TTM Success - John Valentin

I waited a long time for successes to come back up for John Valentin before I sent to him.  I had seen successes in the past, but as I built up a stack of cards to choose from, he stopped signing.  When he popped back up again, I went ahead and sent several cards to get signed finally.

The above 1996 Bowmans Best turned out really well.  These are some really nice cards, and I was glad to get one in my album.

Valentin also signed some other cards like the 1995 Score Season Highlights - unassisted triple play (top left), which looks really cool.  I got a Topps base issue in (top right, 1995 Topps), a 1996 Leaf Preferred (bottom left) and a 1993 Toys R Us Stadium Club Rookie Stars (bottom right).

Finally, there was this 1996 Select Certified that I had found at my LCS a few years ago.  This one also turned out great.

Valentin (b. 1967) played in the majors from 1992 to 2002 for the Red Sox and Mets.  He had 1,093 hits, 124 home runs and a .279 batting average.  He was a Silver Slugger Award winner in 1995 and finished 9th in the AL MVP race that season.

I mailed to Valentin on June 9 and got the cards back on August 15, for a 67-day TAT.

TTM Success - John Wasdin

I added some cards with this TTM success that I don't really recall opening, mainly because they came out when I was out of collecting.  Luckily, there are a few boxes of cards at the shop that have a bunch of various cards and sets from that time period.  I have searched those boxes a bunch of times, and have come away with a bunch of potential TTM subjects that I think will look cool in my album.

The above 1994 UD Minors John Wasdin was the highlight of this TTM success.  The card is just really cool-looking, and pops nicely in the scan.

This 1996 Score Certified really could have been the highlight of the TTM success, but not even baby powdering this card could help the signature stay better.  The card is made of a pretty slick foil, and looks a lot better in person.

These two are pretty basic cards.  I got the 1996 Fleer out of my box break with my son, Chris.  The 1996 Topps was floating around some of my boxes.  I have very few 1996 Topps, so any one of them that I can get back signed, I have been sending out.  I need to find some more, but at the moment, I don't have many options.

Finally, I really liked the look of this 1996 Donruss.  This was the year when I got out of cards for a while, and I have very little 1996 anything.  I don't think I opened any 1996 Donruss, so adding this to the album will be really nice.

Wasdin (b. 1972) played in the majors from 1995 to 2001 and 2003 to 2007 for the A's, Red Sox, Rockies, Orioles, Rangers and Pirates.  He had a career record of 39-39 with an ERA of 5.28 and 527 strike outs.  He signed as the Orioles as Minor League Pitching Coordinator this offseason, taking over for Rick Peterson who left the organization.

I mailed to Wasdin at Orioles Spring Training on February 9 and got the cards back on February 27, for an 18-day TAT.