T206 Player Autographs - Relative Scarcity
 

I have been researching the relative scarcity of T206 player autographs for about 4 years (lots of time at home during COVID got me started). I have focused on the 353 non-HOFers, since the 38 HOFers are much easier to track, and have come up with a round number of 100 T206 player autographs that are reasonably available in the hobby. The relative scarcity of T206 non-HOF player autographs after the 100 listed here is nearly the same because there are so few, or even just no examples in the hobby.

I have broken them down into 4 quartiles below. In each quartile, players are listed in alphabetical order by last name, not in order of relative scarcity within quartiles. These lists are not based on prices or value, which also will vary based on popularity of player.

Thr longer you pay attention to it, you'll see certain players from your second to fourth categories move from tier to tier. It happens on occasion. There was a time where Abbaticchio and Maloney came up more often so as to fit one category above.

Then, there's the story the late Steve Kennedy once told me. Conrad Anderson used to set up at shows with all his 3x5s. Steve said he had a three or four inch thick stack of Cicottes for $5 each. Wonder where they all went?!

Thanks so much for sharing. My lists are an effort to be a sort of average of my experiences over the past 4 years of searching. Maloney is a great example. I used to think he was fairly easy, and now I'm not so sure -- because when I first started looking there were several options available on the market. Actually there are three available on eBay right now, but the price is higher than the scarcity, in my opinion. So they sit there like overpriced T206 commons.

Cicotte certainly isn't difficult, but people will pay $300+ for a nice one. He is on the easy side of expensive, so to speak. Like a Hall of Famer who lived a long time. Sam Crawford is a good comp for him in terms of price and availability.

Yes, that's a very close comparison price-wise, but would definitely say Wahoo signed a touch more. Another eerie similarity between the two men is that the vast majority of all available autographs were signed in the last decade of their lives. Sam, obviously due to his rediscovery with his 1957 induction and also his TGOTT chapter. Eddie due to his reemergence from living in hiding for many years. I either own or have owned one Cicotte 3X5 signed in fountain pen which predates all the material you normally see. That's a true rarity, but alas, not one that enough people see as special enough to command a rightful premium.

For sure Crawford signed more, and his autograph is way more available.

I definitely pay a premium for fountain pen signatures, all things equal — especially those players who are easier to find because they lived into the 1970s. Larry Doyle is a great example. Super easy to find with a ballpoint signature, but really tough to find with a fountain pen signature.

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Bob "Dusty" Rhoads and Jess Tannehill
 

Paul,
FWIW, I would elevate Bob "Dusty" Rhoads and Jess Tannehill into the more most difficult category, especially if you want it to be an earlier fountain pen signature.

Otherwise I pretty much agree with your list. Right on & great post!

Okay, but who would you move up to an easier level than those two?

Hi Paul,
I would argue that Deacon Phillipe and Hooks Wiltse are much easier to find, IMHO.

Fountain pen examples aside, I'd put Rhoads into the second-easiest category and Tannehill into the second toughest.

There have definitely been more Philippes hitting the market lately than we've experienced in quite some time. Wiltse's availability fluctuates as well.

There will always be the lulls and relatively bountiful periods of availability with some of these, that's for sure, so several players will never permanently fit into one spot on the list.

I've been monitoring all of them forever; not because they're T206 subjects, but I just keep tabs on all autograph availability.

Okay, I made some adjustments with Rhoads, Tannehill, Phillippe, and Wiltse. I'm pretty happy with it currently. Thanks for all of the feedback.

For perspective, six years ago Jack Smalling sold his legendary collection of baseball autographs dating back to 1871 for $180,000 through Heritage. You can see that listing for over 13,000 different autographs here:

https://sports.ha.com/itm/baseball-c.../50002-50125.s

Heritage happened to include a link that listed every single one of the autographs here:

https://www.heritagestatic.com/c/d/c....825834710.pdf

If you match that list against the list of 391 players in the T206 set, you will see that Smalling only had 190 of those players, which is 200 shy of completion — not even halfway there!

This is very timely for me, as I came here to find out how tough George Gibson was. I was thinking about starting a project of autographs from the players interviews for The Glory of Their Times.

I remember when Cicotte was cheap. I got mine for about $17 or so at the first National I went to. A very well known dealer had it in a binder, and when I asked if the price was correct, he said yeah...he's never going to make the hall of fame. LOL

What year would that have been, Mike?

I recall even 30 years back, 3x5s were still fetching in the $200-300 range in old mail-in bid auctions.

Must have been about 35 or 36 years ago. Maybe I just got lucky, either way I'm not complaining. LOL

I finally put the finishing touches on my article about the relative scarcity of T206 player autographs. If anyone is interested it is posted on my website here:

http://www.signedt206.com/scarcity-o...yer-autographs

Great work!


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That is so cool. Just curious about Moose McCormick...why is he so hard? He lived till 1962, yet I had a heck of a time finding one. Lucky for me I finally did.

Moose was a very willing signer (he even had a rubber stamp of a moose head that I've seen once or twice). My best guess is that many simply didn't write to him.

Nice job, Paul! :cool:

Here’s one of the moose (mooses or meese) in my collection, with the aforementioned rubber stamp of a moose head. I truly love it.

Scarcity is relative. He makes the top 100, which means you can find one with some perseverance. He’s just tougher than at least 75 or so other T206 subjects.

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