Some Questions

 

            I have gotten many questions about my website, baseball cards and just baseball in general. I will try to answer as many of them as I can here. If you have a question that you would like me to answer, email me.

 

Question: How do you make a website?

Answer: This website was constructed by my uncle, whose website is http://www.thompsonworks.com/ and he generously gave me some space off of his. http://www.freewebs.com/ provides nice websites for free. I have heard that there are many other free website making websites out there; you could probably find a long list of them by going to http://www.google.com/ and typing in “Free WebPages.”

 

Question: Approximately how much time every day do you spend on your website, autographs and baseball cards?

Answer: About one and a half hours a day.

 

Question: How do you store all those baseball cards?

Answer: I buy boxes that hold 800 cards at my local card store and have a lot of shelf room where they fit. I also have 20 binders that I can fit in… somehow.

 

Question: What the heck is up with your screwed email address?

Answer: Even though it just looks like a few randomly typed letters and numbers, smt121591, it is really my initials (Simon McCain Thompson) and the 121591 is my birthday.

 

Question: Approximately how many different signatures do you get in the mail each day?

Answer: Well I have trends where I got a lot of signatures and trends where my mailbox is empty, but probably about five-six per day. I have lots of no-mail days, but a couple of times I have gotten more than twenty different autographs in the mail (the record stands at 23).

 

Question: When emailing a team asking for promotional items, what should you say?

Answer: In your email you should basically say that you're a big fan of (the team), ask for any promotional items, and include your address and age (so they know that you're not some guy making a profit off of them). Please see the two sample emails below.

 

If it's a team that you don't like as much as other ones and/or you just want to write a really quick email then it should look like something similar to this:

 

Dear MLB team,

I am definitely one of your biggest fans out there. I think your team is great, bursting with young talent and old-timers excellence. I think that you guys will have a really good season in 2004, and I wish you the best of luck. I would really appreciate it if you would just send me anything that you offer for free to the address below. Thanks so much, and again, good luck!

Simon, age 12.

                   

Simon Thompson

(then my address here)

 

If it's a team that you like a bit more and/or you have a bit more time on your hands when it comes to letter writing, then I would suggest to use this format:

 

Dear Seattle Mariners,

        I think that you are a great Major League Baseball team! Your team has some really good players including pitcher Jamie Moyer, center fielder Randy Winn, right fielder Ichiro Suzuki, second baseman Bret Boone, designated hitter Edgar Martinez, relief pitcher Kazuhiro Sasaki, pitcher Freddy Garcia and pitcher Joel Pineiro. You also have a great ballpark and some really good farm teams. I think that you will do really well this year! I would really appreciate it if you would send me a fan pack and maybe even some autographs to the address below. Thanks so much, and I hope you have a great day! 

                                                                                                        Very Sincerely Yours,

                                                                                                        Your Biggest Fan,

                                                                                                        Simon, age 12.

 

                                                                Simon McCain Thompson

                                                                (then my address here)

 

Both of these formats have worked well for me, with the second one bringing in a slightly higher success rate.

 

Question: What do teams send you when you ask for promotional items?

Answer: Most of the teams send a pocket schedule, a sticker or two, and some player cards. Some of the teams that I've gotten the best stuff back from are the Milwaukee Brewers who sent me a complete set of large player cards along with a few schedules, sticker and a complete set of regular sized cards; the New York Yankees who, even though it took them a while to respond, sent me a large Opening Day program, three packs of baseball cards, a pen, a pack of Pokemon cards, a limited edition commemorative coin, a few schedules, and a big 8x10 of Alex Rodriguez; the Minnesota Timberwolves who sent me a large T-Wolves tee-shit, a Wally Szczerbiak replica kids jersey, a large media guide, a schedule magnet, a complete set of T-Wolves player cards and two T-Wolves bracelets that are takeoffs of the “Live Strong” bracelets; some other teams that I've gotten good stuff from are the Colorado Rockies, the Chicago Cubs, the San Diego Padres, the New York Mets and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

 

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