TTM #'s 73 & 74- Rookie of the Year? Plus a Failure

Hey guys, Drew back here. First off, SCHOOL'S OVER! "No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks!" I've got an unbelievable summer ahead of me, and the thought of not having to be in a classroom until September is a blessing in the skies! So, like last week I got these 2 TTM's as well as a failure, and I still wasn't able to post them. But here they are now, check them out:

First is Mariners phenom rookie pitcher Michael Pineda, who signed 2 cards for me in only 9 days! Pineda has emerged this season as a candidate for the Rookie of the Year award, so far being 7-4 with a 2.53 ERA in 15 starts. He's been overwhelmingly consistent for the Mariners, almost as much, maybe more consistent than their 2010 AL Cy Young winner Felix Hernandez! 

As you can see, the cards, in particular the bottom card have been EXTREMELY damaged, even though the autographs are great looking. I have no clue why this is all happening again, and it's been ruining my attempts at having nice looking autographed customs in my collection. Normally the Stars of Tomorrow cards don't get too damaged since most of the card is black, but for some reason this one came out horrible. I'm still planning on just hanging on to them, since his autographs are hot right now, and I definitely wanted one. It's a shame, but I'll still take it!

The second success came back from now Padres second baseman Orlando Hudson! "O-Dog" has had a fairly successful career in 10 years, mostly acting as a defensive player. He won 4 Gold Gloves, in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009. His best season was probably 2006, when he batted .287 for the Diamondbacks, with 15 home runs and 67 RBI's. 

The custom he signed, of course, came back damaged, with a noticeable circle marked over his face, as well as some damage over the Padres logo. It certainly doesn't look horrible but again it could be better. He's got a very nice looking autograph, and he inscribed his #1 for me. 

Lastly, I got a failure from back in Spring Training, from Neftali Feliz. A lot of the Rangers have recently returned these preprint autographed "cards", such as Elvis Andrus, Feliz, and Adrian Beltre lately. It's a bummer, but at least it's better than nothing. He also left a note that said:

"Thank you for writing to me. I am so grateful to all of my fans and appreciate your encouragement. Due to the amount of fan mail that I receive, I am unable to sign the items that you sent. I hope you enjoy one of my cards.

I wish you all the best (translated from Spanish),

Neftali Feliz"

At least it's better than nothing! Does anyone have any ideas to help me with my custom damage? Thanks again guys. See Ya!

TTM #'s 71 & 72- Cleveland Indian Style!

Hey guys, Drew back here! This week I got overloaded in... yep.. once again, damaged custom cards. I have been using my new glue, which has been working perfectly, but the customs have been getting uglier and uglier as they arrive home in my mailbox. Without a clue of what to do, I'm pretty much going to end the non Yankees or Hall of Fame custom sets, at least for the time being, until I can figure out what's going wrong. Without further adieu, lets show off some of the recent successes I've gotten, this being the Cleveland edition:

The first was one of their once hot pitchers this season, Josh Tomlin. Tomlin started the year on an absolute tear, even earning a spot on my fantasy baseball pitching staff. Sadly, he's struggled big time with his command lately, pushing his ERA from a 2.41 on May 21st to a now 4.14. I still think Mr. Tomlin has a good future, and these last 4 starts have just been a bit of a flunk.

Tomlin signed 2 cards for me, a custom, and a 2011 Topps base card. He inscribed his number on each card, to go with his incredibly small signature. Both his and the next guys cards returned signed in 18 days. Just for that, here's success number 2:

None other than their closer, Chris Perez! Perez not only is a very good closer, notching 16 saves for the 2nd place Indians, but he is also well renowned in the card hobby, after purchasing the famed booklet card featuring all of the 1927 Yankees starting lineup, as a gift to himself after a new contract! Perez is having what will be a career year, unless barred by struggle or injury (knock on wood). He may not have the most famous beard in the closing world, but he earns a close second. 

This card came out more damaged than the Tomlin, as you can see by the gray and black marks around the left side of his body. There is certainly worse to come, so I'm fortunate these came back semi-ok. 

Any ideas about all the damage? I don't know where to go from here.

See Ya!

TTM's #58! Former Yankee Ace!

