The Start Of A New Collection:Signed Playbills

Now, I will let you all in on a little secret: I have lived in NYC all my life, save for 1 year in Dobbs Ferry, NY, and I have never seen a Broadway show. I love the theater though. I used to have aspirations of being an actor at one time. I performed in high school shows, college shows, college movies, summer stock and off, off, off, off Broadway shows, always thinking I would one day perform on Broadway one day. It just never panned out for me. Damn my lack of acting talent!

Because of my love for acting, I decided I wanted to start a new autograph project: cast signed Playbills. I have watched you tube videos from other autograph collectors and have always marveled at their signed playbills and have wanted to try my hand at starting a collection of them myself. So, a few weeks ago, I sent 6 requests out to different shows hoping I would be lucky enough to get them back with signed Playbill goodness.

My first success has arrived:

Mary Poppins has always been one of my all time favorite Disney movies and I have always wanted to see the show on Broadway. Unfortunately, the show ends it's run in March. I included the show in my batch of requests and biggity bam, I got a signed Playbill to start my collection.

I have already started thinking of storage. As I receive more in the mail, I plan to shell out for the official Playbill binder. It's pretty expensive for a binder, but for 33.95, I get the binder and 18 polypropylene sleeves with backing board. It's a steep price, but worth it to keep my signed treasures in the best possible condition.

Hopefully, the rest of my requests will start trickling in. I also have a few more requests ready to go out this week and hopefully, those will come back shortly as well.

As for my dreams of playing on Broadway, you can find me appearing on the corner of 42nd St and 7th Ave playing the violin with a turned over hat on the ground. Bring money.

Autograph Mailday

Ok, well these didn't come in today. They came in Monday, but Monday Night Raw was on and I being the WWE geek that I am, I try not to miss an episode. Yesterday, I killed myself at the gym and wasn't even looking to do anything but lie down and read comics. I finished Iron Man: Extremis. Excellent graphic novel if you guys haven't read it, I urge you to do so.

As of late, I have been cranking out a lot of autograph request letters and I have a bunch out there waiting to come back. I already sent out 10 letters this week and will try to get another 10 out by Friday. The requests are out there. They just haven't been coming in. I'm wondering if the post office is getting lazy as I have only been getting returns 1 day a week, Mondays. The rest of the week, zip, zilch, nada. Hmmmmmm...

Well, my 1 return came in from Boston Bruins great and Hockey Hall Of Famer, Johnny Bucyk. He signed my 5x7 and bookplate for my future Hockey Book project in a few weeks.

I sent it to the Bruins Alumni Association and the return was from Spokane, WA. I'm guessing it was forwarded to him there. I already had Bucyk sign a Bruins Puck for my 500 goal scorers PC, but wanted a photo of him for my collection as well as the bookplate signed for the Hockey project.

I also got an ebay purchase arrive on Monday. I love Upper Deck Sweet Spot Signatures Autographed cards. If you don't know what that is, its a sweet spot of a baseball that has been signed, cut out and stuck inside a card. I have a few of these in my Yankees PC. Whitey Ford, Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina and Don Mattingly to name a few. I stopped collecting them when Upper Deck got cheap and used a synthetic rawhide that didn't hold the signature and it would fade. The Tino Martinez I have is almost gone. But I found a good one on ebay for a good price and pulled the trigger on it.

Don Baylor probably has one of the worst signatures I have ever seen. That aside, I wanted to get this to add to the Yankees Sweet Spot Collection. When Baylor was with the Yankees, he still could hit and was a feared pressence in a Yankee lineup that had Mattingly, Dave Winfield and Ricky Henderson in it. The man was also the most hit batsman I ever seen play. He finished with 267 hit by pitches, 4th all time.

The autograph bug has bitten me again. The only cure is more autographs. Gimme, gimme, gimme!

Today's TTM Sucesses

One thing I promised myself was I would be on top of showing off the autograph successes, posting them here as soon as I got them. So, being the good sexy geek, I have 2 successes to show today.

Tim Allen signed 1/2 photos. I sent this as well as a Toy Story 2 movie poster with Buzz Lightyear and he only signed the pic of himself with the Buzz Lightyear toy. This is the one I have seen returned signed, so I wasn't surprised to see this one signed. I might wait a bit and resend just the movie poster and see if it's returned signed.

