2019 was another great year for TTMs! I blew past anything I had done in years prior and now I need to set my sights higher. And I had a few other goals that I was able to keep up with. I added a new sport of successes (basketball) and I kept up with a new way to show I was doing throughout the year.
This post will be a little like those monthly reviews, but hopefully with a even a little bit more flare than those. I’m going to update my goals and I’m going to try to push myself just a little bit further. While none of us can depend on successes, I think I can do a better job of being more efficient.
So here’s a look back at 2019…
Taking It From The Top…
Last year I was hoping to break a “one per day” ration and I just did right at the end of the year. I barely squeaked over that line. This year my goal was to try to get to a 1.5 ratio or returns per day. I was hoping that some better research and planning would get me there. Unfortunately, while I was still super successful, I was not able to make it to “one and a half a day”. I was 120 returns short. In my head I was a bit closer to it than that number makes me feel. But I was close enough to feel like I gave it a good shot.
I think what held me up were some lulls in the year. Some of that was some issues with not planning consistently throughout the year. But I’m pretty sure that isn’t enough to make it all the way to that original goal. So I started sending out a bit more at the end of the year and maybe that will help me get there during 2020.
I’m going to aim for more consistency and to eliminate months like April 2019 (see above). Here’s what my total numbers ended up looking like:
- Successful Returns: 428 (+16%)
- Total Cards Returned: 1412 (+45%)
My failures were a hell of a lot different though than previous years. You can see I had two months with no failures at all. In only one month did I go over five and I think some of those had to do with increased Spring Training attempts going out that came back bad. I’ll probably change my approach to Spring Training a bit as well.
TTM Aging – Ain’t Nothin’ But A Number
I find it amazing how quickly some things can come back to me. Sometimes that’s because the person is nearby (in Virginia maybe). But other times I get the impression that they are just sitting out at the mailbox and waiting. Then they pull it out sign it and had it right back to the mail man.
Here are the quick ones:
- 4 Days: Denny Walling, Ken Forsch
- 5 Days: Ken Singleton, Dave Giusti
- 6 Days: J.C. Martin, Johnny Grubb, Mike Easler, Mike Rozier, Tom Herr, Ron Hodges (not posted yet), Ed Kranepool (not posted yet)
A couple interesting things from the above people. First, There are three Mets from the 70’s era teams up there. As a Mets fan that makes me smile. Second, four days might be about the quickest return I’ve ever received.
As for older returns (#stragglers), I got a few of those. But the days they were out were nowhere near what I’ve seen in the past. The last two years I’ve gotten some crazy old returns back. This year the longest was a tame 2+ years.
- 876 Days: Shabazz Napier
- 783 Days: Steve Farr (not posted yet)
- 715 Days: Chris Zorich
- 711 Days: Frank Reich
I definitely had written those off. Shabazz had switched teams a bunch. Frank Reich was the same way. For Steve Farr I had received a return from him that was sent to the same address before I had even sent that one out to try again.
The Cards That Came Back
I continued football into this year, but I will say that I’ve repeated a few guys that I already have. I need to do another dig through my stuff and get a few more addresses to try to find some more fodder for sending out. But while the football slowed a little as the year went on, I got into basketball. I’ve been really happy with my return rate thus far. I don’t have too much basketball, but I am glad that I kept up with trying to add another sport.
This was one of my favorite graphics for this year and while it’s not as exciting when looking at it for the year as a whole as it might be for a month at a time, it’s still really cool to me. Obviously the “junk wax” era rules everything in my collection. But I am really proud of how I was able to get some good “hills” there in the 70’s years.
That was a part of my collection that was lacking so a run to a couple shows helped that out. I was able to get some good cards specifically for TTM and I usually picked up a double if I could while I was there so I could maybe fill the hole in my collection at the same time.
Of course baseball is the sport that I have the most of so it will dominate a Top 10 list like the below. But the fact that football shows up in the bottom is nice to me. Sure, it’s all from 1991, but that’s what I got I guess.
What Else About These Cards
If you know me and my data collecting habits, you know that I don’t just look at what came back and how long it took. I look at markers, colors, inscriptions, etc.. I count bible verses as inscriptions and when someone puts their number on a card that’s what “Number” is for below. Something I’ve noticed is that football players are usually into the numbers and baseball players are usually more into the bible verses. Of course, that isn’t exclusive to either sport, but it’s just an observation.
Here’s what it looks like for for me last year, with all the possible combinations:
In the end, I got less cards back with more than just a signature than I did last year. Last year it was up over 30% and this year it’s less than 25%.
Most things are black and blue when it comes to the TTM world. Black and blue markers that is. I did get one red return and I think just one silver, but that’s about it. I think last year I either had a few more, or their percentage just showed up a bit better on the graphic.
Another things you probably know I like to keep track of are the team or city pictured on the cards. While my favorite team is the Mets, and I can tend to prioritize those over other teams, I don’t really think it means I send out more of them. You can see where the cities with multiple teams per sport are going to be up at the top. But what really surprises me is that teams like the Astros and Brewers help bump those small markets up the list.
But Did These People Amount To Anything?