Hey guys, Drew back here. So, I've been very busy lately with practice and getting equipment for the JV team as well as town league, but I didn't forget you guys! In fact, I have a lot of things I want to show you as always! In fact, about a week from right now I'll be coming home with a bag full of cards that I bought earlier that day at the March White Plains Card Show! I'm so excited! I'll have more information about the show as the week goes on, so keep posted. Anyway, got a TTM that I got last week that I waited to show, so is the success:

Former Yankees ace Chien-Ming Wang signed not 1, not 2, but 3 cards for my Yankees collection! The first one, a custom, came out a little damaged as always, so I'm a little disappointed, but I'm gonna keep it regardless. The second was a 2007 Turkey Red card, which looks amazing on the front, but the damage from the custom absolutely destroyed the back of the card. Lastly, the final card he signed was from 2009 Allen & Ginter. This card has very little back damage, so it's my favorite of the bunch.

Wang has an awful signature, but he was very hard to get when he was virtually unhittable with the Yankees. He went 38-13 between 2006 and 2007, and was extremely fun to watch. Unfortunately, injuries occurred, and the best way to sum it up now, is that he's struggling to win a pitching spot on the Nationals. Some turnaround huh?

Anyway, he signed the cards in 34 days, and I wanna thank him for doing so! Someone had the guts from Spring Training to sign Drew's Cards! Let's see some more courageous players do the same!

See Ya!

TTM's #56 and 57! Big Prospect Success!

Hey guys, Drew back here. Before I get into this post, I just wanted to once again thank all of the great guys out there who congratulated me based on my last post, and if you haven't read that yet, please do. Also, for all of you I'm currently trading with, sorry about the delays, I'm going to try to get everything ready and out as soon as I can. Tryouts did get in the way for a while, so hopefully it's ok that I'm taking a little long with this. Anyway, I've gotten a few more successes recently, but I'm going to spread them out a little. Here are the next two successes, numbers 52 and 53 for me!

First, Rays rookie pitcher Jeremy Hellickson signed 2 customs for me! I have sent to this guy twice now, the first being these two cards back in last August, and then again in Spring Training this year. The customs were made for me by Mike over at Bad Wax, who offered me a small trade for me to use the cards for. Thanks again Mike for letting me use them! The cards use the design of the framed autographs from 2009 Topps 206, and he made many big name prospects.

Hellickson is one of those guys that I plan on following throughout his entire career. I very well may have seen him pitch in 2006 when he was on the single A Hudson Valley Renegades team, my local favorite minor league team. I wouldn't know because I never wrote down when I went, because I was a young kid at the time. However, when I got into some of the prospects, this guys name came up, and I recognized it. I looked him up and saw that in 2006 he pitched in 15 games for the Renegades, with a record of 4-3 and an ERA of 2.43! When he made his Major League debut on August 2nd of last year, I was a fan! Until the end of the season, while being called up and down often, Hellickson pitched in 4 games, and won 4 games. He was dominant, and many people think this will carry over into this year, when he has a chance to win Rookie of the Year as a starting pitcher for the Rays.

Hellickson took 196 days to return this one, and I had to say I was very surprised and pleased that it came back! Also, it ended my streak of damaged customs, which was very good to take a break from. If any of you are looking to trade anything you have of him I'd be really happy to take them off your hands!

Well, it could've been a lot better, but Mark Buehrle signed a custom for me in 29 days c/o Spring Training! The card was one of the most damaged customs I've gotten back yet, so I'm really disappointed with this return. I'm crossing my fingers that more of the customs don't come back this damaged, because the glue I used is just completely destroying the cards. I'm going to try a new glue soon, so hopefully the situation will be solved soon. One idea I've had with this is that I could attempt to cut the auto out and make a cut autograph, but I'm not sure if that would be a good idea or not. He's very hard to get to sign cards, because he tends to sign more of the larger items with TTM's. I also sent to him back in July last year and I'm still waiting on that.

Buehrle has had an impressive career, and I'm not sure how many people have noticed it. Going into his 12th year in the big leagues, he's sported a 148-110 Win-Loss record with a 3.85 ERA. He's made 4 All Star Teams, won 2 Gold Gloves, and won the World Series in 2005! He also pitched a no-hitter in 2007 and a perfect game in 2009. Plus, he owns the MLB record for most consecutive batters retired, with 45. He's been one of the most consistent and underrated pitchers in baseball in the last decade, so I'm glad to own his auto, even if it's destroyed.

