In 2010 I sent out 178 requests and so far, have received 150 back. I had 6 failures, which means I got the cards back unsigned, or the envelope I sent was returned by the post office. I still have 22 requests outstanding that may still come back.
I sent out 22 more requests this year than last, but still not as many as I would have liked.
I started collecting the 1972 Topps set and set a goal of getting 400 cards signed. So far I've gotten 138.
My sons and I enjoyed some in person autographs. Of course TwinsFest last January was a blast. We got a few players we'd never met before like J.J Hardy, and of course all our favorites like Carew, Oliva, Blyleven and Jack Morris.
My sons and I got a chance to meet Jason Varitek who attended my older son's baseball practice and gave him a few tips.
In April my sons and I attended the Minneapolis Sports Collectible and Autograph Convention in Brooklyn Park where my older son and I got Rod Carew autographs on jerseys.
In June, my younger son David and I went to the Twins Autograph Party at Target Field and got autographs from Pavano, Span, Harris, Young, Cuddyer, Liriano, Plouffe, Slowey, Valencia, as well as Harmon Killebrew and John Castino. Despite the cold and rain, we had a great time.
I attended a Rochester Red Wings game in July where I was able to get Rod Carew to sign a card for me. My wife and I saw Pavano and Valencia at the Mall of America as well as Jason Kubel earlier in the year at a Best Buy.
We saw Jim Kaat at Jim Frantzen's in September, and again attended the Minneapolis Sports Collectible and Autograph Convention in Brooklyn Park in December where we saw Jim Rice, Andre Dawson, Steve Carlton, Tom Brunansky and Gary Gaetti.
Whew, that's a lot more signings than I thought.
Finally, 2010, especially late in the year, has been a bad year in that we lost a lot of baseball legends. Sparky Anderson, Ron Santo, Bobby Thomson and Bob Feller just to name a few. Baseball Happenings has an article that highlights these losses.
For 2011, I'd like to hit 300 on my ultimate goal of getting 400 1972 Topps cards signed. Overall, I'd like to send out 250 requests.
I'd like to get back to sending out some more vintage cards. I've recently ordered a few from ebay that will get me started. Some Red Man cards from the '50's as well as a Dan-Dee. Fun! Maybe I'll look for a few more odd-ball cards from the '50's and '60's to send out.
Shortly I'll hit my 500th post to this blog. Probably later in January, maybe around TwinFest time. I have low expectations for TwinsFest, mainly because I have most of the current roster and Killebrew won't be in attendance, as well as the fact that it's moved to a new location due to the Metrodome's collapse.
I'm running out of room to store and display my collection, so I think my jersey collecting days are over. I have bats stacked up in a corner with no way to display, so maybe I'll finally get around to displaying those somehow. I may take a look at getting a few more magazines signed as well.
What are your collecting goals for 2011?
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