Finishing Off July

May may have held the record for most items signed TTM for a bit, but that record has been shattered in July. Here's a list of new personal records now that we're through month #7...

Most TTM sigs in a single day: 37 (July 6, 2020)

Best single month of TTMs: 224 items signed

Best two-month period of TTMs: 374 items signed in June and July

Best three-month period of TTMs: 570 items signed from May through July

All of those come up well short of my all-time record of TOTAL autographs in those categories (131, 270, 528, and 767, respectively), but considering I can't do any IP graphing and even TTMs are starting to see some changes due to the volume of collectors looking for a new project, I feel like those are some nice numbers.

Speaking of new projects, I've been helping a friend who is using TTMs as a summer geography lesson for her kids.  She's started out with just Kansas City Royals (with successes from Mark Gubicza, Greg Gagne, Terry Leach, Kevin Koslofski, Jerry Don Gleaton, Jim Eisenreich, Rick Luecken, and Jeremy Guthrie all coming back in under two weeks so far) but plans to expand out to other teams soon.

Anyways, here's the rest of my month after the previous entry...

JULY 13

Mark Teahen, c/o Sorso Wine Room, 4/4, 2 months

John Gordon, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks

Damian Rhodes, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks

Wallace Johnson, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks

David Maley, c/o home, 4/5, 2 weeks (did not sign Fleer Throwbacks or explain why he won't sign it)

Bob Rodgers, c/o home, 6/6, 2 weeks

JULY 16

David Segui, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks

JULY 17

Keegan Thompson, c/o home, 3/3, 1 month

JULY 18

Rich Becker, c/o home, 4/4, 2 months (postmarked from FL)

JULY 20

Steve Smith, c/o home, 6/4, 3 weeks (wrote back a short note and signed protective index card)

Lenny Randle, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks

JULY 21

Steve Searcy, c/o home, 5/5, 1 week

Mike Peluso, c/o home, 5/5, 1 week

JULY 22

Charles Hudson, c/o home, 4/4, 1 month

Sergei Gonchar, c/o home, 6/6, 1 month (postmarked from TX)

Jose Cruz, c/o home, 2/2, 1 week (paid $3 each)

Scott Pearson, c/o home, 5/5, 1 week

JULY 23

Olaf Kolzig, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks

Rick Schu, c/o home, 5/5, 2 weeks

JULY 24

Dustin Hermanson, c/o home, 4/4, 6 weeks

Steve Trachsel, c/o home, 3/4, 1 month, returned one unsigned

JULY 25

Jim Slaton, c/o home, 5/5, 2 weeks

Rem Murray, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks

Jerry Reed, c/o home, 5/5, 2 weeks

JULY 27

Mark Kerlin, c/o home, 2/2, 1 month

Jeremy Sowers, c/o home, 4/4, 1 month

Don Robinson, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks

Marty McInnis, c/o home, 6/6, 2 weeks

Wayne Rosenthal, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks

Kevin Romine, c/o home, 6/6, 1 week

JULY 28

Clint Malarchuk, c/o home, 3/5, 2 weeks, kept 2 cards

Troy Loney, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks

Troy O'Leary, c/o home, 4/4, 1 week

JULY 30

Bryn Smith, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks

Rob Mackowiak, c/o home, 3/3, 2 weeks

Kevin Miller, c/o home, 6/6, 2 weeks

JULY 31

Ryne Sandberg, c/o home, 2/2, 6 weeks (paid $5 each)

Lastly, I forgot to mention I did a second appearance on the TTMCast podcast back in early June. Make sure you check it out (as well as all their other episodes)!

Coming soon: a podcast appearance!

Back in December 2016 my friend Lee messaged me asking about the possibility of doing an autograph-related podcast. I liked the idea though it had been years since I had done one and I didn't really know how to do one with solid autograph-related content. And things just got busy with my joining a band and him getting married and having a kid, so we both just kind of forgot about it.

Enter Jeff Baker.  Jeff is from Massachusetts and is a longtime collector who has gotten back into TTMing recently. Back in January of this year, he started putting together a weekly-ish podcast about TTM collecting, simply called TTMCast. On it, he has interviewed various collectors, players, and hobby bigwigs about all things sports collecting, but with an emphasis on TTM autographs. Come of the names you may recognize: Rich Mueller of Sports Collectors Daily, Scott Kozlowski of Sports Card Forum, collectors like Nick Diunte, Paul Miles, and Scott Lomoglio, author and former ultimate Jose Canseco supercollector Tanner Jones, and guys you may have written to like John Bucyk, Bob Lilly, and Jim Kaat.

TTMCast linked up with SCF to cross-promote each of their sites and projects and so when I saw it linked on SCF, I knew I had to check it out. I also got in contact with Jeff and said if he needed an interview subject that I was more than willing to jump on board, and so we set one up for early December.

Long story short, We had a good long chat about the hobby last night, and it should be coming up online in the next few weeks.

In the meantime, I highly recommend checking out past episodes of the podcast. All are available on his site and they're great for collectors of any sport, and at any level from the seasoned veteran collector all the way down to the newest of the newcomers.