My international postage finally came... sort of.
Unfortunately the place I bought my stamps through didn't tell me that they ran out of several of the stamps I needed. They didn't charge me for them, but it would have been nice to know and I would have bought some different ones. So, my mailings to Italy (Roberto Baggio), Croatia (Damir Haramina), Slovenia (Bobo Lucic), and South Africa (David Byrne) won't be happening just yet.
But now, a little info on how to do this most effectively.
With soccer being the most international of all the sports played in the US, collecting soccer autographs may involve a lot of mailing around the world. While it's true that all of the Big Four have had international players as well (MLB has plenty from the Caribbean, Latin America, and Asia; the NFL once in a while has a few European and Central Americans, usually kickers; the NBA had over 100 foreign-born players on active rosters at the start of the 2014-15 season; and the NHL is nearly one-third European), none of those sports are played anywhere near as much as soccer worldwide.
With my MISL project, a significant portion of the players in the sets were foreign-born (just looking at a random roster to give you an idea, the 1990-91 Cleveland Crunch had 24 players; 13 of them were born outside the USA and eight had citizenship only in a European country-- two had dual citizenship and three were Canada-only). Many gained citizenship and stayed in the United States after their playing careers, but a handful did return home.
The toughest part of mailing out autograph requests internationally is getting the proper return postage. American stamps won't typically do you any good in getting it back. I've had success with them before, but I wouldn't recommend it. And International Reply Coupons are expensive and hard to come by.
Once you have an address, you then know where to send, and postage to get your letter over to the player is the easy part-- right now it's $1.15 to mail a standard one ounce letter internationally (one ounce is approximately a SASE, a letter, and up to about 8 cards, so you should be good to go on most players). The USPS sells International Forever stamps that cover the cost even with future rate increases. Unfortunately my local PO doesn't always have them. On the positive side, standard first-class stamps are 47 cents, and a two-ounce stamp is 68 cents. What happens when you put those together? Bam, $1.15. So that's what I did. Unfortunately the only two-ouncers they had in stock were wedding themed. Great...
Knowing the price of a return stamp can be tricky as it varies from country to country. Not only because of differences in monetary exchange rates, but also due to different prices post-exchange. Just because it costs $1.15 to mail a letter internationally here in the US doesn't mean it'll cost €1.05 to mail from anywhere in Europe, or £0.95 from the UK, ¥118.94 from Japan, or 10.17kr from Sweden.
Most countries' postal websites could tell you this info. But unless you're semi-fluent in a few languages, you may be sunk as translations are not always available, and even Google Translate isn't always the best.
Fortunately, there is a site that lists mailing rates from every country-- their domestic rates AND their international rates AND an approximate cost conversion. So you can find out that it costs 60 Lek to mail from Albania, and that a US dollar is approximately 104 Lek: so it's about 60 cents. Meanwhile, it's 50 Argentinian pesos to mail from Argentina to the US-- nearly $4!
For the MISL sets, that means I'm mailing to...
UK - £1.05
Croatia - 13 Kuna
Serbia - 70 Dinar
Netherlands - €1.25
Argentina - 50 pesos
South Africa - 6.60 Rand
Slovenia - €1.26
Bosnia-Herzegovina - 2.15 BAM
Canada - C$1.25
Denmark - 30 Krone
So once you have it all set as to what cost you need to cover, the next step obviously is buying stamps. K4HB recommends a guy named Bill Plum, who can be contacted via an email address listed on their site. I didn't notice that until just now. Herrick Stamp Company is who I used. You may have to pay a bit of a premium, but once you realize that you are not getting charged much for shipping, not having to deal with multiple exchange rates, not having to buy a ton of extra stamps that you don't need, not having navigate a bunch of websites in multiple languages, and not having to wait different amounts of time for them all to get to you, it's not that bad to pay a little more. My only wish is that I had been told they were out of a few I needed. I would have gladly bought some different ones. I may give Mr. Plum a try next time.
So from there, just put your American postage on the outgoing envelope, the appropriate foreign postage on the return envelope, and then just treat it like any other TTM request. Make sure to put USA at the bottom of your address on your return envelope.
If you don't want to bother with international stamps, you can always toss in a couple dollars to cover postage. It's worked for me before (some have even sent back my cash), but I prefer making it as easy on the other person as possible. I once heard of a baseball player writing an angry note back to someone for enclosing cash instead of stamps on a ball, basically saying he doesn't have time to go stand in line at the post office and that he was never signing again; and so far he hasn't. So, I don't want to be That Guy.
