Sorry if you saw this post go up initially and saw last month’s numbers. I had a little issue with saving apparently and I lost half the post. I’m not going to rewrite the intro but I’ll fix the rest of the post.
Thanks to Josh for the catch!
The Monthly Numbers
I’ve been struggling with the mail recently if you read my weekly Review/Preview posts. So when you see those larger spikes, that’s either an issue with the mail going to my neighbor or me not getting the mail at all and then getting a bump because it’s a make up day. I was actually due to get eight returns on 8/31 according to Informed Delivery but unfortunately for August numbers, they are now September numbers. But I guess that’s fortunate for September. It would have been the best month this year with those.
Mount 1991 below is pretty impressive. This looks like a Tour de France side view map that they show. That would be a pretty gruesome stage probably.
But my favorite part of the below heat map are the higher numbers down in the late 70’s. Plus those little foothills in more recent years. I’m still trying to bump those up with research. Unfortunately my break in collecting during those years doesn’t do me much good.
So… Topps….
Boston/New England was the winner this month but there were some others that weren’t to far behind. I like that there was some small battles along the way down like Detroit v. LA/Anaheim or Atlanta v. Kansas City.
Here are the Top 10 individual teams for the month (by cards returned):
- Boston Red Sox – 13
- Atlanta Braves – 12
- Kansas City Royals – 12
- San Francisco Giants – 12
- California Angels – 11
- Houston Astros – 10
- Baltimore Orioles – 8
- Cincinnati Reds – 8
- Milwaukee Brewers – 8
- Toronto Blue Jays – 8
Getting Trendy
59 returns ain’t too shabby. It’s the second highest monthly total this year and I am on a good trajectory for the rest of the year. I’m still really surprised by my failure numbers being so low. I am sending more out than I ever have so that must mean that my research and planning is paying off pretty well.
Football is still pretty low and baseball is going to rule everything for a while. I am still sending football out, it’s just no where near my baseball numbers. Basketball is completely ignored right now. I’ve actually got a good return rate in basketball, just not a lot of cards.
The total cards back jumped up to more of where I want it this month so that’s a great sign. I must have just gone through a patch with some guys I have less cards of somehow.
The Overall Numbers
So this month’s 59 returns and 192 cards back was another amazing month. While last month was good, this was a bit more where I expected to be given the June and prior. Things are still coming in consistently too (aside from the mail issues from time to time).
When I look at the Year-over-Year numbers I almost matched last year’s returns. I had 428 returns last year and so far in 2020 I have 427. That’s craziness to me. Then when I look at the total number of cards, I passed the total number of cards I got last year. Last year I got 1,412 and then year I already have 1,456. That should put me over the 1,500 mark for the year after September.
He’s Making a List
So what are some of my favorites this month? Well, it’s always nice to get some Hall of Famers and other “Greats” like Jim Rice, Brooks Robinson, and Don Sutton. But its also nice to have guys that have stories like Ron Blomberg and Al Hrabosky.
I got another 1K day return again this past month. Danny Espinosa returned something I sent to the Angels in 2017 that came in at 1,149 days! That’s a straggler supreme and it puts the next closest, Spike Owen at 717, to shame. There were a few others in the 200’s but a lot of what I got back was really current.
Wishing you more happy returns for the rest of the year!