Back around December of 2006, I began browsing through a couple of online trading communities in Sports Card Forum and Trade Cards Now. Back then, many terms and abbreviations used on these forums might as well have been Chinese to me. WTTF (want to trade for), FS/FT (for sale/for trade), WTB (want to buy), and HTG (hard to get) were all abbreviations I saw in the buying and trading forums. However, the letters TTM were found in buying and selling forums along with general card chat forums and other places on these sites.
I'm embarrassed to admit that I had no clue what those three little letters meant until last summer.
While I have never personally dabbled in Through The Mail autograph requests, I have read a lot about people who have. It's not that I am worried about losing my card, ticking off a player by using their home address or worried about having my card returned stating I need to cover a signing fee, it is that I never give it much thought. Because I'm not real huge into autographs and don't want to deal with the authentication process if I choose to sell a TTM, I never send them out.
The resources are out there as well as plenty of success stories. Despite that, I have never felt the urge to address an envelope.
Come collectors live by TTM and send out requests on a daily basis. I even remember reading about one collector who was trying to complete a 1992 Donruss set with TTM and in person autographs and another who finished a set of TTM autographs of the members of the 1987 World Series.
Photobucket user stlalways94 is a TTM seeker as he/she has an entire album dedicated to TTM and in person autographs he/she has acquired. The card pictured above came from that album.
Who, if anyone, from the blogsphere sends out TTM? I know Mario has several in person autographs, but what collector doesn't? I even have 15-20 of those.
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1 comment:
I use TTM for some autographs, usually from the Bowman draft stuff. I have almost 700 cards of players who are pictured as Padres on cards. I have written some of the more difficult players, such as Tito Fuentes who asked for $7 when I wrote. I sent him a card and the bucks and he sent me a card and a nice letter that I was the only one who had ever responded to his request. 7 isn't bad considering what some guys charge at shows. It has helped me build my collection and I have gotten some interesting letters back.
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