We'll see how this goes. I had success with my Netherlands and Canada requests (except one), all of which had postage rather than cash, and I've had decent success with hockey requests across borders, so I have high hopes for these as well.
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Mail Call: October 5-11
Still no foreign stamps yet. This is killing me.
On the positive side, I have gotten back 6 more in the last week or so.
OCTOBER 5
Nebo Bandovic, c/o work, 1/1, 1 week
Bandovic only had one card in the Pacific sets, but he signed it pretty quickly for me.
OCTOBER 7
Mike Fox, c/o home, 5/4, 3 weeks
Fox wrote a short note back saying it had been a while since he had been asked for an autograph. He signed the four I had (I picked one up in a trade earlier).
Terry Nicholl, c/o home, 3/3, 2 weeks
The importance of double-checking! The original address I had for Nicholl was through a high school he was coaching. Key word: was. He's no longer there so I had to dig a bit to find a different address but fortunately I found it. He signed two on the back and one on the front.
John O'Hara, c/o home, 2/1, 1 week
O'Hara was RTS'ed to me from a Minnesota address recently. Fortunately some digging netted me his current location-- just outside Cincinnati, OH. He also wrote a short note back.
OCTOBER 11
Tim Schulz, c/o work, 3/2, 2 weeks
Great response from Schulz, who even took the time to write a full letter back to me telling me about what he's up to in coaching and development in Colorado.
Paul Krumpe, c/o work, 2/2, 2 weeks
Got both versions of his 1987-88 cards signed. Krumpe currently is a college coach in California.
Here's to hoping I have some stamps today. And if not, at least a mailbox full of successes. I currently have 10 mailed in September that are still out. Fortunately 24 have come back successfully (with three that were RTSed before being successful). Total on the year so far, I'm 53/79, and 116/172 all-time.
On the positive side, I have gotten back 6 more in the last week or so.
OCTOBER 5
Nebo Bandovic, c/o work, 1/1, 1 week
Bandovic only had one card in the Pacific sets, but he signed it pretty quickly for me.
OCTOBER 7
Mike Fox, c/o home, 5/4, 3 weeks
Fox wrote a short note back saying it had been a while since he had been asked for an autograph. He signed the four I had (I picked one up in a trade earlier).
Terry Nicholl, c/o home, 3/3, 2 weeks
The importance of double-checking! The original address I had for Nicholl was through a high school he was coaching. Key word: was. He's no longer there so I had to dig a bit to find a different address but fortunately I found it. He signed two on the back and one on the front.
John O'Hara, c/o home, 2/1, 1 week
O'Hara was RTS'ed to me from a Minnesota address recently. Fortunately some digging netted me his current location-- just outside Cincinnati, OH. He also wrote a short note back.
OCTOBER 11
Tim Schulz, c/o work, 3/2, 2 weeks
Great response from Schulz, who even took the time to write a full letter back to me telling me about what he's up to in coaching and development in Colorado.
Paul Krumpe, c/o work, 2/2, 2 weeks
Got both versions of his 1987-88 cards signed. Krumpe currently is a college coach in California.
Here's to hoping I have some stamps today. And if not, at least a mailbox full of successes. I currently have 10 mailed in September that are still out. Fortunately 24 have come back successfully (with three that were RTSed before being successful). Total on the year so far, I'm 53/79, and 116/172 all-time.
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Mail Call: October 1-3
I got a RTS from John O'Hara, but found a new address to mail out to, so we'll hope for the best from there. I'm also just waiting on my foreign postage to get here and then I'll have a decent overseas batch to mail out (14 MISL, one outdoor, and two hockey).
In the meantime, I got a few more back.
OCTOBER 1
Tom Kain, c/o work, 3/3, 1 month. Kain works with Nike, pretty high up in the company. He signed all three cards I had of him. I was pretty happy to see this one come back, as if memory serves me correctly a previous attempt to him on SCN went unreturned.
Branko Segota, c/o home, 5/5, 2 weeks. This is the second time I got Segota and it finishes off all the cards I need him on (and then some). He typically signs in pen, just as a heads up.
Duncan MacEwan, c/o home, 2/1, 1 week. Second time is the charm! He signed the David Doyle card that features his photo in blue pen, and also signed my letter.
OCTOBER 3
Theo Kulsdom, c/o home, 4/3, 2 weeks from the Netherlands. I had mentioned before how Kulsdom got returned to me with a note from the current occupant of his former address saying he was no longer there, but to try finding him on Facebook. So I did and he said to send them on over. He signed them and wrote a short note as well.
John Bain and Jeff Cacciatore, each c/o work, each 2/1, each 1 week. A pair of former St. Louis teammates signed their 1987-88 cards and wrote a short note back.
