Saturday, December 19, 2015

Quick Holiday Update - TTMs and Purchases

Photos to come later; this is just a quick write-up.

I've slowed down a lot the last couple of months.  My normal postage budget went into savings for potential Black Friday deals at my local card shop. When those didn't pan out, I bought a mandolin and put some aside to mail out some hockey requests. But on the positive side, I do plan to start hitting the soccer requests hard in the new year.

I was able to cut down on my potential writer's cramp though by buying a few off Ray in Maryland, whom I mentioned a few months back when I picked up some Kai Haaskivi and Billy Ronson items. This time I bought a bunch off him-- 45 to be exact-- including 11 from the 1987-88 set, 6 from 1988-89, 14 from 1989-90, 9 from 1990-91, and 5 from 1991-92. So that knocks out 45 that I needed right there.

I got six back in November and December as well.  The first one was an oddity-- former MISL commissioner Earl Foreman kept my cards, instead signing three ABA cards signed on the back. My second attempt at sending to Cacho Cordoba came back successfully, as he signed four cards and wrote a short note.

I went about three weeks without anything, then received Walter Schmetzer and Mike Sweeney. I had a success via mail from Andy Schmetzer, and Paul in Seattle got me Brian Schmetzer, so my mailing from Walter finishes off the entire trio.  Sweeney signed four cards, personalizing them all, and even wrote a short note back apologizing for taking so long. Not a worry-- I still have ten out there whom I've been waiting for even longer (and even got a baseball success back recently that took seven years).

Moving into December, Joe Waters signed four cards and wrote a short note back as well. The lone disappointing success (a paradox if I ever heard one) was from Pato Margetic. I sent him three cards and he kept two, signing and returning only one of them. At least it was my Cleveland Crunch card.

I had a few RTS in there as well: my second attempts on Chico Moreira and Bruno Ferretti were unsuccessful.  A trio of Moreira sigs were in the ones I bought from Ray though, so I only have two more to get on him. And I bet I can find another address for Ferretti. I also got Kim Roentved bounced back due to the demise of the Wichita B-52s. Like Ferretti though, I'm sure I can find an address on him as well.

Hopefully January will have a lot more writing. I plan to end out a lot more, plus I'll be writing for SportsCardForum.com on various subjects. Maybe I'll see what I can do on the MISL sets for them.

One final positive: January 2 will be the Dallas Sidekicks alumni game. I hope to get a few cards signed there as well.