Got another Artist Card back today. This one is from Herb Trimpe, best known for his work on The Incredible Hulk, The Defenders and was also the first artist to draw The Wolverine. He also worked on Captain America, Iron Man, G.I. Joe and Godzilla. This return took just under a week and I can't be more thrilled with it. I hope more of these come in this week.

I will be sending more Artist Cards out this week. I want to start a new project with these cards. I'm currently looking for some kind of list were I can see every artist who has drawn Spider-Man and Batman and send out, requesting their take on the characters. Been looking on Google, but so far, nothing. If anyone knows where I can find such a list, I'd appreciate the help.

See you on the flip side!

Recent TTM Autographs

I know what your thinking. You're thinking, "Hey, geek! Where are the autograph successes. We know you're sending them out still. Put down the Spidey figure, turn off Raw and show them". Well, in my defense, they just haven't been coming in. I have a bunch out there right now and I have only been getting 1 in. Maybe 2. But that really about it. It's frustrating because I watch youtube and I see these guys getting in 7 packages at a time and I only get 1 and that's per week!

Well, I am not giving up! I will continue to send out requests and be happy with the one success a week, dagnabbit!

So, here are the more recent successes:

Not sure if I have shown this one already, but just in case. This is legendary comic book writer/artist Walter Simonson. Notable works include Thor, X-Factor, Fantastic Four, Superman, Star Wars, Batman and Battlestar Galactica. He introduced Beta Ray Bill to the Marvel Universe and turned Thor into a frog for a bit, Walter drew me a quick Thor sketch and signed it in about 2 weeks.

I gotta tell you, I love getting these cards back from the artists. They are so cool when you see them in person. I have about 7 requests still pending. Hope I get them back.

Bobby Shantz was kind enough to sign this photo for me in a few days time. I had originally sent out 2, but I was unaware he had a brother who also played for the Yankees. I did find a pic of him in a Yankee uniform so I will be sending another request out to him soon.

I have always been a Burt Reynolds fan so I was thrilled to get a nice return from Mr. Reynolds. Loved him in movies such as Deliverance, The End, Cannonball Run, Boogie Nights and even Sharkey's Machine. But to me, he will always be the Bandit. I was pleased he signed these 2 photos for me as well.

Those will stay in my collection, I can assure you.

When I heard Steve Garvey was signing through the mail I quickly jumped on the opportunity to send out this photo. As happy as I am that I got it back, I am a bit upset that who ever opened the letter in his end left a long scratch on the photo.

Yes, even the Fonz knows I am powerful!

I was thrilled when Henry Winkler signed my photos. I have been a fan since I was a kid, watching Happy Days and clutching my Fonzie Mego doll. God, I wish I still had that figure. And his Jalopy too. Also loved Night Shift. I can still hear Michael Keaton's obnoxious humming to "Jumping Jack Flash".

I was able to get the Honkey Tonk Man to sign these 2 photos for me. Had to get one of the longest reigning Intercontenental Champion holding the belt and I like how it came out. I miss the days when that title ment something.

Former Knicks guard Richie Guerin signed these 2 photos for me in about a weeks time. Guerin was a star for the Knicks in the 1950's and 60's, becoming a 6 time All Star. and became the first Knick to score 2,000 points in a season when he scored 2,303 in the 60-61 season. He also signed a bookplate for me so I could start my Knicks project.

I was able to add another legend to my collection when Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat signed these 2 photos. I wasn't the biggest Steamboat fan growing up. All my affections were for Roddy Piper. But I always respected "The Dragon". I watched that thrilling match he had with Randy Savage at WrestleMania 3 and was blown away. I think that was the greatest match in wrestling history and it's a shame the WWE doesn't give it the proper respect as such.

I marked out for this guy in the 80's. Ted DiBiase had one of the greatest gimmicks in the business as well as one of the greatest heel laughs of all time. His theme song still cracks me up. Money, Money, Money, Moneyyyyy. The WWE really should have let him be the champion for a little while. Not only was he a great heel, but he was also a great technical wrestler. A match he had against Bret Hart was one of the best and it wasn't even aired on TV. Mr. DiBiase signed these 2 photos sent in care of his ministry.


I have also had my share of failures:

I was thrilled that I got this return from Richard Dreyfuss, until I saw i didn't match up with any certified autographs of his. Upon further investigation, I found out his autos in the mail are secretarial.

This one is up for debate

I have heard that these are phonies while some say that they match up with some in person autos they have seen so who knows. I need to do some further investigating to come up with my own conclusion on if they are real or fakes.

