So far so good. I wanted to try to keep up with this and although this is only the second one, I’m on track.
February is a big month for TTMs as Spring Training attempts start going out. I generally send them a few days before pitchers and catchers report, but I think I start them a little bit later than planned. This year I paid a bit more attention to what I was sending when. I focused on pitchers, catchers and coaches in that first batch. I have no idea if that means it will change my success rate, but it made sense to me when I did it.
I’ve already seen a few of those come back. It probably wasn’t as much as I thought I would have at this point, but I got nothing but time to get them back.
The Monthly Numbers
While this was a successful month, January was definitely better. That’s not just because it was a short month either. I didn’t change my sending pattern at all. I sent former players out a the same rate and then I sent the additional Spring Training attempts out so I sent a lot more than a normal month.
For the second month in a row I got a failure that I got out to a new address but unlike last month it didn’t come back in the same month.
30 successes definitely keeps my “TTM a day” average up. I was hoping to maybe build it a little more, but as long as it keeps it on the right track I am good. I was definitely feeling better at the beginning of the month than the end. It was a little more consistent this month than last month though.
This was definitely a better month for the mid-to-late 70’s cards I’d been sending out. That’s good to see as I’ve been really trying to get those out after buying a few from the ten cent bin at a card show late last year. I would expect the more recent years will spike for March (or I hope they will) because of Spring Training
Topps is always going to come out on…, well, top, but Upper Deck made a bit of a jump from the previous month. There are also a few different brands than I got back in January.
This one is interesting when you compare it to January. Boston made a jump, but Atlanta fell off. Oakland Made a jump and Chicago dropped down. I’m not sending out teams specifically or anything like that. Maybe I’m doing it and I don’t even know it… spooky.
Here are the Top 10 by team for the month:
- Boston Red Sox – 7
- New York Jets – 7
- Cleveland Indians – 6
- Miami Dolphins – 6
- Baltimore Orioles – 5
- Texas Rangers – 5
- Toronto Blue Jays – 5
- Five others tied – 4
Getting Trendy
Until I come up with something new, I’ll probably repeat these for a few months. This first one won’t go away. I definitely like that the orange line (for failures) stays low.
What I find interesting about successes by sport is that I probably send three times as many baseball attempts as football. So when it comes in even that’s something. I don’t know what, but it’s something.
Successes and card totals will definitely be impacted if I get some good numbers out of Spring Training. I send less cards to current players as they generally don’t sign a lot of cards (if they sign as all). So that ratio of successes to total cards will go down most likely in March and probably April.
That last one is definitely going to have to change. I don’t think I can keep that “Overall” line on there and make this effective.
The Overall Numbers
Overall for the year I’m running at 68 successes in 59 days. I’d like to keep that rate up as it would beat my rate from last year. I think if I plan correctly I could improve on it though.
As for what’s coming back, Topps is always going to be the number one brand I have to send. Pro Set dominates by football attempts so that’s at te top too. So far I’m a bit surprised I don’t have more Donruss coming back but they never really did football back in the day so that could be why it doesn’t get a shot at beating some other brands.
As far as cities and team, Baltimore is killing it so far. The Orioles are carrying the city. It’s almost half as much as my New York total and they really only have one team to represent them. Yes, I know there are the Ravens, but I don’t have football doubles for them since they started after my prime collecting period.
He’s Making a List
My three failures for last month were Brian McCann, Mervyn Fernandez and Jeff Monthgomery. McCann just continues a long line of Astros that just get sent back to you (I know he moved on from them). The worst part about it was that they were just put back in my SASE envelope. If they were refused somehow I could have reused it. Jeff Montgomery was a long shot as I checked the address but it didn’t look like I had a recent one. And finally Mervyn Fernandez I was able to get back out to the forwarding address that was noted.
As far as the ones I’m happiest about getting back: Bennie Blades, Jeff Newman, Duffy Dyer, Herschel Walker, Chris Hoiles, Charlie Hough, and Pat Neshek top the list. With posting only one a day I am running with a 19-day backlog. So you won’t have seen some of those yet.
I’ve decided to post Spring Training successes as I get them instead of waiting, but that still could be it’s own backlog. If things go well, don’t be surprised to see a card I got back in February get posted in April.
Hope you guys had a great month too! Keep at it and be patient!