Another Terrible Tuesday

I'm not sure why, but I almost never get any ttm requests back on Tuesdays. It's almost a given that, regardless of how many requests I have out, the mailbox will be almost empty on Tuesdays.

I did get a couple of bills, and the regular assortment of advertisements, but no autographs. Maybe it has something to do with the days I mail my requests out. I think I'll have to analyze this further when I have time.

I record each request in a spreadsheet, noting who I sent to, what general address ("home", "c/o Detroit Tigers", etc), what I sent them specifically, the date sent, date received, and the result.

I track what I sent because sometimes I get back different cards, extra cards, or sometimes fewer cards.

I also track all of my requests on sportscollectors.net, to share the information with other collectors.

My first successful request was sent to Jacque Jones on June 23rd, 2003 and received back on June 27th, 2003. Probably my fastest response too. On Saturday, I mailed my 1620th request. Let's see, suppose each letter had an average stamp price of 40 cents, and since I include a self-addressed stamp envelope in return, that's 80 cents per letter, for a total of about $1300 in postage. And that doesn't include the balls and photos which are more. We'll say $1500 in postage. Yikes. That's a lot of money for "free" autographs.

Each letter I write is handwritten. As are each envelope and return envelope. It's a wonder I haven't suffered some carpal-related malady.

When I used to write dozens of letters a week, (before my kids were in baseball, hockey, Cub Scouts and music lessons) each day when we pulled up to the mailbox my kids and I would guess how many autographs would be waiting for me. I think my record was 9 returns in one day. 2 to 4 was usually in the ballpark. Except Terrible Tuesdays. 0 or 1 would be a good guess.

I didn't get my notebook fixed last night. I still can't get the wireless card and XP SP3 to play nice together. I got the blue screen of death in the process. My wife twisted my arm just enough. Today, I ordered a new HP Pavilion from Best Buy. It seemed like quite a bargain. I also was able to buy a new wireless router for half price with this purchase, so this should get me back into "recent" technology. I think my existing Toshiba laptop is about 7 years old. It has served me very well and I've gotten my money's worth, but it's time to upgrade.

Hopefully I'll have some returns to share tomorrow (after I get back from my kids' hockey practice).