TTM Success - Ron Wright

A nice stack of late 90s cards came out of the box wheb I mailed off to Ron Wright.  The above 1997 Bowman Chrome International card turned out great.

I also sent off this 1996 Topps Prospects card.  I'm not sure if I'm going to want to try to get it finished.  I guess it will depend on if I can find a Derrek Lee signing. We'll see about that.

I also sent out Wright's 1996 Bowman, 1997 Bowman, 1998 Leaf Rookies and Stars and his 1998 Bowman Chrome. 

Wright (b. 1976) played in the majors in 2002 for the Mariners.  He got into one game and didn't get a hit.  He had been drafted by the Braves in the 7th round of the 1994 June Amateur Draft out of Kamiakin High School in Washington.

He played in the minors from 1994 to 2003 in the Braves, Pirates, Reds, Devil Rays, Mariners, Indians and Tigers.  In his minor league career, he had 773 hits, 145 home runs and a .262 batting average. 

I mailed to Wright on October 2 and got the cards back on November 1, for a 30-day TAT. 

2025 National Free Signer - Hal Morris

Hal Morris was one of the Wednesday fewe VIP signers at the National.  I had gotten him TTM in the past, but I still had a bunch of his cards that I could get signed.  The above 1994 Topps turned out great.

They called Wild Cards on Morris, so I was able to get s few more cards signed.  The 1997 Bowman Chrome (left) turned out great.  The 1996 Topps Gallery (middle) was from the box of cards I busted a long time ago while visiting Andrew.

Finally, the card on the right is a 1996 Topps Finest.  These are also nice cards but they kind of blur or fade.  This one turned out fine and shouldn't fade since it'll be stored in my album.  By fading, I mean the actual card, not the signature.

Morris was really nice.  I was glad to meet him, and his line.moved pretty quickly. 

TTM Success - Shane Monahan

Here are a bunch more cards that I was able to pull from the boxes I got from the former LCS and get signed TTM. These cards from Shane Monahan are a nice mix of late 90s stuff that was just locked in the boxes and taking up space.  I love being able to move some of the cards and show them off.  The above 1998 Donruss is a nice card that looked pretty good when signed.

I also got a 1996 Topps, 1998 Bowman Chrome (both at top), 1997 Bowman Chrome and 1997 Bowman (both at bottom) signed. The 1997 Bowman Chrome had a little bit of fading, but the card still turned out well. A lot of those cards in that box seem to have gotten hot and the UV coating had gotten fairly cloudy.  The baby powder that I now use has done a great job on cleaning the UV coating off and yields to a great autograph (as opposed to some cards from that same box with the old powder that I used to use).

Monahan (b. 1974) played in the majors from 1998 to 1999 for the Mariners.  He had 53 hits, 4 home runs and a .235 batting average.

I mailed to Monahan on October 9 and got the cards back on October 21, for a 12-day TAT. 

2023 National Free Signer - Scott Spiezio

Scott Spiezio was the next free signer at the National.  I had a good many of his cards, so it was nice to get a few out of my boxes and into my album.  The above 1997 Flair Showcase is a really cool card, and it turned out nicely.

I also got a 1997 Bowman Chrome hometown, 1997 Finest Blue Chips and a 2005 Topps signed.

Spiezio (b. 1972) played in the majors from 1996 to 2007 for the A's, Angels, Mariners and Cardinals.  He had 996 hits, 119 home runs and a .255 batting average.  

He won the World Series with the Angels in 2002 and the Cardinals in 2006.

Spiezio was really nice.  He commented on my Frederick question mark jersey (which it the reason why I wore it).

TTM Success - Brent Butler

Here are several cards I got out of my old Bowman box, as well as a 2002 Topps (above) that all got signed TTM by Brent Butler.

Everything, except for the 2002 Topps, came out of the old box of Bowman and minor leaguers from the former LCS.  Butler has a great autograph, and everything turned out nicely.

I like getting these old Bowmans signed, since most of those guys have moved on.  It would be nice if I could catch a few of them at some games and really knock those boxes down.

Butler (b. 1978) is from Laurinburg, NC, a place that I have done a lot of work in.  He played in the majors from 2001 to 2003 for the Rockies.  He had 137 hits, 11 home runs and a .248 batting average.

I mailed to Butler on January 13 and got the cards back on February 8, for a 2-day TAT.

TTM Success - Danny Klassen

These cards of Danny Klassen had been out for signature for quite a while before finally coming back last week.  I had forgotten that I had mailed to him and had not gotten the cards, so when I opened the envelope, it was a nice surprise.  The TTM return was highlighted by the above 1999 Fleer Brilliants, which turned out great.  These are nice cards, and I have now gotten a few back for my autograph album.

