TTM Success Jose Valentin (former Brewers shortstop, 2nd and 3rd baseman)

I was pretty excited to get this one back the other day.  I got it the same time as I got my Chuck Woolery.

I'd been looking to send Jose some cards for awhile, but couldn't find a good address for him.  All the research I could find dated all the way back to 2008.  In 2004, Jose bought, at least part of Puerto Rico baseball team, the Santurce Crabbers, part of the LBPPR, renamed the team the Manatí Atenienses and moved the team to the largest barrio in San Juan. However I couldn't find the team anywhere or on the LBPPR website, so I had to wait.  Then I found out he had been named as the Manager for the Fort Wayne Tin Caps in Indiana, a Single A farm team for the Padres.  Game on!  

Jose was originally signed by the Padres back in 1986 as an amateur free agent, but ended up getting traded to Milwaukee with Ricky Bones and Matt Mieske for Gary Sheffield in 1992, where he made his big league debut.  He played for the Brewers from 1992 to 1999 when he was traded to the White Sox where he played for 5 seasons, then went on to play with the Dodgers for a year and finally ended his career with the Mets.

I ended up sending Jose three cards to the Tin Caps park in Fort Wayne and he sent all three back very nicely signed.  I was also excited to get these back because I hadn't had any successes with late 90's early 2000's players yet.  It's tough to decide which spot Jose will officially get, 1999 Topps or 2000 Topps, he's holding both places right now, and both cards look great. 

1999 Topps

2000 Topps

I couldn't resist sending him a 1994 Upper Deck card.  I don't know why I love these cards so much.  I'm not a big fan of the smooshed black and white photo on the left, but  these landscaped cards look so great autographed.  The name plate and company logo are out of the way, the team name is also non obtrusive and the card has a great big photo on it.  After I got Pat Listach to sign one for me I decided to try and send a 94 UD whenever I could. 

TTM Stats
Date Sent 5/10/12
Date Recieved 5/29/12

Address Used
Jose Valentin
c/o Fort Wayne TinCaps - Parkview Field
1301 Ewing Street
Fort Wayne, Indiana 46802

TTM Success Chuck Woolery

Continuing my non-sport TTM's I sent Chuck Woolery his 2011 Topps Allen and Ginter card and got it back yesterday.

You may remember Chuck as host of TV's Scrabble, The Love Connection, or his current project on the Game Show Network, Lingo.  But Chuck was also the original host of Wheel of Fortune.  Chuck is also an avid fisherman and has his own company that sells fishing lures and other fishing products.  You can see all of that at his website at Chuck Woolery's Signature Products.  I'm a little worried that this might actually be a "secretary" signature.  I looked for some examples of his signature online and the only one that matches is one being sold on ebay on the same card, of course the seller guarantees it as authentic, but didn't disclose how it was obtained.  But I also know that signatures change over time, or mood, size of object being signed, ect, ect.  It also worries me that it was turned around so quick.  Maybe Chuck was sitting around his office in Michigan, who knows? But still a nice looking sig on the card.  I'd love to hear what you think about the authenticity.  I mean I don't plan on selling it, it's going in my personal collection.  I had two choices for addresses to send it too and I chose his companies address in Michigan.  My other option was to send it to the Game Show Network address and I still might try that addy and see if I get it back with a different signature.

But regardless a super fast turnaround time of less than 2 weeks, actually less than a week as the postmark is the 24th!

Thanks Chuck! Keep up the Good work.

TTM Stats:
Date Sent 5/18/12
Date Received 5/29/12
 (11 Days from door to back to my door)

Address used:
Chuck Woolery
Chuck Woolery Signature Products
26135 Plymouth Rd
Redford, MI 48239

Group Break Pimp - 3 boxes of 2012 Chrome over at Cardboard Collections

Seems to be a whole lot of pimping going on here at Collector's Crack lately.  Colbey over at Cardboard Collections is taking a break from his usually monthly affordable group breaks to try and catch up with things, but he's already planning ahead for August.  Up for the break is three boxes of 2012 Topps Chrome Baseball.  Chrome is a favorite among collectors. So shiny!  So for $17 bucks, a little pricier than his normal group breaks, but still cheaper than a blaster, you get to pick your team of choice and then you also get a random team assigned after all 15 slots have been filled. That's 6 guaranteed autos and we might even hit a refractor hot box!  If you've never been involved with one of Colbey's group breaks your missing out and now's your chance to jump on board.

