Do you remember the first TTM you requested? Do you remember the first success you got back? Do you remember that for each sport?
I was thinking about that this month because I met one of my goals for the year already by getting some hockey cards back. To step back a second, my first request was probably not a card but a Sports Illustrated and I think I have failed or not received any of those back from a hockey player. The first card attempt that went out officially was Don Beaupre. But my first success was Russ Courtnall. I’ve actually already received my first failure too from Brian Leetch. Unfortunately he’s a Ranger and one of my favorite players.
Looking back on other firsts they almost seem odd to me. I’m not counting things I might have done as a kid because it wasn’t even referred to as TTM at the time. My first successful return when I first took a crack at things in 2009 was Tony Pena who at the time was coaching with the Yankees. That was the tenth attempt I’d sent out at the time. I had actually received two failures prior to that.
My first football success with a card came in 2017 when I got Gino Marchetti to return one in just six days. My first basketball cards are probably not a surprise. It was Dan Marjerle in September of 2019. Like I said, I had returns in those sports prior, but those were for SIs.
It was fun looking back through my data to find out those. Glad I had a reason to do it.
Many happy returns! TTM returns that is!
The Monthly Numbers
I thought January of 2021 was a great month. I certainly didn’t think I’d get another great month right on top of it. With February being a short month it was even more surprising.
As you can see from the data below I had eight days with five or more successes in a day. I think I only had one day with no returns and only two days with a single return in a day at that. But just like last month, a few days with really great returns numbers carried the month, but it was pretty consistent beyond those days too.
I’m still sending at a good pace. I’m also doing something a little different right now too. I’m watching a little closer what recent returns are coming in. While I have a lot planned and ready to go out. I’ve been constantly watching for what others are getting back and then trying to reprioritize my list. I guess you could say I’m able to be a bit more agile with what I’m sending out.
There were six failures this month which I should expect with what I am sending out. Three of those were guys who are now charging. All of them seemed fair and while I might not turn them around immediately, I’ll probably resend those with their fee. The others were probably just ones I took more of a chance on.
Well, look at that. I see a new color. That light blue at the top of the Junk Wax peak is hockey my friends. It’s just two returns and eight cards that it represents but it looks great to me. I think because of what I have with hockey, like the other non-baseball sports, that will just add to the Junk Wax peak.
The other thing I’m enjoying about this is that I have a bunch more peaks in recent years. Yes, I love the older side of the chart, but it looks like I’m not doing any Spring Training attempts so I think seeing all those little bumps might be some of those attempts I’m replacing them with.
Baltimore killed it this month again. I never realize how many Orioles I send out. But maybe its also that I never realize how so many former Orioles are good signers. The others things at the top there are Atlanta, Dallas/Texas, New York and Seattle. Last month the Rangers were a big team in the returns and that seemed to continue.
I already talked about how the Orioles and Rangers were strong. The Mariners, Braves and Brewers have had some strong months as well. I think the Reds and Royals really surprise me on this list. Usually they never bubble up to the top positions.
Here are the Top 10 individual teams for the month (by cards returned):
- Baltimore Orioles – 20
- Seattle Mariners – 19
- Texas Rangers – 16
- Cincinnati Reds – 15
- Kansas City Royals – 15
- Atlanta Braves – 14
- Milwaukee Brewers – 12
- Boston Red Sox – 10
- Montreal Expos – 10
- San Diego Padres – 9
Getting Trendy
I was happy last month that I surpassed 70 and this month I destroyed that number. I finished with 84 successful returns for the month. I probably hoped I’d hit a number like that. But I don’t think I really thought an extra short month would have provided the opportunity to get as many as I did, let alone so many more.
The failures went up, but I feel like that just comes with the territory of sending out more.
So four colors, but it’s a different four colors. If I just had something in that “Other” column it would be five.
At the beginning of the month I really thought the card totals would be down. I was mostly getting some one and two card returns. That sort of changed mid month and I started to literally get some stacks in the mail. Man, those are the really fun days. It’s like a little bit of Christmas every day. In the end I got 287 cards which was 20+ more than last month.
The Overall Numbers
84 returns and 287 cards sounds great. That equates to almost 60% more returns than last February. And then it’s almost 67% better than last February for total cards. I’m on a great pace for the year so far, but I’m sure I just jinxed myself.
In looking at the numbers I’m at almost a quarter of the returns I had last year already. I guess you can say I am a month ahead of myself to match last year. Then with cards I am a little less than that I think but pretty close. I’m just hoping for at least a couple more months even close to these last two.
He’s Making a List
A did have a good amount of stragglers and some of them were intense. Here’s who made the list of the top stragglers:
- Brent Mayne – 790
- Qadry Ismail – 673
- OJ McDuffie – 282
That’s not a whole lot of stragglers. The Brent Maybe return was interesting because on the same day I got another attempt I had for him that I sent only two months ago. I’d seen others getting him back and wondered when mine would come back. But obviously I had written off the other.
I had also written off the Qadry Ismail. What I found interesting about his return was that he only signed hi nickname on one card. On the other, it was a card with his name misspelled and and he just circled the mistake. Pretty funny actually. I don’t think I had noticed it aside from him circling it.
Some of my favorites for the month were: Vance Johnson, Steve Trachsel, CJ Nitkowski, Adam LaRoche, Jaime Navarro, John Stearns, Bill Lee, Kiko Garcia, Russ Courtnall, Dick Drago, Brent Mayne, and Gary Varsho. That’s a lot of favorites but I got a lot of cards. All of those are for various reasons as well.
I hope you had a great February of TTMing as well!