Monday, December 5, 2011

Making Junk Wax Useful

I have been accumulating a lot of Dodger cards since the Platter has opened.  Some of these cards are just taking up space in a 5000 count box.  They are doubles or Dodgers that aren't allowed in my personal collection such as Kevin Brown or Jose Offerman.  Luckily, this box is only about half filled with cards.

I am trying to keep the count low.  A lot of these Dodger cards are from the junk wax era.  I needed to come up with a solution of how to make use of these excess Dodgers.

I couldn't dump the junk wax Dodgers on a fellow Dodger collector.  All other Dodger bloggers have seen enough cards of Franklin Stubbs in there lifetime.

There was no way that I would just throw these cards away.  That would be too cruel and the baseball card gods would give me bad pack pulling karma as a punishment.

I have found a way to make digging threw my junk wax collection a fun experience.  I have found a way to give new life the cards of my youth.

I am going to start sending out some Dodger cards out to get autographed.  I am going to join the TTM hunt. This will be a new experience for me.

Last night, I did some research at the Sports Card Forum and found some addresses of past players.  The Sports Card Forum also has a data base where you can see which players are active signers.  This way it will limit making this endeavor a failure.

This Kal Daniels card will look great signed.  Stadium Club was top notch back in the day.

Kevin Gross took a photo with me when I was a kid in the early 90s.  He was nice enough to let my mother snap a pic with him and I during a Dodgers Photo Day.

Sadly, Gross was not wearing these shades when I met him.  This will be another great looking card if Gross is kind enough to sign this for me.

This was the best Greg Gagne card that I have.  I may have some cards of him when he was a Minnesota Twin but, I prefer autographed Dodger cards.  I am going to try and send at least two cards to each player. Sending just one card to a player may not be worth it for me.

I am also going to try and be patient.  I will not expect a quick reply from these players.  Being patient is against my true self.  This TTM adventure will help bring out a new character trait in me.

 I picked this card up at my local card shop while searching throw a dime box.  For some reason I thought Godfather Night Owl needed this card.  When I got home from the card shop and checked his want list, I turned out to be wrong.  Of course, Night Owl doesn't need any 1985 Sid Bream cards.

I am going to mail this out to Bream to hopefully get signed.  Not a bad way to use a dime box find.

I remember having a lot of 1991 Donruss cards as a child.  Even then, I think I knew that this set was an ugly disaster.  This card has a terrible design.  Donruss picked there game up a little years later.

Donruss '91 didn't end my passion for collecting.  The junk wax era had many options to choose from but, I still had stacks of these as a kid.  I picked up my game as a collector and now have better taste.

These are the players that I am going to start with.  I have a few more in mind.  I also saw that some hall of famers sign through the mail for a fee.  I may do this since the chance of actually seeing one of these guys in person is rare.

But, I am going to start with getting some Dodger autos first.  I will keep track of when I send these cards out and when/if I get anything in return.

Have any of you guys gotten autos through the mail?  Any tips?  I would like any help from some TTM vets out there in the blog world.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck! I'm thinking of starting to send TTM in 2012 but on 4x6 pictures.

Can't wait to see some of your successes.

hiflew said...

I must be the only blogger that didn't hate 1991 Donruss. I liked the two colored series and it was big improvement over the red menace that was 1990 Donruss.

gcrl said...

patience is key. don't get discouraged either. let me know if you need addresses - most of mine have come from sports card forum, but i do have a few others from other sources.
when all else fails, send c/o the dodgers and they will forward to retired players.
good luck!

Ryan H said...

I have one Tip for you. Make sure you prep the cards before you send them out especially the more glossy cards. Either rub them down with pencil eraser or talcum powder. This helps the autograph "stick" to the surface of the card.