So, as I said I'm just waiting on my foreign postage to arrive. As soon as it does, here's who will be getting requests...
Craig Allen, UK
Dominic Feltham, UK
Paul Peschisolido, UK
Steve Pittman, UK
Terry Rowe, UK
Gary Stanley, UK
Mike Dowler, UK
Godfrey Ingram, UK
Ron Fearon, UK
David Byrne, South Africa
Dalibor Cvitanovic, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Damir Haramina, Croatia
Nenad Markicevic, Serbia
Bobo Lucic, Slovenia
I'm also sending to Roberto Baggio in the world of outdoor soccer (to Italy), as well as hockey players Pavel Vorobiev (to the UK) and Borje Salming (to Sweden).
Speaking of Salming in a roundabout way, I got my FA Sápmi jersey in the mail the other day as well. For those who don't know, FA Sápmi is a CONIFA team composed of Sámi players from the areas of Northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. I believe I'm part Sámi as my family originally came from this area. I still have relatives in Tervola, Kemi, Rovaniemi, Kemijärvi, and Sodankylä in Finland, as well as Karasjok, Norway. I haven't been able to prove it 100% yet, as documentation of this is hard to come by; but I have been told that it is accepted that anyone north of a line from Oulu to Pudasjärvi has a lot of Sámi ancestry. Other past ancestors of mine came through Jukkasjarvi, Sweden as well. So I wanted to get something to represent that part of my background and after talking to the team's president, I was able to buy a jersey. It even has #21, which I typically have worn for floorball (along with #52 and #11). Salming is part Sámi, and it was via reading about him that I became more interested in finding out more about my background in that area. In fact, if the research on geni.com is all correct, he and I are 11th cousins once removed through his dad's side of his family, who I believe are 100% Sámi.
I plan to write a foreign request tutorial very soon as well.
In the meantime, I got a few more back.
OCTOBER 1
Tom Kain, c/o work, 3/3, 1 month. Kain works with Nike, pretty high up in the company. He signed all three cards I had of him. I was pretty happy to see this one come back, as if memory serves me correctly a previous attempt to him on SCN went unreturned.
Branko Segota, c/o home, 5/5, 2 weeks. This is the second time I got Segota and it finishes off all the cards I need him on (and then some). He typically signs in pen, just as a heads up.
Duncan MacEwan, c/o home, 2/1, 1 week. Second time is the charm! He signed the David Doyle card that features his photo in blue pen, and also signed my letter.
OCTOBER 3
Theo Kulsdom, c/o home, 4/3, 2 weeks from the Netherlands. I had mentioned before how Kulsdom got returned to me with a note from the current occupant of his former address saying he was no longer there, but to try finding him on Facebook. So I did and he said to send them on over. He signed them and wrote a short note as well.
John Bain and Jeff Cacciatore, each c/o work, each 2/1, each 1 week. A pair of former St. Louis teammates signed their 1987-88 cards and wrote a short note back.
So, as I said I'm just waiting on my foreign postage to arrive. As soon as it does, here's who will be getting requests...
Craig Allen, UK
Dominic Feltham, UK
Paul Peschisolido, UK
Steve Pittman, UK
Terry Rowe, UK
Gary Stanley, UK
Mike Dowler, UK
Godfrey Ingram, UK
Ron Fearon, UK
David Byrne, South Africa
Dalibor Cvitanovic, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Damir Haramina, Croatia
Nenad Markicevic, Serbia
Bobo Lucic, Slovenia
I'm also sending to Roberto Baggio in the world of outdoor soccer (to Italy), as well as hockey players Pavel Vorobiev (to the UK) and Borje Salming (to Sweden).
Speaking of Salming in a roundabout way, I got my FA Sápmi jersey in the mail the other day as well. For those who don't know, FA Sápmi is a CONIFA team composed of Sámi players from the areas of Northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. I believe I'm part Sámi as my family originally came from this area. I still have relatives in Tervola, Kemi, Rovaniemi, Kemijärvi, and Sodankylä in Finland, as well as Karasjok, Norway. I haven't been able to prove it 100% yet, as documentation of this is hard to come by; but I have been told that it is accepted that anyone north of a line from Oulu to Pudasjärvi has a lot of Sámi ancestry. Other past ancestors of mine came through Jukkasjarvi, Sweden as well. So I wanted to get something to represent that part of my background and after talking to the team's president, I was able to buy a jersey. It even has #21, which I typically have worn for floorball (along with #52 and #11). Salming is part Sámi, and it was via reading about him that I became more interested in finding out more about my background in that area. In fact, if the research on geni.com is all correct, he and I are 11th cousins once removed through his dad's side of his family, who I believe are 100% Sámi.