Go check it out here, but be forewarned the Braves and Brewers are already claimed.

Pimp out.

Contest Pimp - Baseball Cards, Sports and Life

Yo time for another easy contest in the blog o sphere.  Head yo butt on over to Baseball Cards, Sports and Life for a change at a Zack Grienke Archives relic card.  Or don't cuz I know the proprietor of this blog would like to win it.

TTM Success Regis Philbin

I decided to go back outside the realm of mainstream sports and do a few TTM's to celebrities and other sports.  I dug through my Allen and Ginter extras to see who I had and one of the cards was Regis.  I'd seen quite a few successes for him and from what I could tell he's a great signer. Did you know Regis holds the Guiness World Record for having spent the most time in front of a TV camera?

Anyway I sent Regis his 2010 Allen and Ginter card, a nice LOR and a SASE. And holy crap did I get a response fast. I sent the card on May 18th and got it back this afternoon, May 26th.

TTM Stats

Date Sent 5/18/12

Date Recieved 5/26/12

Address used:

Regis Philbin

101 West 67th St Apt 51A

New York, NY 10023

What a great signature! Thanks Regis!

TTM Success Rick Manning (Former Brewers outfielder)

The second of my two recent TTM's. I got Rick Manning to sign his 86 and 88 Topps cards.

He's got a great signature as well I only wish I'd have sent him an older card, since I've already got players on 86 and 88 Topps cards. I just found a really nice 84 Topps card. I might have to try him again later this year with that one. Rick played for Indians before playing for the Brewers and still lives in Ohio and since 1990 provides color commentary for Tribe telecasts.

TTM Stats

Date Sent: March 26, 2012

Date Recieved May 21, 2012

Address used

Rick Manning 12151 New Market

Chesterland, OH 44026

Thanks Mr. Manning

Trade post with Adam from Thoughts and Sox

This story starts with a quest.  A quest for a rainbow of parallels.  Of one of my favorite players...Rollie Fingers.  A few months back I ended up acquiring Rollie's blue parallel 2012 Topps Tribute.  But along for the ride was a Dustin Pedroia blue parallel as well.  The seller had paired them up for the auction.  I'm guessing he figured maybe it would appeal to someone trying to put the blue set together.  Anyways I ended up winning the auction for the minimum bid.  So the Blue Rollie was mine, as well as the Blue Pedroia.  So I emailed Adam over at Thoughts and Sox to see if he would like the card.  He said yes he most definately was interested but it would be a while he had just moved and all his cards were boxed up. I wasn't worried.  I promptly sent Adam a package.  Now if you know me, I hate to send just one card in the mail. But for the life of me other than that Pedroia card I can't remember what I sent Adam. Anyways I promptly sent off a package and then promptly forgot about it.

That was until the other day when I had a nice think padded envelope show up in my mail box.  At first I thought  "Oh crap did I forget a trade?" But then I remembered.  Anyways Adam sent me a crap load of cards.

So here are most of them.

 A couple of Bo Jackson cards for my PC.  That 2009 tribute card is sweet.

A few vintage Brewers...some 71's and...

a 1975 George Scott.

Some Heritage

And a Prince Fielder rookie.

A nice smattering of Paullie Mo's

A few Younts.

A couple of Sheffields, that 89 is actually a reprint from 2010 Topps.

A couple Turkey Reds

A Braun card.

Some CC. Man I really like these Sweet Spot cards.

And lastly a couple numbered parallels.  The Gallardo is #d to 599 and the Escobar is 2011.
There were a few others I've already put away.
Thanks Adam.

TTM Success Skip Lockwood (Former Brewers Pitcher)

Got a nice surprise this afternoon, two TTM returns.  I'll post the my oldest return yet for the Brewers TTM Project.