I hope to be able to show off more through the mail successes in the very near future. I have a bunch of requests still pending and I plan to send off a bunch more this weekend. Hopefully, the mail will start picking up shortly and I will have my own 7 return days as well. There is nothing like the thrill of finding one of your self stamped addressed envelopes in your mailbox. Its why I continue to send out requests and I hope you too will experiance it for yourselves. Once you get that first return, you will never stop.

Recent TTM's

 The past week, about 4 of my TTM requests came back signed. 3 that I'm thrilled to get back and 1 that came back damaged. Let's get right into it.

Barbara Eden signed 2 photos for me in just about a month's time. As a kid, I was a huge fan of I Dream Of Jeannie and watched it whenever it was on. Plus, I had a huge crush on Jeannie and often wished I was Major Tony Nelson. Of course, my young mind didn't get that the show was not first run and had been off the air for about 6 to 7 years at that point, but I didn't care. I needed my Jeannie fix. I later watched Eden in Harper Valley PTA, but to me, she will always be Jeannie.

This just arrived today. Mort Walker signed and sketched Beetle Bailey for me on my sketch card. This took under a week and I'm thrilled to get it back. I grew up, just like most of you reading Beetle Bailey or Hi and Lois in the newspapers. I still read Beetle Bailey to this day. I almost asked for Sarge, but I think Beetle was the wa to go.

I am a huge Kevin Smith fan. Seen just about all his films, save for Zach and Muri and Red State. I've read most of the comics he's written and I listen to his podcasts. I knew at some point I had to find a way to add him to my collection. I was in Nyack, NY at a comic store and found an issue of Evil That Men Do and bought it for a quarter, specifically to send it out. I also had him sign my Clerks dvd insert. At some point, I do want to buy a signed movie poster from Jay and Slent Bob's Secret Stash and start an autograph project. Just trying to figure out which movie.

And here is the disapointing return. I got Yankees pitcher David Phelps to sign 2 photos in under a week, right before they left on their current west coast road trip. I noticed the envelope was real dirty. when I opened it, I saw the pics and was upset. If you look closely, the color seems off on them and in the top one, it seems "streaked". The backs of these pictures were also dirty. I'm wondering if they got trampled on at some point and the fronts got dirty. I'm hoping it's not the paper I used. I usually use Staples photo paper, but Staples had a sale on HP paper, buy one get one free and I stocked up. Lets see if the others in this batch come back the same way. I'll have to get another request out to Phelps sometime soon.

I will be getting another batch of requests out this week. Hope this short week has a lot of great returns stuffing my mailbox.

Recent TTM Sucesses

During the past weeks, I have been writing a bunch of autograph request letters and sending 4x6 photos with the letters. I haven't writen letters like this in a long, long time. I have to admit, I miss TTM'ing, so I try to get out at least 10 letters a week to various sports stars, actors and wrestlers. The successes are starting to trickle back in, slowly but surely. Here's who I've gotten back so far.

Ed Asner:

I was thrilled to see that Lou Grant signs TTM, but I didn't send out any Lou Grant photos. Here's what I sent out and got back signed.

The Spidey fanatic in me loves this photo. Too bad the it looks like the gold ink was dying on the pen he used.

This one is my favorite of the 3. Loved the movie Up and was thrilled he wrote a line from the movie on the pic. Awesome success!

John Astin:

Always been a fan of John Astin. A friend of mine got his auto and shared the address with me. Within a a week I got these 2 pics returned to me and signed.

Always loved him as Gomez Adams and was so happy to get this picture signed. Wish he used a Sharpie instead of a pen, but no matter. Just real happy to get this back.

As a huge, huge fan of the 1966 Batman series, getting this autograph thrilled me to no end. Another add to Project: Superhero.

Walter Flanagan

I'm a huge fan of Kevin Smith and his View Askew Universe. Walt Flanagan is a huge part of it, having been in most of Smith's movies. As a childhood friend of Smith's, he is the manager of Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash comic store, one of the star's of AMC's Comic Book Men and co-hosts Tell 'Em Steve-Dave podcast with Bryan Johnson.

Signed this shot of him wearing the Mooby's sweatshirt, behind the counter at The Secret Stash.

Signed the Mallrats poster. He played "Fanboy" in it, getting into it with Brodie while on line at the comic store.

