July was definitely full of a high and a low and mostly a lot of in between that ended up being just… meh. I had a find month but ended up just below a “one per day” pace and that’s not where I want to be. I really only had one good day that was followed by a drought. It was my second big drought this year but this one was a lot smaller.
I don’t have much of an explanation of what cause me to be on a lesser pace. I feel like I’ve been sending out to a lot of good signers. Maybe it’s just a down time of year? I don’t remember the summer being too bad in the past. Who knows… maybe it will pay off in the coming months.
The Monthly Numbers
You can see the spike on July 5th. Theoretically, this was two days of two per and four returns showed up on that day because I wasn’t going to get mail on July 4th. That would have made the month look a bit more consistent. But that game from July 7th to July 6th to July 12th without receiving anything felt brutal.
(Note: I think I messed up my graph because it doesn’t have the last couple days of the month – sorry!)
To take it to the winning percentage idea that I’ve had in the past. I went 4-6 to start the month. That just didn’t give me much of a good feeling. The end of the month was more consistent but it never gave me that feeling like I was going to get out of the lull that I had early to mid-month.
Wow those football returns really get that spike going don’t they. 1990 and 1991 are killing it for my football cards. I have lots of doubles for guys in that era (even triples) that you’ll probably be seeing in the future.
And how about that baseball with the 70’s spikes. That’s what I’m really loving. More recently I sent out a good stretch of guys with cards from the 70’s. In most cases it was even all the cards I sent were from the 70’s. Right now those are the things I like to see come back the most.
The football returns really show with Pro Set being the second ranked brand on the graph above. Football tops off Score, Fleer and Upper Deck as well and then bring in Pacific, Bowman and Pro Line as well. As always, Topps is killing it as expected.
This is another thing that’s become one of my favorite things to look for the end of the month. I don’t in anyway plan to send things by team or anything like that. The only way I really look to plan things is by someone’s signing habits if anything.
I especially love when cities that have fewer teams show up. Here are the Top 10 by team for the month:
- Seattle – 11
- Atlanta – 10
- Detroit – 9
- Milwaukee/Green Bay – 7
- New Orleans – 6
- San Diego – 6
- St. Louis – 6
- Seven others with – 5
In looking at the teams that took the top spots, this is what came in:
- Detroit Tigers – 9
- Seattle Mariners – 8
- Atlanta Braves – 7
- Milwaukee Brewers – 7
- New Orleans Saints – 6
- St. Louis Cardinals – 6
- Denver Broncos – 5
- Kansas City Royals – 5
- Minnesota Twins – 5
- San Diego Chargers – 5
Getting Trendy
There’s that drop you can see pretty clearly. I was really hoping that June would be a jumping off point to have a couple great months. But at this point it looks more like 25-30 is going to be the way most months are going to look.
My failures this month were really more related to me trying some older addresses for players that once signed. Most came back as “unable to forward” and all that.
Football definitely was a driver this month more than previous months. I didn’t necessarily send out more than I normally do though.
Last month my number of cards that came back was still pretty high even thought the TTMs themselves weren’t as high. That was definitely something that helped the month feel better. When that stack of cards at the end of the month is nice and tall it makes you feel pretty good.
The Overall Numbers
I’m now at 232 successes and 26 failures for the whole year. I didn’t really put it together until this month, but I really have a shot to get a thousand cards back this year. I’m three quarters of the way there and still have five months to go.
He’s Making a List
My favorites from this month are Mickey Stanley, Wilbur Wood, Jerry Glanville, Billy Ray Smith, Merv Rettenmund, Bill Swift and Bubba McDowell. I got a few back that I had tried in the past and finally got a success from, like Bobby Hebert.
Hope you guys had a great month too! Keep at it and be patient!