Thursday, February 3, 2022

The TTM envelopes still roll in

As this blog and my collecting habits have evolved over time, one thing that has really changed is my desire to send out TTM (through the mail) autograph requests.

I have not sent out a request since 6/28/21. Before that, the last one was 2/15/21.

I collect and view the hobby a lot differently than I did 11 years ago when I started this blog. For the first five or six years, TTMs were a mainstay here. I have 415 posts tagged with TTM. I had some great returns, and great stories from those returns. I had projects and goals.

When the pandemic started, I felt uneasy about sending unsolicited mail to strangers. Was the virus on the mail? I know that was silly, but many of us were freaked out and knew very little how this thing was carried. I then saw some posts of MLB players with mounds of mail sent to their home, pleading fans not to send to their home address. I started to see this element of the hobby as a bit of an invasion of privacy.

I stopped sending to home addresses all together. It no longer felt right. In the event I did want to send to a particular player, I sent it to their stadium or spring training. Maybe that's not that much better, but it at least felt like a bit more justifiable to me if I was going to send a piece of mail.

Despite not sending out new requests, it's not uncommon for an old self-addressed stamped envelope to make it's way back to me. Just last week, a return came back from Yankees 2020 first round pick, Austin Wells:
This was sent to spring training last February, for a 365-day turnaround. Annoyingly, the signature bubbled a bit.

I'm sure a few more envelopes will make their way back to me over the years. But as for new requests, not many will be going out.


2 comments:

  1. That's a super good return, congrats. I also had the same thoughts you did about TTMs (especially during the height of the pandemic). To feel less bad about it I went the paid autograph route. Costly but the ballgame changes the minute money is involved lol.

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  2. I remember seeing a photo of a player with a mound of mail too. Can't remember who it was, but I was wondering if he actually took the time to send any of them back. I think if I were a player, I'd prefer to have item sent to the ballpark. But I'm pretty big about separating work from my private life. These days I don't bring anything home to grade. :D

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