This is so cool. For those who don't know, Flanagan is also a comic book artist, having done Batman: Cacophony, which was written by Kevin Smith. I think Smith and Flanagan will be doing another Batman story soon. I sent this artist card with the photos and he did a Batman sketch on it. Very cool piece.

Some very cool returns the past 2 weeks. I have more going out this week and hope to get more in as well. Stay tuned.

Some New Adds To My Jets PC

This week I was able to add to my New York Jets PC, which I had been neglecting as of late. The adds were in form of a ttm autograph, which kicked off the start of a project I will be working on as well as a late xmas gift from my buddy.

Last year, a coffee table book called The New York Jets: The Complete History was released. When I saw it, I knew I wanted it.

It looks like a decent read and it has some great pictures, many of which I hadn't seen. My friend Mark, who has a similar book about The Mets, suggested I do what he is doing. Mark, also an autograph hound, is trying to get all the players featured in The Mets book to sign the page that they are on. He's doing a very good job with it. He has a lot of signatures in that book. But I wasn't sure I wanted to do that.

For one thing, not a lot of former Jets make as many apperances as the former Mets do. To get that book signed would be a difficult task. And two, how do you display it? I had done this with a wrestling photo book in the 90's to great success. Only problem is I can't really display the pics I got signed. And I have some good ones. Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Kerry Von Erich, Owen Hart, Davy Boy Smith, to name a few. Cant really display the book. Just allow people to flip through the pages to see the autos. Plus, I really didn't take care of the book. The outside is in rough shape. I won't take the pages out to display though. Rough shape or not, it will stay as is. It's one of my most prized possessions and will stay as is.

Then, an idea came to me via youtube. One of the guys I sub to, Bloodspawn, is working on a Dallas Cowboys book where he is sending book plates through the mail and sticking the plates by the player's picture. Brilliant idea. I just can't do that with this book as there is no room. It's a history of book and theres a lot of text in this book. So, I came up with another idea. I would send the players labels, have them sign that and I'd stick the lable inside the cover. If I ever see a player who is in the book, I'll have the player sign his page, but for now, ttm'ing is the way to go. So I decided to test it on a player I know signs and it worked like a charm.

Former member of the famed New York Sack Exchange, Marty Lyons, signed the above label/book plate in about 5 days. Once I got it, I stuck it inside the cover on the first page like I planned.

I think it looks great. Plus, there is enough room on the page where I can have 2 rows of autographed book plates, right next to each other going down the page. Oh, and I got something else signed.

Mr. Lyons also signed my throwback mini helmet in silver sharpie. Looks better in person than how it looks on the picture, I promise. Still, I wish I had sent a paint pen instead of a sharpie, especially since he returned the Sharpie.



My other add to the New York Jets collection is something of the vintage variety. I love vintage stuff when it comes to the Yankees, Jets, Spider-Man and Batman. I wish I could afford to buy more. I am always thrilled when I can find a deal on something older to add to my collection. If it's free, even better.

My buddy Mark (there he is again), gave me a late christmas gift of something I had been eyeballing on ebay for a while now. He found it in a flea market for dirt cheap.

He got me this vintage Joe Namath puzzle. It was something I have wanted for a while and was absolutely floored when I saw it. I don't have a lot of Namath collectables in my collection, save for the autographs I have, either certified card or IP. Ever since I watched the HBO documentary this past winter, I have wanted to get some of Namath's merchandise for the Jets PC. This puzzle was one of the things I zeroed in on.

I love the simple lettering, plain white background and pic with the Jets logo airbrushed out.

The seller told my buddy that all the pieces were inside the baggie provided.


The box is a little beat up with some stains and dents, but I don't care. It's mine, mine, allll mine! mwhahahahahaha!...excuse me. Got a bit carried away.

Anyway, it still looks great for displaying purposes once I get a cabinet to display all my Jets goodies in. And believe me, I will be displaying the box along side my signed mini helmets, figures and other Jets suff I have gotten over the years.

The Jets have some real nice vintage stuff out there that I would love to get my hands on. From programs to yearbooks. Pennants to pins, I want it all. My love for Gang Green is almost on level with my feelings for the Yankees. I go back to 1980 with the Jets, when they were still in Shea Stadium. I might be the only Yankees fan who loved Shea. Because of my Jets, my first game at Shea wasn't even a Mets game. It was a Jets game.

So, now that I can cross the puzzle off my list, I can go back to trolling on ebay for other vintage Jets items I can add to the collection. Excuse me. I can hear the "bay" calling.