I plan to write a foreign request tutorial very soon as well.
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Mail Call: September 20-27
I re-mailed MacEwan, and also sent out Terry Nicholl, Mike Brady, Nebo Bandovic, John Bain, Jeff Cacciatore, Tim Schulz, and Paul Krumpe. Also I'm going to finally buy some international postage this week and get crazy on some requests overseas. Once I do so, I likely will write a short tutorial on it as I found a few nice resources for it.
The mailbox was nicely full this week, including a few big names...
SEPTEMBER 20
Gary Etherington, 3/3. This one was a different one-- Gary signed all three cards I sent, but signed the two 1987-88 cards on the back-- possibly due to the Etherington/Ethernigton error? Took about two weeks.
SEPTEMBER 22
Steve Zungul, 7/7. WOW. I was a little shocked by this one since my attempt on him a year ago went unanswered. Fortunately this time I had a good address and he signed everything I sent. Finally, I have all of the top five all-time goal scorers in indoor soccer history (Marinaro, Zungul, Tatu, Karic, and Michael King). I didn't have the 1987-88 card at all, unfortunately. Took about a week and a half and is my 100th all-time indoor soccer autograph success via mail.
SEPTEMBER 26
Daryl Doran, 5/5. This is my second time ever writing to Doran, having gotten him a few years ago before the project began, and also getting him back in 2002 IP at the All-Star Game. Two weeks.
Steve Eise, 1/1; Thomas Strunk, 2/2; Chris Kenny, 3/2. A trio from Missouri that each took a week.
Currently I'm at a 60.8% success rate all-time via mail (104/171). However 23 of those were hit with the Dreaded Yellow Sticker of RTS Doom, and 22 were sent less than a month ago. So only 26 are (currently) outright failures.
To go along with that, I need to update my percentages soon. As of right now, I'm at something like this (slightly off due to disappearance of multi-signed ones)...
1987-88: roughly 62%
1988-89: roughly 67%
1989-90: roughly 79%
1990-91: roughly 56%
1991-92: roughly 57%
TOTAL: roughly 62%
The mailbox was nicely full this week, including a few big names...
SEPTEMBER 20
Gary Etherington, 3/3. This one was a different one-- Gary signed all three cards I sent, but signed the two 1987-88 cards on the back-- possibly due to the Etherington/Ethernigton error? Took about two weeks.
SEPTEMBER 22
Steve Zungul, 7/7. WOW. I was a little shocked by this one since my attempt on him a year ago went unanswered. Fortunately this time I had a good address and he signed everything I sent. Finally, I have all of the top five all-time goal scorers in indoor soccer history (Marinaro, Zungul, Tatu, Karic, and Michael King). I didn't have the 1987-88 card at all, unfortunately. Took about a week and a half and is my 100th all-time indoor soccer autograph success via mail.
SEPTEMBER 26
Daryl Doran, 5/5. This is my second time ever writing to Doran, having gotten him a few years ago before the project began, and also getting him back in 2002 IP at the All-Star Game. Two weeks.
Steve Eise, 1/1; Thomas Strunk, 2/2; Chris Kenny, 3/2. A trio from Missouri that each took a week.
Currently I'm at a 60.8% success rate all-time via mail (104/171). However 23 of those were hit with the Dreaded Yellow Sticker of RTS Doom, and 22 were sent less than a month ago. So only 26 are (currently) outright failures.
To go along with that, I need to update my percentages soon. As of right now, I'm at something like this (slightly off due to disappearance of multi-signed ones)...
1987-88: roughly 62%
1988-89: roughly 67%
1989-90: roughly 79%
1990-91: roughly 56%
1991-92: roughly 57%
TOTAL: roughly 62%
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
A 1987-1992 Pacific Soccer Error and Variation Compendium
Normally when I work on getting a set completely signed, I won't bother with most of the error cards or even the variations. The only ones I would mess with are any wrong photo errors. Everything else I'd let go.
But with the soccer sets, I decided I'd go for the whole thing. After all, which version of the 1987-88 Chicago Sting cards are correct, the white text or the black text?
So even with true errors, I'm getting them all signed. Cards with the wrong photo I'm going to get signed hopefully by both the listed player and the depicted player. Here's a full list of corrected errors, uncorrected wrong-photo errors, and variations. I'm not going to list things like wrong birthdates or incomplete stat lines; only errors that affect the front of the card. Fortunately Pacific got it together and the final two sets had no problems. But the first three were loaded with them.