Does anybody know a good way to get rid of all the damage on the cards? See Ya!

TTM's 52-55! Damage Everywhere

Hey guys, Drew back here. I've gotten a few TTM's back recently, but haven't been too excited in showing them. Due to some reason in which I have no idea, most of my recent customs are coming back damaged. I've needed to resend to many players due to this, and it's starting to get ridiculous. My dad brought up an idea that the glue I've been using to glue the cards to the card stock might be causing the front to smear, as well as possible roller marks. Well, hopefully I can make an adjustment and they will start coming back mint again like the good old days.

Getting to the successes. All 4 were of good players, so let's check them out!

The first success from the past week was from former Yankee Bobby Shantz. Shantz was a great pitcher, and one of the first pitchers to start their career as a starter and end it as a reliever. He did the transition really well and was one of the top relievers in the game during his time in baseball. Not only was he good reliever, but he also won the 1952 AL MVP as a starter, with a record of 24-7 with a 2.48 ERA. He won 8 gold gloves too, due to his prolific fielding at the pitcher position, and also won the 1958 World Series with the Yankees. His career record was 119-99 with a career ERA of 3.38. In my opinion, he should have been considered for the Hall of Fame more, not saying he would get in but at least be a borderline player.

Shantz signed my custom nicely on the autograph section. He only took 5 days too! But as I mentioned earlier, many customs were wrecked in the mail, and this was one of them. It would have looked great too, but unfortunately, I'm going back to the drawing board on these things.

Out of the 4 successes, this was the best. Not only did I pretty much write it off recently, but it wasn't damaged! Pro Football Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw signed a custom for me! I've been seeing a lot of his successes lately, so he must've been catching up on his mail. Bradshaw was the 1st player picked in the 1970 NFL draft, and the Steelers really made a fantastic pick. He was the face of their franchise for his 14 years in the NFL, and his Steelers team won 4 Super Bowls during his tenure with the team! His statistics weren't ridiculous, but he was a fierce competitor and a winner. He also made it to 3 Pro Bowls throughout the 1980's, and currently serves on Fox NFL Sunday.

Bradshaw took 117 days to sign the card for me. Not too long, but I had a feeling that he was starting to stop signing. Patience is the key to happiness in the TTM collecting hobby though, and I'm really happy I got this one. Stories have been told of a possibility of a ghost signer, but the signature does compare to certified autographs, so I'm going to assume it's real for now.

The next success was of former St. Louis Cardinals/Browns shortstop Marty Marion! Marion signed a custom and an index card for me in only 8 days. Marion played 13 seasons in St. Louis along with legends Stan Musial and Red Schoendienst, and was one of the more underrated players on that team at the time. He was the 1944 NL MVP as you see on the inscription on the index card, after posting a .267 batting average, 6 home runs, and 63 RBI. How he won the MVP that year I really don't know, since Stan Musial hit .348 that same season with 12 home runs and 94 RBI. However, he was a very good shortstop throughout his career, being elected to 8 All Star Games, and helping the Cardinals win 3 World Series titles.

Again, the custom has been damaged around the trophy Marion is holding on the custom, but otherwise it came out good. I love his signature!

My last success up to now is from Bobby Doerr. Doerr is probably one of the, if not the greatest through the mail signer of all time. I even got his autograph a while back, when I used to make custom cards on filler cards. But since then, I've transitioned to a thick art paper of some sorts, so I thought it would be strange to have a set with 1 card thicker than the rest. OCD Alert. Anyway, Doerr signed a new custom that was damaged a little bit as well, but what else is new, and he also signed an insert from 2008 Donruss Threads in 8 days. I actually picked up the card for the reason of sending it to Mr. Doerr to get it signed, so I'm glad I finally got off my lazy butt and sent it to him. It came out outstanding!

Doerr was a 9 Time All Star for the Red Sox throughout the late 1930's to the the early 1950's. He had a career batting average of .288, with 223 home runs, and 1,247 RBI. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1986 by the Veteran's Committee, as seen on both cards, where he inscribed his induction year. He is almost 93 years old now, god bless him.

Thanks so much to all 4 of the guys that signed for me! Outside of the damage and having to resend to Mr. Shantz, I'm pretty happy with these successes!

See Ya!