks later with my SASE stamped �Unable to sign/Thank you for understanding�. Surprisingly, he had signed it, albeit very shakily. About a month later, he died. It was thoughtful of him to keep signing as long as he did.

Jim65 · #3 10-22-2019, 06:32 PM

I sent a bunch out in the late 1980's-early 1990's to NJ Devils players. I got everybody except Chris Terreri, he never responded.

My favorite was Patrik Sundstrom, I sent it to the team and it got mailed back from Sweden.

laughlinfan · #4 10-22-2019, 07:09 PM

As a teen in the late 70s I sent lots of requests out - still remember the excitement of seeing 1 or 2 SASEs back in my mailbox, and couldn't hardly wait to see who sent back. I had a blast! Some of my favorites - Satchel Paige, Al Kaline, Charlie Gehringer (what great penmanship!), Red Grange, Otto Graham, and Stan Musial stand out. I got back into it in the 90s sending to football HOFers to get Goal Line art cards signed. Will always be thankful for the kindness so many of these men shared - they could have just as easily tossed stuff in the trash or never responded. Still flip through them from time to time for guaranteed smiles!

mr2686 · #5 10-22-2019, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by laughlinfan

As a teen in the late 70s I sent lots of requests out - still remember the excitement of seeing 1 or 2 SASEs back in my mailbox, and couldn't hardly wait to see who sent back. I had a blast! Some of my favorites - Satchel Paige, Al Kaline, Charlie Gehringer (what great penmanship!), Red Grange, Otto Graham, and Stan Musial stand out. I got back into it in the 90s sending to football HOFers to get Goal Line art cards signed. Will always be thankful for the kindness so many of these men shared - they could have just as easily tossed stuff in the trash or never responded. Still flip through them from time to time for guaranteed smiles!

Marty, how many of the Goal Line cards do you have signed? That's one project I plan on starting up again in the next couple of years.

milkit1 · #6 10-22-2019, 07:58 PM

Mailed to all sorts of people in the late 80s. This took well over a year but was worth the wait!

FB_IMG_1571792167048.jpg

Duluth Eskimo · #7 10-22-2019, 09:39 PM

If you ever sent stuff out TTM, you know the thing that makes your heart jump with excitement was coming home and seeing one or more of your SASE�s in the mailbox. It was literally like Christmas. I was on a stretch where I sent out quite a few and had very good success. I would target guys that I knew were signers so that helps. A lot of golf guys were and still are good. It always amazed me that a guy like Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus would take time out of their day to answer fan mail. Both these guy (Palmer in death) make millions of dollars in endorsements. Classy guys.

jimtigers65 · #8 10-22-2019, 11:01 PM

Back in 2001 I was stationed in Southern Korea with the Air Force and decided to write to each baseball HOFer. My expectations were low as I figured I would get a price list or nothing at all. One day I get a package with the return address of the Dodgers. Inside was an 8#10 of Tommy Lasorda, a Dodgers T-shirt and a book titled True Blue history of the Dodgers.

Bored5000 · #9 11-09-2019, 04:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duluth Eskimo

It always amazed me that a guy like Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus would take time out of their day to answer fan mail. Both these guy (Palmer in death) make millions of dollars in endorsements. Classy guys.

I read Chris Rodell's recent book on Arnold Palmer last year. Like Palmer, Rodell, is from Latrobe, Pa. I always knew Palmer was wonderful to his fans, but Rodell's book has entire sections of amazing Palmer fan stories,

Palmer would spend approximately $100,000 each year out of his own pocket to send autographed photos to fans who mailed him autograph requests but did not send a SASE. Even at the end of his life, he would sit at a desk in his office and sign autograph requests until his hand fell asleep.

Palmer would read several different newspapers nearly every day, Palmer would send off handwritten notes to people he did not even know. Sometimes the notes were to people who had something bad happen to them and Palmer wanted to send a note to try and raise the person's spirits and sometimes the note was to someone who did something for someone else, usually of a charitable nature.

https://www.amazon.com/Arnold-Palmer...s=books&sr=1-2

laughlinfan · #10 10-23-2019, 08:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr2686

Marty, how many of the Goal Line cards do you have signed? That's one project I plan on starting up again in the next couple of years.

