TTM This Week: Football Hall of Famers in the Mailbox and How to TTM Larger Items

This Week on TTMCast
An important announcement regarding how to contact the show appropriately, Les Wolff talks Tom Brady, and Drew shares his TTM successes along with guest co-host Arron Littleton.  Click here to listen.

 

TTM Successes

 

Dermontti Dawson
A versatile center (he even handled long-snapping duties as Mike Webster’s backup as a rookie, and even into his first few years as a starter), Dawson is a Hall of Famer who signs for $10 (and added his HOF induction year free of charge).

Elvin Bethea
Possibly the greatest Oiler bef.ore Earl Campbell’s arrival, Bethea was a force on the defensive line. His $10 fee is a bargain, especially considering he added in an extra signed card of his own, and added his induction year free on both
Moving Past Cards: How to do TTM with Larger Items
Like most TTMers, I tend to stick to mailing out cards. Typically they’re cheap to buy, cheap to send, and easily replaceable if they get lost or damaged in a USPS sorting machine. But once in a while, I’ve been known to go into something bigger. Personally, I have mailed off photos and baseballs without a problem and I’ve known people who have sent jerseys off as well. Just remember: protect your item well and keep it as simple as you can for the signer who is going above and beyond even if he doesn’t sign for free.

Protection Is Key
Eventually, you’re going to get a TTM damaged: In my 3000 mailed requests, I’ve received the dreaded “We Care” bodybag several times, and a few other folded and creased envelopes over the years. It’s maybe a half a percent of my successes, but still, it’s annoying. As I said, cards are fortunately easy to replace most of the time, but photos, balls, and jerseys cost a lot more.

Photo Finish
So when you send a photo, don’t send it bare in an envelope. Give it some cardboard backing and hold it on with some carefully-applied (and later carefully-removed) painters tape. Or, create your own photo corners by taping down the corners of some old envelopes and carefully slide the photo in and out. There’s not much worse than mailing off a photo and getting it back folded up because of postal machinery damage or an uncaring delivery-person ignoring your “DO NOT BEND” warning and shoving it into your mailbox. That happened to me once and only once: Every photo after that got a cardboard piece or an envelope specific to photo mailing.

The good news is that almost any size of photo can be mailed this way. Sure, it’ll cost more for larger ones and you may need to roll it up in a photo tube, but I’ve sent any size up to 11×14 in a bubble mailer outgoing and a photo mailer returning.

Have A Ball

If you send a baseball, this is one of the few times I would recommend sending your own pen. Most players will make sure they sign appropriately with a ballpoint pen, but if you want to be certain, enclosing your own pen costs no extra.  Have a large bubble mailer for the return and make sure it will hold your ball. An 8.5×11 should work just fine.

 

Keep your ball wrapped in tissue paper and a plastic sandwich bag just to protect it further, and package your pen in its own plastic bag. If that pen breaks and explodes in transit, you don’t want it ruining everything else in the package.

Holy Shirt

I haven’t sent any jerseys out yet, but package it similarly to the ball: Fold it up carefully with the area exposed where you want the player to sign. Use some cardboard inside the folded jersey to help it keep a compact shape and hold it down with some rubber bands. Make sure you aren’t creasing any logos, names, or numbers. Enclose your pen as well: maybe a silver or gold paint pen if you want them to sign on a dark spot, a black Sharpie for a light spot. While I typically recommend blue, it often bleeds badly on fabric for some reason. And always: test and prime your pen before sending it, and keep it in a bag separate from your jersey.
Compare these two jerseys. They were stored similarly, but the blue one from Ryan Vandenbussche has bled a bit in the personalization while the black signature from Jason Kidd still stands strong.Keep It Simple and Courteous
The biggest thing you can do to help your cause is to ALWAYS use appropriate postage on your own. Use a prepaid label from USPS, whether through a kiosk or via a site like Pirate Ship. Don’t just enclose cash and hope the player will do it on their own: I heard a story once of an irate Baseball Hall of Famer writing a nasty note back to a collector about having to go to the post office to mail his item back. So print the label off for your return so that the player can just drop it in their mailbox, hand it to their carrier or bring it to their local station. The reports of postal labels expiring are bogus: they may drop off of the tracking site after a few weeks of non-use, but once they’re scanned in at the post office they’ll reappear quickly.It’s also been reported recently that many post offices are rejecting packages with stamps on them for postage– notably on attempts of baseballs to Paul Molitor. So again, go with the label every time.You may also want to contact the player before mailing any truly large items (photos over 11×14, jerseys, bats, helmets, or the entire penalty box from Boston Garden). These may require special delivery and you want to make sure they can receive it easily. For a while Orlando Cepeda’s family was requesting nothing over 11×14. Maybe send a letter of request with info on what you would like to send, and a notecard and SASE for their response.

You could even go the old grade school route and instead of a “Do you like me? Yes ___  No___” have it read “Player Name: Permission to send jersey? Yes___  No___”

Do Your Homework
Don’t waste your time mailing to someone who lacks a proven track record of signing. Do you really want to pay out $150 for a Tom Brady jersey and send it off hoping he might see it and sign? Sure, some players have a known history of their eye going to bigger items via mail while avoiding smaller envelopes with cards (such as when Aaron Judge signed in the past), but for the most part, if they don’t sign their cards, they won’t sign your jersey. Don’t send anything you can’t afford to lose, and know where your best bets lie.

If you can’t decide between sending your A’s jersey to Dennis Eckersley or Rickey Henderson, looking up their habits in a place like SportsCollectors.net will make your decision far easier.