Artelopes- The First Returns

I've been collecting business cards for years. Then ten years ago I started collecting pocket schedules, and decided it would be cool to get a business card from that same team. That one card started an obsession for me and a huge collection of binders.  At first it started out with all the sports, that changed into trying to get a business card from MLB team and their affiliates. With the baseball part close to finished except for a few very tough cards. A couple months ago I noticed that the rest of the collection had been neglected for a few years. The thought came it was time to try and get back to finishing off the other sports. The wantlists were created for the remaining sports, except hockey. Hockey teams seem to come and go all the time so trades are the only way new cards are added currently. It was amazing how close I am to a couple sports different levels. Makes me wonder why I never attempted to finish those off on the first go around. Besides all those for some strange reason I thought trying to get all the college bowl games and NASCAR racetracks would be a fun project as well.

     While thinking about expanding the collection and playing around. This article from Tom over at Baseball By The Letters caught my eye. Publishers Clearing House Helps Hobbyists? Welcome to Creative Envelopes 101 . The basis of the article is that by drawing on your envelopes you will get better autograph results. After reading this great post the idea was formed. The idea was I'd draw the teams logo or something related on each envelope. Thus the name artelopes was born. Not all that catchy I know, but who knows. Maybe it will catch on or someone will come up with something better. Preparing for the first artelope along came a bored daughter. Looking for something to do and wanting to get better at her artwork. She asked what I was doing and offered her services. Not being the greatest artist myself I thought why not let her do the ones she wants. I'm always thinking she needs to work a little on her creativity skills so maybe these will help with that.
       While the current returns are no indication on whether it works. That will happen come baseball season when I attempt to get my remaining needs. Five of the artelopes were sent out, and this week two were returned. There is no telling if it was the artelopes working or just dumb luck but these would have to rank in my top 5 fastest returns ever..

                                                                Bakersfield Jam

The Jam are a team in the NBA Developmental League. This wasn't our first artelope, but is the first return. So it get the honor of being the first shown. My daughter wasn't too proud of the look and to be honest. The thought of not sending it out had crossed the mind as I had some doubts. With their logo using the team name I was a little worried that incorporating it as the receiver might cause problems. The envelope sat around for a week before I thought, oh what the heck send it out. As you are reading now it worked just fine so odds are the idea will be used once again at a later date.

I got four business cards in the return. While the request was for business cards and pocket schedules, I only really wanted the business cards.So the results from this was.
                                                            RESULTS::
                                                          4 business cards
                                                               7 days
                                                       SUCCESSFUL RETURN

The second return is the artelope I think my daughter is most proud of so far.

                                                       The Sheraton Hawaii Bowl
When I told her about writing to the Hawaii Bowl she was told only one thing had to be included. The logo for the game is a pineapple with the actual pineapple being a football. Add that in someplace, and go wild I told her. This is what she came up with minus the water at first. Just before it was sent off I noticed there was no water yet the palm tree was on an island. So water was added right before it was on the way to Hawaii. The business cards looked cool, and made me glad to get this return

                                                    front                                  back

                                                          RESULTS::
                                    4 business cards from two different people
                                                             10 days
                                                 SUCCESSFUL RETURN