Brooks Raley

I've gotten quite a few compliments on my ATCRCS cards recently and again on my success at the Cubs/Nats game last weekend. I just wanted to take a moment and give a shoutout to one of my favorite websites, sportcollectors.net (SCN), that helped make a lot of them possible.

If you collect autographs in addition to your cards, either in person or TTM, and haven't joined SCN yet, I don't know what you're waiting for. It has a database put together by thousands of other collectors that features the TTM signing habits and addresses for tons of players, past and present. I've saved a bunch of postage by not mailing to guys who had 0%, 10% or 25% success rates. Players I thought would be sure things, weren't necessarily and surprisingly, vice versa.

To be honest though, I haven't done a whole lot of TTM in the past few years. I have every intention, especially with my ATCRCS cards, but just never seem to get around to it. However, as a premium member of the site ($14.99/year, I think), I not only have full access to the database that goes back at least 10 years, I also can read the community message boards. Through these boards, I have made numerous contacts throughout the country that have benefitted my collection tremendously. Many have helped me get autographs from former Cubs on their local team while are others are local to me and have given me some tips to get the autographs myself.

I didn't mean to go all infomercial on you just then but I received a package the other day from one of these deals. Not only did I add a couple of ATCRCS cards to the collection, but some other cards too of a couple of different Iowa Cubs players.

Today, I'll start with Brooks Raley. He was an August callup last year and had a pretty rough go of it in five appearances. As of right now, he with the Iowa Cubs. According to SCN, Raley has a 7% success rate TTM so asking for a little help to get him in person seemed like a good next step.

I don't know what the future holds for Raley with the Cubs, and I know I've said it before, but sometimes these "cup of coffee" guys can be tougher to get than the stars. Not only did I get help with the ATCRCS card, but I was able to get his 2010 Topps Pro Debut card done too!

One thing I noticed between the two, Raley signed #43 (the # he wore on the Cubs) on his ATCRCS card and #19 (his current Iowa Cubs #) on his Pro Debut. I like when they pay attention to the little things like that.

This marks the 52nd signed ATCRCS card in my collection.

If you are on SCN, let me know your username!