Cards I have signed already have no note, cards I need either signed or unsigned are notated, as are ones I have but not signed.
1987-88
#2 ERR - Krys Sobiesk
#2 COR - Krys Sobieski
#4 ERR - Willie Molino
#4 COR - Willie Molano
#17 ERR - Rickey Davis
#17 COR - Ricky Davis
#43 ERR - Victor Nogueria
#43 COR - Victor Nogueira
#74 VAR - Cris Vacarro, black text
#74 VAR - Cris Vacarro, white text
#75 VAR - Heinz Wirtz, black text
#75 VAR - Heinz Wirtz, white text
#76 VAR - Ben Collins, black text
#76 VAR - Ben Collins, white text
#77 VAR - Frank Klopas, black text
#77 VAR - Frank Klopas, white text
#78 VAR - Paul Krumpe, black text
#78 VAR - Paul Krumpe, white text
#79 VAR - Chico Moreira, black text
#79 VAR - Chico Moreira, white text
#80 VAR - Batata, black text
#80 VAR - Batata, white text
#81 VAR - Teddy Kraft, black text
#81 VAR - Teddy Kraft, white text
#82 VAR - Mark Simanton, black text
#82 VAR - Mark Simanton, white text
#84 ERR - Tino Lettieri, green border
#84 COR - Tino Lettieri, red border
#85 ERR - Gary Ethernigton
#85 COR - Gary Etherington
#92 ERR - Ken Forgerty
#92 COR - Ken Fogarty
1988-89
#53 - David Doyle, photo actually Duncan MacEwan
#67 - Mike Sweeney, photo actually Dave MacKenzie
#84 - A.J. Lachowecki, photo actually Kris Peat
1989-90
#34 ERR - Scoop Stanisic, photo is Scott Manning
#34 COR - Scoop Stanisic, correct photo
#67 ERR - Kevin Hundelt, photo is Chris Hundelt (got it signed by Kevin; need it signed by Chris)
#67 COR - Chris Hundelt, same photo but correct name (need it signed!)
But with the soccer sets, I decided I'd go for the whole thing. After all, which version of the 1987-88 Chicago Sting cards are correct, the white text or the black text?
So even with true errors, I'm getting them all signed. Cards with the wrong photo I'm going to get signed hopefully by both the listed player and the depicted player. Here's a full list of corrected errors, uncorrected wrong-photo errors, and variations. I'm not going to list things like wrong birthdates or incomplete stat lines; only errors that affect the front of the card. Fortunately Pacific got it together and the final two sets had no problems. But the first three were loaded with them.
Cards I have signed already have no note, cards I need either signed or unsigned are notated, as are ones I have but not signed.
1987-88
#2 ERR - Krys Sobiesk
#2 COR - Krys Sobieski
#4 ERR - Willie Molino
#4 COR - Willie Molano
#17 ERR - Rickey Davis
#17 COR - Ricky Davis
#43 ERR - Victor Nogueria
#43 COR - Victor Nogueira
#74 VAR - Cris Vacarro, black text
#74 VAR - Cris Vacarro, white text
#75 VAR - Heinz Wirtz, black text
#75 VAR - Heinz Wirtz, white text
#76 VAR - Ben Collins, black text
#76 VAR - Ben Collins, white text
#77 VAR - Frank Klopas, black text
#77 VAR - Frank Klopas, white text
#78 VAR - Paul Krumpe, black text
#78 VAR - Paul Krumpe, white text
#79 VAR - Chico Moreira, black text
#79 VAR - Chico Moreira, white text
#80 VAR - Batata, black text
#80 VAR - Batata, white text
#81 VAR - Teddy Kraft, black text
#81 VAR - Teddy Kraft, white text
#82 VAR - Mark Simanton, black text
#82 VAR - Mark Simanton, white text
#84 ERR - Tino Lettieri, green border
#84 COR - Tino Lettieri, red border
#85 ERR - Gary Ethernigton
#85 COR - Gary Etherington
#92 ERR - Ken Forgerty
#92 COR - Ken Fogarty
1988-89
#53 - David Doyle, photo actually Duncan MacEwan
#67 - Mike Sweeney, photo actually Dave MacKenzie
#84 - A.J. Lachowecki, photo actually Kris Peat
1989-90
#34 ERR - Scoop Stanisic, photo is Scott Manning
#34 COR - Scoop Stanisic, correct photo
#67 ERR - Kevin Hundelt, photo is Chris Hundelt (got it signed by Kevin; need it signed by Chris)
#67 COR - Chris Hundelt, same photo but correct name (need it signed!)
