Have you wondered how to go about collecting autographs through the mail but don’t know where to start? Here’s a little tutorial to help you get started.

Many athletes can be contacted care of their teams or agents. Keep in mind that retired athletes often act as scouts, coaches, consultants, general managers and presidents for your favourite organizations. Home address lists are also available online, but please, don’t drop in for tea. A little research can also cut down on the amount of mail that you get back marked Return To Sender (RTS). While many athletes or celebrities will sign for free, others will require that a fee be paid or a donation be made for their signatures. Don’t be shy to ask your fellow TCC members to share their experiences regarding TTM requests for certain players or celebrities.

Your letter should be concise and courteous. Everyone is busy these days, so keep your letter short and legible. Feel free to let them know that you have enjoyed their work. Using specifics adds sincerity to the letter, but be sure that you are using the right information. For example, “Mr. Cruise, I loved you in Top Gun” will probably be more successful than “Mr. Cruise, I loved you in Young Guns”. Some people prefer to receive hand-written letters over those that are word-processed. It gives the impression of being more sincere. Ask politely for their autograph and be sure to thank them for their time.

You may be sending to a multi-millionaire, but don’t forget, you are asking them for a favour, so you should not expect them to cover the cost of sending you an autograph. Always send a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) and ensure that you have both sufficient postage and postage from the country you anticipate a response from. For example, if you live in the USA and are sending to Canada, you should have Canadian postage on your SASE and US postage on the request. You can purchase postage online from the postal services. International Reply Coupons (IRC) can be sent instead of the required foreign return postage. They are available from your local post office and can be exchanged for the minimum postage for an unregistered priority airmail letter. If you are sending oversized mail, you may need to include more than one IRC. Better yet, how about trading with another TCC member who lives in another country for the foreign postage you require? They are likely in the same boat as you regarding postage from your country. Remember, there is no obligation on the part of the athlete or celebrity to fulfill your request. Therefore, the easier you make it for them, the better your chances are at a successful return.

Keep in mind that there is no guarantee that your item will be returned, so don’t send anything that you cannot stand to lose. That one of a kind item may look great if it’s signed, but there is a risk of loss or damage, so you may be better off to wait for a public or private signing opportunity.

Be patient. Many of your requests will be returned to you within a few weeks or months, but it is not unheard of for a request to be returned years after it was sent.

Beware! Not every request will be successful. Some items may be returned unsigned, while others will feature facsimile, secretarial, stamped or auto-penned autographs. The best way to ensure authenticity is to have the item signed in person, but there are services out there that will authenticate a signature for a fee.

Most important of all, and I can’t stress this enough, is be polite. Always use your Please and Thank You’s. A little respect goes a long way and will help you build that TTM collection. Plus, being polite will also make your mother proud!

...and may your RTS's be few and your mailboxes full!!

Good luck everyone!

Great writeup Greg, very helpful!!

Thanks for posting this, I have been thinking about doing this for Buffalo Bills.

TTM requests are a blast. It makes getting the mail something to look forward too. Good job Greg!

Nice Job, collecting TTM autographs is a very fun hobby to get into!

I love collecting TTM because it's fun and an inexpensive way to get autographs from your favorite players. Plus getting an autograph back in the mail is 100x better than getting bills!

Thanks for writing this up, it was very helpful when I read it. I have a couple questions tho,
How big of an envelop and how much postage is usually required?

It depends what you are looking to have signed. If you are sending an 8X10, then you'll need to send a 9X12 envelope with sufficient postage (check your applicable mail service's website or visit your post office). If it is just trading cards, then a regular envelope for the SASE with first class return postage.

Welcome to TCC, BTW!!

Do you always have to send something for them to sign or will they usually send an 8x10? If not, what would be a good place online to get cheap 8x10's of athletes? There are some players that I can't seem to find a card/picture of that I would like to write to. Thanks again for all the help.

Best Sports Photos.com is pretty good. But what I like to do is get a photo on the internet, and then you go on photoshop make it to an 8x10 size. Then you can prints at any photo place online for like 3.00. You can find good photos at the teams sites they should have a photo gallery. Hope this helps!

I've also toyed with making my own card. Find a photo you like online, then photoshop away. My wife is into scrapbooking and she has some special two sided tape that's archival safe, and I stick the finished "card" front onto one of those "decoy" cards that I get in my packs of hockey cards to give them some stiffness. If you feel adventurous, you could always design your own card back for it, too.

Just thought I would pass on something that I did when sending TTM requests (most of mine were in late 90s, though going to start doing it again I think). Postal service can be rough on cards sometimes, but had problems with athlete putting card in toploader with wet sig and part of it coming off on toploader or smudging. So I took a toploader, put in a ad card from pack (or piece of cardboard) and cut out part of face so they could sign it without taking it out of toploader, yet it still gives the card protection from postal service. Also makes it easier on the person you are asking for the favor, and maybe might give you a better success rate.