Hey Mike! I must have over 100 different if I had to guess. Back when I started, almost all of the living players signed through the mail for free. A few asked for a nominal fee ($5 or $10) - Don Hutson was 10, maybe Sammy Baugh was 5? I think Alan Page asked for a donation to a scholarship fund or charity, which I was happy to do.

The signed Goal Line cards are simply stunning!

mr2686 · #11 10-23-2019, 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by laughlinfan

Hey Mike! I must have over 100 different if I had to guess. Back when I started, almost all of the living players signed through the mail for free. A few asked for a nominal fee ($5 or $10) - Don Hutson was 10, maybe Sammy Baugh was 5? I think Alan Page asked for a donation to a scholarship fund or charity, which I was happy to do.

The signed Goal Line cards are simply stunning!

That is so cool. I only have about 8 signed, but I was paranoid about sending them through the mail (didn't want to lose any of the numbered set) so I only got them when a player was in SoCal...which wasn't often.

Bigdaddy · #12 10-23-2019, 11:48 PM

I've been doing TTM on and off since the early '80s. I've gotten almost 140 Goal Line cards signed, most of them in the mail. Favorites are probably Grange, Gifford, Mean Joe, and Butkus. I think I stopped the Goal Line cards in '06 though.

I've also gotten Ben Hogan, Nolan Ryan (for a fee), Seaver, Koufax, Mariano, several Apollo era astronauts and a bunch of baseball and football players. I track them on sportscollectors.net. Stats on there show 662 successful returns in 828 mailings, for a 79% success rate since 2002. That figure includes a few paid signings.

As mentioned before, its always fun to get an envelope in the mailbox with your handwriting on it.

Bigdaddy · #13 10-23-2019, 11:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr2686

That is so cool. I only have about 8 signed, but I was paranoid about sending them through the mail (didn't want to lose any of the numbered set) so I only got them when a player was in SoCal...which wasn't often.

After a while, I started first sending a letter with a postcard inside asking if it would be OK to send a Goal Line card later on.

Bored5000 · #14 11-09-2019, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by w7imel

Never had a race driver not send me back my item signed except Emmerson Fittipaldi.

Great to see another collector into racing. Racers are nearly universally awesome when it comes to autographs. When I was a a kid, I faithfully wrote to nearly every NASCAR Cup and Busch Series driver via their team headquarters, and I don't recall ever having a failure of a racer through the mail.

mcgwirecom · #15 11-10-2019, 07:26 AM

I was 10 when Hank Aaron broke Ruth's record. I wanted to get his autograph and as many will know baseballs were not so easy to come by back then. I had never seen an MLB baseball for sale anywhere. So we played with junk balls bought for $1 at the Woolco. Anyway I had a ball that had one red panel and one white panel we used a lot. I mailed it to Hank Aaron care of the Braves and I included a pen, $2 for return postage and a fan letter written by me. I also asked that he please sign it himself and not his secretary. LOL. I did get it back and signed with my $2 intact! I still have it today although it has faded almost to oblivion (plus the ball was beat up too).

Republicaninmass · #16 11-10-2019, 08:04 AM

I have fond memories of writing to the 1952 topps players. I've kept all the correspondence for my Provenance

Some of the best were players who wrote back "thanks for remembering me". George Shuba's son had his dad sign my 1952, but wrote back "Please don't bother my father any more, he is old and tired". Also, letter begging players to sign, and sending as much as $20, and later years $50, to try and get them to sign. Countless Return to Sender, plain "REFUSED" scrawled on my envelope.

I was always a little sad when I read about one of the 52 topps players passing, although most lived long lives by the time I got around to writing to them. I was shocked to see Al Kaline was still signing through the mail rather cheaply, albeit many years back. I sent him a 55 topps, not realizing his Rc was 1954!

One of the oddest was Frank Sullivan, a no name Red Sox from 1955 topps. He sent me back the card and I was shocked he requested a $10 donation! This was time when many players were free, but I'd send them $5 as a courtesy, which most would return. Being young, and a Smartass, I sent Mr Sullivan his request back, without a donation, and wrote "You simply weren't that good". I'm sure this is when the TTM craze really blew up around 2007 or so and any living players were inundated with requests, but it struck me as a high price from someone I had never even heard of.

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