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Mail Call, 9/19/2016
Got four in yesterday as well as a RTS.
SEPTEMBER 19
Tino Lettieri, c/o work, 3/2, 2 weeks - In addition to both the red and green versions of his 1987-88 Pacific card, Tino also signed my letter via his pizzeria in Minnesota.
Dave Clements, c/o work, 2/2, 2 weeks - Two cards from him, he even put in cardboard piexes to prevent bending and paid extra postage on it via his cotton candy vending business
Terry Brown, c/o home, 4/3, 2 weeks - Nice one here, signed three cards and even wrote a short note back thanking me for following his career.
Chico Borja, c/o work, 5/5, 1 week - Speedy response from a multi-time All-Star who now coaches soccer and golf while working as a high school assistant principal.
Unfortunately the failbox delivered Duncan MacEwan with the Yellow Sticker of Doom. I did find another potential address for him though, so I'll likely give it a shot tomorrow, along with writing out a few more.
SEPTEMBER 19
Tino Lettieri, c/o work, 3/2, 2 weeks - In addition to both the red and green versions of his 1987-88 Pacific card, Tino also signed my letter via his pizzeria in Minnesota.
Dave Clements, c/o work, 2/2, 2 weeks - Two cards from him, he even put in cardboard piexes to prevent bending and paid extra postage on it via his cotton candy vending business
Terry Brown, c/o home, 4/3, 2 weeks - Nice one here, signed three cards and even wrote a short note back thanking me for following his career.
Chico Borja, c/o work, 5/5, 1 week - Speedy response from a multi-time All-Star who now coaches soccer and golf while working as a high school assistant principal.
Unfortunately the failbox delivered Duncan MacEwan with the Yellow Sticker of Doom. I did find another potential address for him though, so I'll likely give it a shot tomorrow, along with writing out a few more.
Monday, September 19, 2016
Back to the grind
I figured I would have a couple fast ones roll in from my most recent batch.
In two weeks, both A.J. Lachowecki and Kevin Crow came back to me, signing two and four cards, respectively. Lachowecki signed the back of the 1988-89 error card (Kris Peat is depicted; he signed the front).
I also mailed out to Steve Zungul, Daryl Doran, Wes Wade, Duncan MacEwan, Chico Borja, Theo Kulsdom, Ted Krafft, Steve Eise, Thomas Strunk, John O'Hara, Sean Phillips, Mike Fox, Branko Segota, and Chris Kenny. Fox is a second attempt: my try a week and a half ago resulted in a note back from a different Mike Fox (owner of M&M Paper) saying he was not the soccer player. I found a new address in Colorado I plan to try.
Kulsdom took some work: a former Cleveland favorite, I tried an address in the Netherlands earlier this year with no luck, getting a note back from the woman now living there that he wasn't there-- she suggested I try Facebook. So I was able to find him there and messaged him asking if he could sign my card. He answered a week later that he would love to, and included his address. Fortunately I have a couple of Dutch stamps left so I can cover postage just fine.
Speaking of foreign postage, my batch for October has been selected. I plan to buy international stamps around the first part of the month, writing, mailing, hoping, and waiting. I also have about 8 more domestics to write this week and am already planning my November group as well.
In two weeks, both A.J. Lachowecki and Kevin Crow came back to me, signing two and four cards, respectively. Lachowecki signed the back of the 1988-89 error card (Kris Peat is depicted; he signed the front).
I also mailed out to Steve Zungul, Daryl Doran, Wes Wade, Duncan MacEwan, Chico Borja, Theo Kulsdom, Ted Krafft, Steve Eise, Thomas Strunk, John O'Hara, Sean Phillips, Mike Fox, Branko Segota, and Chris Kenny. Fox is a second attempt: my try a week and a half ago resulted in a note back from a different Mike Fox (owner of M&M Paper) saying he was not the soccer player. I found a new address in Colorado I plan to try.
Kulsdom took some work: a former Cleveland favorite, I tried an address in the Netherlands earlier this year with no luck, getting a note back from the woman now living there that he wasn't there-- she suggested I try Facebook. So I was able to find him there and messaged him asking if he could sign my card. He answered a week later that he would love to, and included his address. Fortunately I have a couple of Dutch stamps left so I can cover postage just fine.
Speaking of foreign postage, my batch for October has been selected. I plan to buy international stamps around the first part of the month, writing, mailing, hoping, and waiting. I also have about 8 more domestics to write this week and am already planning my November group as well.
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
One year of the project: a look back
So much has happened in the last year that it's hard to believe that this project is only 365 days old.
