I’m really starting to jones for opening some cards. The last time I opened cards was in the Spring. I have an interesting box I’ve been trying to save, but I think if I open that I might get into a spree and buy some things. That scares me. I kind of need to buy a few things now to get it out of my system so I can try to control it. But then again it might be like grocery shopping on an empty stomach.
The last new thing I opened was Heritage in February or March. I checked a couple Targets lately and there wasn’t anything on the shelves at all. There’s always a tiny bit of hockey but that doesn’t do me much good. It’s like a ghost town for cards on every shelf these days.
But with the way the market is, even junk wax boxes seem to be overpriced, compared to the way they were before anyway. That’s my jam but you really have to dig for what seems like a fair price. People can charge what they want and I can pass it up for as long as I can I guess. I am going to need to get into ripping some things open soon otherwise I might do something dumb.
I hope everyone is staying safe going into the holidays!
The Monthly Numbers
October was another great month. It was my second highest total of successes for a month. If you count failures and consider them “total returns” then it might be my highest month.
You can see from the chart below there were definitely some great days with three days of four returns, three days of five returns, and two days of six returns. The stretch from October 13th through October 19th was pretty amazing. And from the 13 on it was at least pretty consistent with things coming back.
I’ll get into this later, but it October looks like it tends to be a good month.
The football returns for the month, which are still coming in because I keep squeezing them out, were super focused between 1989 and 1993. Again there were a lot more bumps closer in more recent years represented. I keep getting back Spring Training returns, which I love. And that includes Spring Training returns from previous years!
I was thinking about this “Brand” chart the other day when going through the next cards I’ll be sending out. It seems like I have a chance to send out some oddballs or quirkier cards than I normally send in the next round. They probably won’t even register on this chart, but since they are so different they are definitely getting me excited for the next round.
I also think I need to plan better with what I send out to better catch things I haven’t sent to people before. Unless it’s fixing a card that’s smudged or something, I need better planning in that area definitely. But I am also a TTM addict so I sometimes just send whatever I have.
Chicago killed it for the second month in a row. So did the Pittsburgh and Baltimore for that matter. Los Angeles, Boston, Montreal, Toronto and Kansas City all happened to stay in the Top 10 too. But this month Minnesota killed it and that was all up to the Twins.
Here are the Top 10 individual teams for the month (by cards returned):
- Minnesota Twins – 19
- Pittsburgh Pirates – 15
- Baltimore Orioles – 13
- Boston Red Sox – 12
- Los Angeles Dodgers – 11
- Chicago Cubs – 10
- Montreal Expos – 10
- Toronto Blue Jays – 10
- Chicago White Sox – 9
- Three tied with 8
Getting Trendy
60 successful returns and 64 total returns (counting failures) was another great month and the second best month of the whole year. I have added some more that I’ve been paying for. While I never really should guarantee anything, I would think that sending things I’m paying for has a better chance of coming back. So far that’s the case but I hope I didn’t jinx myself.
I’m really surprised and the somewhat consistent nature of the failures. I only count it a true failure if it comes back unsigned. It doesn’t matter if it’s an RTS, or a return because the person charges, whatever it is I consider that a failure. But if it’s out there I consider it a possibility to come back. But with those numbers looking the way they do I wonder if that just represents a consistent approach to how I planned the majority of what I sent out this year.
I really want to dig back into more basketball and football. With this latest round of planning I hope to do that, but I’m not quite sure if it will show up in the data before the year finished. I also want to break into hockey, but I think I might save that for next year.
My total cards for the month were at 212! I beat out June’s total by just one card. That means that every month I’ve been over 150 and seven months have been over 180 so far this year. Two month left to finish out strong!
The Overall Numbers
60 successes, 212 total cards, and four failures. I really don’t know if I am going to be able to keep that up the next two months. But as of right now I am going to shout at 2,000 cards for the year. I’ll at least get close to that (although I am just trying not to jinx myself). I have a chance at 600 returns for the year too, but I think I’ll be cutting it super close.
The Year-over-Year numbers this whole year is looking great. This month I was 30+% better for returns than last year and almost 30% better for total cards from last year. It was actually the second closest month I had to last year. That surprised me a bit. I think my mind is warped a bit with how well this year has gone. Overall I am 25% better in returns and 31% better in total cards with two months left to go.
He’s Making a List
Since I’ve been paying for a few these days it’s easier to have some more favorites. This month that was helped by Goose Gossage, Dave Parker, and Kent Hrbek. But other favorites in the list were Tommy Greene, Greg Gagne, Turk Wendell, Billy Grabarkewitz, Mike Smithson, Deron Cherry, Dave Dravecky, Doug DeCinces, Scott McGregor, and Bob Shirley.
There were a few extreme stragglers in there like Wade Davis (972), Brian Goodwin (600), Rick Monday (376), Sam Fuld (253), Daniel Hudson (249), and Steve Crawford (221)
Wishing you more happy returns for the rest of the year!