I sent Skip Lockwood his 1972 Topps card, a LOR, and a SASE back on March 19th and got them back today May 21st.  I'm super excited he's got a great signature and this is my oldest return so far. Skip played with the A's and then the Seattle Pilots, moved with the team to Milwaukee and went on to play with the Angels, Mets and Red Sox. Oddly enough Skip started out as a third baseman, but ended up becoming a pitcher.

The TTM Stats

Date Sent: March 19, 2012

Date Recieved May 21, 2012

Address used

Skip Lockwood

47 John Druce Lane

Wrentham, MA 02093

Thanks to Mr. Lockwood.

Fan Packin' Across the USA - Battle Royal! The Dodgers vs the Cubs vs the Braves!

I got three fan packs in the mail in the last couple of days.  The Braves, Dodgers, and Cubs all came back to back to back, so lets throw them all in the ring and see who comes out the winner.

Lets have a look at all the envelopes.

Wow that Dodger envelope is huge!  Ok lets see what we've got.  Will start small and work our way up.

First we have the thank you letter from the Braves.

Just like the Red Sox the Braves include a small bag of dirt.

There was also a 2012 Pocket Schedule, not folded.  Featuring Timmy Hudson.

Photo of opening day.

And a great big Braves sticker.  Not too bad for just a #10 envelope.

OK next up the Cubs fan pack.

First we have a nice little note card, that had it's own envelope.

Nice a personalized thank you note.  Very classy Cubs, very classy.

The Cubs included a 2012 All Star ballot.  Hmmm hoping to stuff the box eh Cubbies?

There was also a Wrigley Field Tours brochure.

The 2012 Cubs Pocket Schedule.  Hey that guy use to be a Brewer, and I just got him TTM too.  That's  manager Dale Sveum. I did a quick search and there are actually 4 different Cubs pocket schedules. I'm sure there are multiple versions of lots of teams this year, but I'm not going to look them all up.

A nice Cubs sticker, and...

And a 2012 Fridge Schedule magnet! I love fridge magnets.
I'll be honest last year's fan pack was a lot better. It had a foam ball, wrist sweatband and some player postcards, but still a nice fan pack.

All right lets see what was in that big envelope from the Dodgers.

No thank you letter but a copy of Line Drives newsletter from December of last year.

Also a Dodger Playbill from September of last year.  Hey that picture looks familiar.

The Dodgers 2012 Pocket Schedule featuring manager Don Mattingly. I know that there is also another pocket schedule featuring Matt Kemp.

A player postcard of Clayton Kershaw.
Here's the back

And....

yep another fridge magnet!!!

So who won? Man this one's tough.  I mean I love fridge magnets, but the Braves sent dirt! And both the Braves and Cubbies sent stickers, but the Dodgers sent a player postcard of Kershaw, man if one of these teams had sent me a pencil it would be all over.  I'm going to have to go with the Dodgers on this one, but it was a close one.

CB out.

Contest Pimp - ARP Smith's Sportscard Obsession

Some of you might already know Adam, aka ARPSmith, he was trading before he was blogging and at the urging of some of use he decided to start his own blog.  And now he's holding his first contest.  Head on over to his blog ARPSmith's Sportcard Obsession to enter and maybe start following.

Pimp out

Fan Packin' Across the USA - Cincinnati Reds

Like I mentioned last post I got a fan pack with my Nyjer Morgan TTM success. And it's the Reds!.  It came in a huge envelope and had quite a bit of stuff in it. So lets see what the oldest team in baseball sends out in it's fan packs.

First we have the thank you letter.  Even dated for this month nice!

Next is a big autograph sheet. A least that's what I think it is. I mean that's what the white bar is for below the players.  And it's 8.5x11.

Of course we get a 2012 pocket schedule featuring Jay Bruce.

There is this free Special Preview Edition of a Kids book.  I haven't read it, but I'll put it in the pile for my unborn children.

Next we have a sticker of Gapper. I have mustache envy now.

And last we have a huge wall poster.  Can you guess which of the 4 players featured this one was.  Yep it was Josh Hamilton.  Just kidding it was Votto.  It's so big it doesn't fit on the scanner and I didn't take a photo of it but it looks just like the preview.


Not a bad little fan pack from the Reds.  And currently they're in second place in the NL Central two and a half games behind the Cards.  Thanks Reds organization!