It was on September 4, 2015 that I started this blog and mailed out my first batch of 27 requests. Some took as little as a week to return to me, others still are out a year later, but overall the project has been a big success. In the ensuing 365 days, I've had 88 successes, 21 returns for an incorrect address, and only 21 went unreturned. And I haven't given up hope on those: I've had successes in other sports that have taken over a year to come back (30 to be exact, with one taking 7 years from baseball player Marty Barrett). I also have made a few trades and purchases as well.
So to celebrate a year of work, I mailed out another 14 requests this morning. Two are going to players who already signed for me but have a ton of cards in the sets (George Fernandez and Kevin Crow). I typically try not to send more than 6 cards per request so with those two I mailed in two batches a year apart. In addition to those, I took a flyer on Victor Nogueira who I haven't seen many successes from, along with Desmond Armstrong, Tino Lettieri, Waad Hirmez (another longshot), Joe Papaleo, A.J. Lachowecki, Gregg Willin, Gary Etherington, Dave Clements, Tom Kain, Mike Fox, and Terry Brown.
Also, I just noticed I failed to mention that I did get one of those early stragglers back recently. Mark Mettrick returned his cards signed back in August after about 10 months out. Like I said, never give up, those old ones can come rolling in at any time.
Who am I still waiting on? Here's a breakdown, listed in order of when they were mailed out.
SEPTEMBER 5, 2015: Brian Quinn, Steve Zungul, Beto, David Hoggan, Erik Rasmussen
SEPTEMBER 7, 2015: Mark Frederickson, Steve Kinsey
OCTOBER 6, 2015: Dennis Mepham, Scoop Stanisic, Nenad Zigante, Gregg Blasingame, Andy Chapman
MARCH 7, 2016: Paul Wright, Preki, Kai Haaskivi
MARCH 10, 2016: Jim Gabarra, Kevin Hundelt
MARCH 14, 2016: Marty Templin/Herb Silva
MARCH 30, 2016: Pasquale DeLuca
MAY 25, 2016: Greg Ion
MAY 31, 2016: Iain Fraser
It was on September 4, 2015 that I started this blog and mailed out my first batch of 27 requests. Some took as little as a week to return to me, others still are out a year later, but overall the project has been a big success. In the ensuing 365 days, I've had 88 successes, 21 returns for an incorrect address, and only 21 went unreturned. And I haven't given up hope on those: I've had successes in other sports that have taken over a year to come back (30 to be exact, with one taking 7 years from baseball player Marty Barrett). I also have made a few trades and purchases as well.
So to celebrate a year of work, I mailed out another 14 requests this morning. Two are going to players who already signed for me but have a ton of cards in the sets (George Fernandez and Kevin Crow). I typically try not to send more than 6 cards per request so with those two I mailed in two batches a year apart. In addition to those, I took a flyer on Victor Nogueira who I haven't seen many successes from, along with Desmond Armstrong, Tino Lettieri, Waad Hirmez (another longshot), Joe Papaleo, A.J. Lachowecki, Gregg Willin, Gary Etherington, Dave Clements, Tom Kain, Mike Fox, and Terry Brown.
Also, I just noticed I failed to mention that I did get one of those early stragglers back recently. Mark Mettrick returned his cards signed back in August after about 10 months out. Like I said, never give up, those old ones can come rolling in at any time.
Who am I still waiting on? Here's a breakdown, listed in order of when they were mailed out.
SEPTEMBER 5, 2015: Brian Quinn, Steve Zungul, Beto, David Hoggan, Erik Rasmussen
SEPTEMBER 7, 2015: Mark Frederickson, Steve Kinsey
OCTOBER 6, 2015: Dennis Mepham, Scoop Stanisic, Nenad Zigante, Gregg Blasingame, Andy Chapman
MARCH 7, 2016: Paul Wright, Preki, Kai Haaskivi
MARCH 10, 2016: Jim Gabarra, Kevin Hundelt
MARCH 14, 2016: Marty Templin/Herb Silva
MARCH 30, 2016: Pasquale DeLuca
MAY 25, 2016: Greg Ion
MAY 31, 2016: Iain Fraser
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Slowing down
Typically when I send cards out to be signed, I like sending multiples. While I can't complain much about spending 94 cents per request (47 cents each way), if I can maximize my return on that money invested, I'm going to do what I can to ensure that.
And that's why the requests have slowed a bit. Most of the players I have left are guys who only had one card. I also hate mailing doubles if I can avoid it, so I haven't sent a whole lot lately. My concentration for the time being has gone to other sports.
However, I did get one back this past week as Dave Boncek signed three cards and wrote back a short letter. It was my second attempt on him, this time successful after a RTS through what I'm assuming is now an old work address.
