A Double Dose of TTM Success
October 19th, 2009 by slangon
Opening up my mailbox last Friday what did I espy? Not one, but two envelopes addressed to me in my own handwriting.
2009 SlangKo Custom Monte Irvine
Of course Mr. Irvin had a long and successful career playing for the New York Giants and the Chicago Cubs, but I decided to represent his years playing for the Newark Eagles in the Negro National League, since I have a pretty big interest in all things New Jersey. After he signed with the New York Giants, he spent parts of several seasons playing in Jersey City for the Giants AAA team there. Aside from playing in Newark and Jersey City, Irvin also grew up in Orange, NJ (although he was actually born in Haleburg, Alabama). He is one of only 5 Hall of Famers to have grown up in the Garden State (The others being Goose Goslin, Billy Hamilton, Joe “Ducky” Medwick and Larry Doby).
2009 SlangKo Custom Bobby Thomson
And the other is Bobby Thomson, of “The Shot Heard Round the World” fame. Although I grew up in a Mets household, prior to the existence of the Mets, my father and my grandfather were both die hard Giants fans. Until they moved out of New York that is. Although Thomson had a fine career, he is certainly best know for his game-winning homerun off of the Dodgers’ Ralph Branca in Game 1 of the 1951 National League Playoffs.
I’ve been pretty happy so far with the way that these SlangKo Custom cards look when they come back signed. I’m sort of kicking myself a little bit that I never made backs for them. All the ones I’ve made so far just have plain white backs. I don’t even know why exactly I didn’t. Laziness is my guess. I guess that doesn’t bother me so much, but maybe going forward I’ll start doing it.
I’ve also been very pleasantly surprised at how generous these guys have been with their time. When I was researching the whole Through The Mail thing, looking for addresses, I ended up reading a bunch of things about guys who wanted $5 or $10 for doing it. I can’t say that I blame them for that, since I obviously don’t know what it’s like to get however many autograph requests every day, whether it’s a person on the street or a letter in the mail. I guess I’m just very grateful that so far I’ve been having a pretty good return rate, especially when you consider that I’ve sort of been focusing on the older guys.
Those are great TTM pieces. Nice job.