I'm trying to make it really easy for the signer to return the item to me. I'm sending baseballs to the majority of the Twins I'm trying to contact. I've been told by a few professional autograph collectors, that former, retired guys are a good bet if their home address can be located. Some are great signers. Some are terrible signers. Some charge a small fee, which more often than not, goes toward a charity they are passionate about. The internet is a glorious thing. I'm holding out on purchasing Harvey's Sports Address List, and finding good luck in tracking down many home addresses. Some of my All-Time Favorites, live very normal lives now.
I already sent a baseball off to Kevin Tapani's home address, and shortly after, I sent baseballs to Jeff Reardon (home address) and Miguel Sano (Spring Training). I've read that Reardon is a great signer and I love Minnesota closers. An acquaintance on a Minnesota Twins message board, who relocates to Florida for the winters (he's retired and loves to golf), informed me that the Twins #1 prospect Sano, arrived late last week to begin his workouts! I decided to try and reach him before he got too busy in Spring Training routines. We'll see if he signs. I mailed both on 1/26/12.
As you can see in the photo above, I send four things in a #2 size (8x11) bubble mailer: a Bic blue ink, ball point pen (the best for signing baseballs, believe it or not), a Rawlings baseball (not the pricey MLB ones - I'll try them in really special occasions), a letter of request (LOR, not shown), and a self addressed, postage paid, #0 size (6x9) bubble mailer, for the player to send the ball back. Everything they would ever need is all in that 8x11 bubble mailer. All they have to do is sign my baseball, and mail it back.
Then the waiting begins.
This is a great page. I am a die hard twins fan and I also do TTM autos and some IP as well. I have had some successes from twins players this spring. Glad to see another person with the same hobby as myself!!
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