I also got a 1997 Bowman Chrome, 1999 Bowman foil and a 1999 Topps signed by Klassen.  All of the cards turned out well, even with the 1997 Bowman Chrome having the UV issues that the set has.  I've found that the baby powder that I now use helps in reducing the cloudy effect on the cards, so some that I have mailed recently have looked a lot better.

Klassen (b. 1975) played in the majors from 1998 to 2000 and 2002 to 2003 for the Diamondbacks and Tigers.  He had 59 hits, 6 home runs and a .226 batting average.

I mailed to Klassen on September 1, 2020, and got the cards back on October 6, 2022, for a 765-day TAT.

TTM Success - Mike Lansing

This TTM success from Mike Lansing had some nice cards that I found in some of my boxes, the one above I don't believe I had seen before.  I think it came from the old card shop, and appears to have faded a bit.  Still, it is a cool card; a 1994 Stadium Club Members Only.  It turned out pretty well, even with the faded coloring on the card.

I also got a 1997 Bowman Chrome and a 2000 Topps signed by Lansing.

Lansing (b. 1968) played in the majors from 1993 to 2001 for the Expos, Rockies and Red Sox.  He had 1,124 hits, 84 home runs and a .271 batting average.

I mailed to Lansing on January 28 and got the cards back on April 20, for an 82-day TAT.

TTM Success - Brian Rose

The top card is one wild card, isn't it?  I had actually hoped to have had another to blog a few months ago when I got my TTM success from Kevin Polcovich, ubt he swapped my card out for a Carolina Mudcats card.  Luckily, I had found another guy from the same set to send to, and finally have one of these to add to my album.  Thanks to Brian Rose.  No relation to Pete or Axl.

This is a 1998 Fleer Sports Illustrated One to Watch, and it is a pretty cool looking card, especially when signed.  Rose went one step further and signed it in silver Sharpie, which is an interesting look, for sure.

He also signed this 1997 Bowman Chrome in silver Sharpie.  It doesn't show up as well on the scan, but it is there, for sure.

Rose (b. 1976) played in the majors from 1997 to 2001 for the Red Sox, Rockies, Mets and Devil Rays.  He had a career record of 15-23 with 151 strike outs and an ERA of 5.86.

I mailed to Rose on January 27 and got the cards back on February 17, for a 21-day TAT.

TTM Success - Ron Gant

I got a huge TTM success on March 17 (Thursday) with my fourth success of that day, 7 signed cards from former big leaguer, Ron Gant.  I was able to add my first signed 2002 Topps for my Topps auto project.  I had a bunch of cards left over in a box from '02 when I built the set a few years ago, so finding this card was pretty easy.  I am in need of bulk cards from the late 90s-early 2000s to make this project work, but overall, I think I am doing pretty well in finding the stuff that I need, so far.

This 1989 Topps Rookies Gant was in one of the boxes that Mom gave me.  It is kind of funny to see this card beside the 2002 from the tail end of his career.  It would be kind of cool to get a couple TTMs from bookend cards, you know, a rookie next to a final year card.  I have a lot on my plate at the moment with the Topps auto project, but I think a few side TTM projects would be fun.

This 1993 Flair was also in one of the boxes that Mom gave me.  Actually, it was in the first of the two batches that she hooked me up with.  For a long time, I had been sorting those Flair cards, in hopes of finding a few guys that Max could get signed for me.  I only found one Chris Bosio, and Max kept that one for himself, and rightfully so!  These cards look so awesome signed.  I need to send off some more of the ones I have.  Flair was always a great product, and I enjoyed them, especially when they ventured into comic cards.

A couple weeks ago, I spent about an hour at my local card shop looking through a huge box of inserts and parallels from the mid-to-late 90s that have been sitting under a shelf for a long time.  I found a bunch of guys that I could send TTM to (this was before I decided on the Topps project).  I wanted to find a bunch of cool inserts to get signed, and I think I did pretty well.  This 1994 FLeer Ultra RBI King card turned out pretty awesome!

Since I started my TTM craze, I wanted to get one or more Fleer Metal cards signed.  I figured they would look cool, and I was right.  This 1996 Fleer Metal might be the best looking out of the bunch of cards I got from Gant.

This 1995 Topps Chrome turned out really nice, as well,  I wasn't sure if the auto would stay, but it turned out great.  I'm glad I sent this card along.

Finally, here is a 1997 Bowman Chrome.  I guess it is a chrome, it is more foil than chrome.  The card itself is really cool, and turned out even better when signed.  I like the American flag in the background as well.

Gant (b, 1965) played in the majors from 1987 to 1993 and 1995 to 2003 for the Braves, Reds, Cardinals, Phillies, Angels, Rockies, A's and Padres.  He had 1,651 hits, 321 home runs and a career average of .256.  He finished as high as 5th in the NL MVP voting (1993) and was a 2-time All Star.

I mailed to Gant on 3/7 and got all 7 of the cards I sent back signed on March 17 for a 10-day TAT.