Side note: only took me an hour to figuire out scanning and posting a pick (so I'm slow), anyway think that worked to give you a picture what it looks like, but I still don't have the hang of it yet, or got it to do what I wanted
oh well practice makes perfect or someone will give me a clue.

Great one, thanks for the tip!

Oops forgot to say I used a box knife (why you put something in it so you don't cut thru backside), tried scissors and it didn't work very well.

Innovative idea! It also let's you guide the player to a certain area of the card too.

I was just thinking of making it easier on them, but that's a good point too. Also helped me not get smudged sigs and a toploader signed on the inside . May have been a fluke, but seemed my rate of succes went up a little bit, but really hard to gauge since some took years to come back to me, and many never saw again. The first ones I sent out w/o toploader and USPS did a number on some of them (imagine nowadays same or worse than the late 90s).
Also now that I think of it, may have used scissors after all, or had best success with them (sorry was 10 yrs ago). I think I'm going to try TTM again once I get some newer cards, sides I got 100 of them cut up toploaders and nothing to do with them.

EDIT:
Forgot, I also had one guy sign my toploader and not the card if I find it I will post a pic, thats when I came up with the idea to cut the toploader. Also had a few rookie FB players use a ballpoint pen, so beware of the new guys especially the linemen who may not be used to signing alot (I pretty much sent to any player I had a card from and could find on a team llist).

Thanks for the tip with the toploader....I never would have thought of something like that
Next one I send out I will be sure to try that

Ok found my signed toploader.
It was even one of my cut ones, flipped card over and signed toploader. Hard to see scan, it is Jammi German.

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z69/urb...edtoploader.jpg

These are great tips, I was considering getting in to this as a hobby... I figured it would make my card collection even better, and more fun as well. I was wondering if anyone had ever had a toploader signed... well, now I know. lol.

I have to ask though, what does TTM stand for? I can guess "through mail" but I can't figure out what the first T is.

TTM= Through The Mail. You just forgot the "the".

DOH... it's so obvious now.

Anyways, I'm gonna start out this week. Thanks again to everyone for posting these tips.

Good luck to you! You'll be hooked in no time!

Here is a bit from Minnesota Twins pitcher Pat Neshek's website.

Monday, July 16
7/16/07
When I returned home the other day I found the mail pile to be the most I have seen in quite some time. I got through all the letters and they are heading back if you sent return postage. Most of the letters were auto request with photos, cards, indexes and other things. If you ever need anything signed, send it over with a SASE. Speaking of the letters I thought this would be a good time to go over some of the basics. The easiest is if you want something back you must include a SASE otherwise known as a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope. If this is missing I'm sorry but you probably aren't going to get anything back. I have a box of stuff that is basically all no SASE items...baseballs, cards, oddball things. I hate not being able to return people's items but I've had over 100 of these and can't sit in PO lines and buy stamps for people I don't know. Two, Don't include money for postage, got a couple that threw in $5 and told me to ship a package back...go to the post office, package up a return envelope and buy stamps, it's easy. Three, don't ask me to get items signed by my teammates...yes I get a couple of these every day. Four, try to keep the letters as short as you can be. If you are reading this right now and are going to send me a letter for something to sign something with just "please sign my card, thanks" is a dream to read. As always you can send me anything you need to get signed and you will most likely get it back quick if you follow the above. I can knock out about 200 letters a day if they are just auto request. It's the problem letters that really slow me down.

Nice to see some honesty from him. Thanks for sharing Jason!

Hey, just wondering, how should you send one out, should it be in a top loader with a regular envelope or what? Can the SASE be smaller than the envelops, should the card be in a penny sleeve? Can anyone help answer these questions please?

This is how I send them out.

I use a #10 size envelope for the mailing.

I only send cards I am willing to never see again. (I wouldn't send Chris Chelios a rookie card to sign - but I would send an '06 Fleer base)

I no longer use top loaders or penny sleeves since I could see the players not wanting to bother getting cards in and out of them. Plus they have caused ink to get smeared on some cards.

I write a short, but sincere, letter asking VERY NICELY if they would please sign my card.

I enclose a smaller sized self address stamped envelope that fits neatly into the #10 envelope.

I put the card in the letter and fold it so the card is encased. This way when the player opens it he will see the card and not have to look in the now torn envelope to find it to sign.

I always say thank you and wish them luck.

Thanks

How do you send your donations/fees: cash, MO, or check with the name field blank? Thanks.

thx it rly helped.

Question: When using IRCs, how many should be included if sending a large envelope and requesting a reply from the United States to the UK? I'm mailing out a 10 x 12 cardboard envelope.

* Edit: Two for safety, according to some.
* EDIT: The rate is one IRC per ounce of the return package.

Just a little hint here; don't try and reuse stamps that have been on an old envelope. I just had someone send me a SASE and they used stamps that they peeled off an old letter and stuck them on the return envelope. They were all rumpled and even had the cancelation marks on them. The post office wont accept those.