Another thing I keep track of are all of the accomplishments of the people I have signatures of. OK, maybe not all of them, but the big ones anyway. Here’s a pretty good list of what I got back by sport:
- Baseball
- 279 Players
- 91 All-Stars with 198 All-Star Selections
- 19 Gold Glove Winners with 41 Gold Gloves Awards
- 16 Silver Slugger Winners with 33 Silver Slugger Awards
- 118 Pennant Winners with 191 Pennants Won
- 6 Championship Series MVP Winners
- 71 World Series Winners with 97 World Series Championships Won
- 1 World Series MVP Winners
- 4 Rookie of the Year Award Winners
- 9 Managers of the Year Award Winners with 16 Manager of the Year Awards
- 3 MVPs Award Winners with 4 MVP Awards
- 3 Cy Young Award Winners
- 2 Baseball Hall of Famers
- 3 Golden Spikes Award Winners
- 5 WBC Medal Winners with 3 Gold Medals and 3 Silver Medals
- 2 Roberto Clemente Awards Winners
- Football
- 103 Players
- 36 All-Pros with 64 All-Pro Selections
- 49 Pro Bowlers with 130 Pro Bowl Selections and 1 Pro Bowl MVP
- 2 Defensive Rookie of the Year Award Winners
- 2 MVP Award Winners
- 3 Defensive Player of the Year Award Winners and 2 Offensive Player of the Year Award Winners
- 2 Player of the Year Award Winners with 3 Player of the Year Awards
- 2 Coach of the Year Award Winners with 5 Coach of the Year Awards
- 37 Super Bowl Champions and 51 Super Bowl Appearances
- 3 Hall of Famers
- 3 80’s All-Decade Team Members, 2 90’s All-Decade Team Members, and 1 00’s All-Decade Team Member
- 1 Bart Starr Man of the Year Award Winner
- 1 Heisman Award Winner with 2 Heisman Trophy Awards
- 11 College Football Hall of Famers
- 9 College Football Award Winners
- 7 College Football National Champions
- Basketball
- 13 Players
- 8 All-Stars with 18 All-Star Game Selections
- 1 All-NBA First Team Member, 2 All-NBA Second Team Members, and 3 All-NBA Third Team Members
- 1 Defensive All-NBA First Team Member and 4 Defensive All-NBA Second Team Members
- 8 NBA Finals Appearances with 5 NBA Championships Won
- 1 Rookie of the Year and 5 All-Rookie Team Members
- 3 Slam Dunk Contest Champions
- 1 3-Point Contest Champion with 2 3-Point Contest Championships Won
- 2 NCAA Tournament Champions with 4 NCAA Tournament Championships Won
- 1 Final Four MOP Award Winner
- Other
- 1 Celebrity
- 7 Olympic Medalists, 2 Gold Medals, 3 Silver Medals, 2 Bronze Medals
- 2 World Champions
So What Were My Favorites?
I usually look at favorites in two ways. I look at what I give a high score to and then I look at what might mean something to me or I might have thought was a bit different. My high scores aren’t necessarily what I gave for their return. I score each card and then I average them out for my return score. Here are my highest scores for the year:
- 9
- Rich Gedman – ’87 Topps
- Scott Hatteberg – ’06 Bowman Heritage
- Bob Tewksbury – ’92 Upper Deck
- Larry Christenson – ’78 Topps
- Jim Jensen – ’91 Pro Set
- Steve Nicosia – ’81 Fleer (not posted yet)
- John Offerdahl – ’91 Pro Set (not posted yet)
- 8.5 (this is not a complete list, so it’s like honorable mentions)
- Tim Birtsas – ’89 Fleer
- Tom Lawless – ’90 Topps
- Mark Collins – ’89 Pro Set
- Frank Reich – ’93 Wild Card
- Milt Thompson – ’94 Upper Deck
- Scott McGregor – ’87 Topps
- Eric Metcalf – ’90 Score, ’91 Score (2)
- Adam Laroche – ’11 Topps
- David Segui – ’91 Score
- Brad Arnsberg – ’92 Fleer
- John Matlack – ’76 Topps
- Brian Blades – ’91 Pro Set
As for the ones that stood out as favorites for other reasons:
- B.J. Surhoff – I just always like him as a player so it was cool to get something back from him.
- Henry Ellard – I felt like this guy always helped the Rams against the Giants when I was a kid and I always like the way he played.
- Herschel Walker – College legend and I can remember his USFL days too.
- Aaron Nola – I really never expected to get anything back from a Cy Young candidate.
- Turk Wendell – One of the quirkiest dudes and someone who made baseball fun to watch.
- Bobby Hebert – Felt like I tried forever before getting a success.
- Larry Walker – In the debate for the Hall of Fame.
- Shabazz Napier – As a UConn fan this was a nice one.
- Dan Majerle – My first basketball TTM success.
What’s Next?
After a great year it’s easier to make new goals. Here’s what I’m shooting for:
TTMs:
- Averaging 1.5 Returns Per Day – Still a long shot but I’m putting it out there until it happens.
- 1500 cards – I was pretty close to this and if I plan it correctly I can make it this year.
- Break Into Hockey – I have a couple lined up and I think I can start getting a few out.
Blogging:
- Review/Preview – I’d like to add to my posts and get something out on Sundays that reviews the week prior and previews the next week. Hopefully something fun.
- More Old Was Boxes – I have some old wax boxes lined up to open and create some content for.
- More Collection Posts – I did one of these at the end of the year and it was fun so I think I have a few more I can do.
- A Series Post – I have a couple ideas lined up for this to start during baseball season.
Lastly, I want to thank anyone who reads my posts. I have fun doing it so I’m glad if someone is even mildly interested in what I’m doing here. I really appreciate all the hits and likes and everything you have for me. I hope you have another great year of TTMing too!