Also, after giving it some thought, I'm going to start making my address list free starting in 2017. While I put in a lot of work and did at least get a little compensation for it from people who bought it, I also realize we're a small, niche group of collectors. I might as well provide as much info as I can. The work put into it at first was a bit daunting, but so much of it can stay the same over the years that it's kind of pointless for me to continue to charge. So the 2016 edition is still at a low $7, but the 2017 edition will be free. And it likely will remain so, provided my resources remain free.
And that's why the requests have slowed a bit. Most of the players I have left are guys who only had one card. I also hate mailing doubles if I can avoid it, so I haven't sent a whole lot lately. My concentration for the time being has gone to other sports.
However, I did get one back this past week as Dave Boncek signed three cards and wrote back a short letter. It was my second attempt on him, this time successful after a RTS through what I'm assuming is now an old work address.
Also, after giving it some thought, I'm going to start making my address list free starting in 2017. While I put in a lot of work and did at least get a little compensation for it from people who bought it, I also realize we're a small, niche group of collectors. I might as well provide as much info as I can. The work put into it at first was a bit daunting, but so much of it can stay the same over the years that it's kind of pointless for me to continue to charge. So the 2016 edition is still at a low $7, but the 2017 edition will be free. And it likely will remain so, provided my resources remain free.
Friday, May 20, 2016
Catching Up: The April and May Mailbag
I've fallen behind as usual, but with good reason. I haven't been mailing as much, I've been 'graphing baseball a bit, playing floorball, and doing music with my church (Oak Cliff Unitarian Universalist) every week. And I want to add more music to the schedule. Plus my Cavs and Penguins are alive in the NHL and NBA playoffs. So most of my focus has been elsewhere.
On the positive side, the older ones I sent out have been trickling their way back in...
APRIL 6
Freddie Thompson, 4 cards and a short note, 23 days
APRIL 7
Esse Baharmast, 2 cards and a note, 24 days
APRIL 11
Eddie Radwanski, 2 cards and a note, 32 days
Jean Willrich, 4 cards, 28 days
APRIL 14
Tony Glavin, 3 cards and a note, 31 days
APRIL 18
Paul Dougherty, 4 cards, 39 days
Tasso Koutsoukos, 1 card, 19 days (to Canada)
APRIL 22
Mark Simanton, 2 cards, 43 days
APRIL 27
Drew Ferguson, 1 card and a note, 28 days
MAY 6
Batata, 2 cards and a note, 57 days
MAY 14
Scott Manning, 6 cards and a note, 45 days
MAY 19
Jim Gorsek, 5 cards, 73 days
I'm really happy especially to get Gorsek back. He was mailed the same day as Preki, Paul Wright, and Kai Haaskivi. A friend of mine got Preki back quickly while I'm still waiting, so obviously I was getting a bit worried that maybe that whole batch got lost in the mail. My paranoia is unfounded though: in addition to Gorsek, I had already gotten Tatu and six out of the nine baseball players I had mailed to in that March 7 mailing.
I have a roll of stamps and a list of football (as in NFL) players I'll be sending to in the next few weeks. I likely will add some soccer to that list too.
On the positive side, the older ones I sent out have been trickling their way back in...
APRIL 6
Freddie Thompson, 4 cards and a short note, 23 days
APRIL 7
Esse Baharmast, 2 cards and a note, 24 days
APRIL 11
Eddie Radwanski, 2 cards and a note, 32 days
Jean Willrich, 4 cards, 28 days
APRIL 14
Tony Glavin, 3 cards and a note, 31 days
APRIL 18
Paul Dougherty, 4 cards, 39 days
Tasso Koutsoukos, 1 card, 19 days (to Canada)
APRIL 22
Mark Simanton, 2 cards, 43 days
APRIL 27
Drew Ferguson, 1 card and a note, 28 days
MAY 6
Batata, 2 cards and a note, 57 days
MAY 14
Scott Manning, 6 cards and a note, 45 days
MAY 19
Jim Gorsek, 5 cards, 73 days
I'm really happy especially to get Gorsek back. He was mailed the same day as Preki, Paul Wright, and Kai Haaskivi. A friend of mine got Preki back quickly while I'm still waiting, so obviously I was getting a bit worried that maybe that whole batch got lost in the mail. My paranoia is unfounded though: in addition to Gorsek, I had already gotten Tatu and six out of the nine baseball players I had mailed to in that March 7 mailing.
I have a roll of stamps and a list of football (as in NFL) players I'll be sending to in the next few weeks. I likely will add some soccer to that list too.
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