Kurt cobain ot
 

I know it's not sports related, but curious if anyone owns a Cobain autograph? Would enjoy seeing it.

JimStinson
 

I don't know his autograph but this story about his LAST signature sounds plausible and is an interesting read. I don't know who posted it and just pulled it off line.

http://zicoydelia.wordpress.com/2013...ast-autograph/
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jim@stinsonsports.com

Eddie Vedder lives in my neighborhood, and Pearl Jam recorded their 1995 live album at a record store/cafe literally a block from my home. I've had breakfast at the cafe.

Though I haven't listened to much Pearl Jam and have no passing opinion on their music.

I've owned some and seen plenty.

Be VERY scared as I bet he is more forged than Babe Ruth. I would not touch a Cobain unless it had some iron clad authentication. He printed his name and almost always just signed it "KURT" with a smiley face so its VERY easy to forge and I honestly dont know how authenticators could even be right 60% of the time.

Rhys Yeakley

Rhys,
What does his auto normally sell for?

That's my all time favorite band! His new solo stuff is really good too.

I've always assumed Rock Stars stuff was probably forged more than athletes and probably wouldn't feel comfortable buying one unless I knew the source directly.

I spoke to Bob Dylan's son about this 3 years ago (our kids played little league together) and he figured about 95% of the autographs of his dad and his brother offered were fake, and that was a conservative guess. I showed him an offering from a major auction house and he just laughed, saying those were definitely fakes- even though they had some pretty solid authentication.

+1

Eddie is the ONLY musician I care to own an autograph from, and I hear he's not very easy. He hates the dealer aspect of it and feels taken advantage of when people hound him for graphs as he feels 90% of his stuff gets sold, which may be true.

Mentioned record store/cafe, named Easy Street. My neighbor own's the optometrist's next door.

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lixu5s9xpH1qah8x8.jpg

Brock,

When authentic, they are very very pricey!

JimStinson
 

Great thread, I would agree most rock music icons are almost impossible, Dylan HATES to sign and is probably one of the 10 toughest living celebrities to get an autograph of.

Your post about Bob Dylan brought back memories , When boxer Hurricane Carter was in prison. Dylan did a benefit concert at Madison Square Garden called "Night of the Hurricane" which I attended , It was to raise funds for his legal defense and dozens of celebs attended including Muhammad Ali who spoke with Carter by phone , and was amplified throughout the arena.

Shortly after Hurricane Carter was released from prison I did a private signing with him in Orlando Florida , he took a plane from Canada where he was living at the time and we hung out for the weekend.
He knew Dylan personally and had some great stories. He confirmed what I already knew that Bob Dylan rarely if ever signs an autograph.
In an attempt to be sly with Carter....:) I steered the conversation around to Dylan's visits to him in prison and if they exchanged letters, Carter said of course they did. I asked him if he kept the letters and he said he had. before I could even ASK the next question (You KNOW what the next question was going to be...:)) ...the clever Carter smiled and then started laughing..."Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy" he said "Nice try but the answer is NO !"
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jim@stinsonsports.com

How hard could Dylan be? After all, ChumLee got him pretty easily on Pawn Stars :D

Well, that can't be true. This guy here just happened to see Dylan walking around Vegas and got himself a signed album. :cool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZA-fkyC_18

On a serious note, this is a very cool topic. I never knew that Kurt Cobain autographs were extremely pricey, but I guess it does make sense.

JimStinson
 

Lol....I guess its easier if you have your own TV show and are on camera :) he DID say he didn't have a pen !!! great link
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jim@stinsonsports.com

an old friend of mine got one when Nirvana together. It was the next morning after a concert outside their hotel. He just signed "Kurt 2 hours of sleep". All the members only signed their first name.

An auto like that is a lot more believable from the band, very cool...

Mr. Stinson. In your earlier post, you mentioned that Dylan is probably one of the top 10 toughest living celebrites to get an autograph from. I was just curious who are some of the other living figures you would put on that list.

If you have a Cobain on something like a signed album with a ticket stub from the event and you with a polaroid of him and it all checks out, or say a legal document, or an item like a yearbook or something, be prepared to go north of $2000 and if the item is a premium piece, it would be more.

Now we are talking bands from my generation for a change (I do like Dylan though). Layne Staley from Alice in Chains is another Seattle guy whose autograph is VERY rare. He essentially disappeared from the public about the same time Kurt's death despite living for another 8 years in a Seattle apartment. All these guys autographs are so forged it is unbelievable but from that era, Cobain takes the cake as the most forged BY FAR because essentially every 30-40 year old man in America would love to have one so SOMEBODY'S gotta create the supply right!

By their nature, Rock Stars are not as available to the public unless you have backstage passes etc. They are rushed from bus - to dressing room - to the stage - and back on the bus. Bands like Nirvana HATED the commercial aspect of all this by the time they were big enough to have autograph seekers give a crap so the numbers of autographs that they actually signed during their short 3-4 years of popularity are probably MUCH smaller than we as Sports Collectors can imagine. As such I would say to stay away from all modern Rock Superstars unless there is some iron-clad provenance.

Rhys

FYI, Here is a real one with a pretty accurate (possibly even low) price with a full name. I'd have felt comfortable with this one.

http://jan12.hugginsandscott.com/cgi...l?itemid=41424

JimStinson
 

Good question , I'll probably miss someone but most likely some of the toughest living autographs would be (I'm not including names that maybe only one or two hard core collectors would want)

FIDEL CASTRO
NELSON MANDELA
QUEEN ELIZABETH
HARPER LEE (author...To Kill A Mockingbird)
PAUL McCARTNEY
BOB DYLAN
MADONNA
PRINCE
KEVIN COSTNER
HARRISON FORD
SEAN CONNERY
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jim@stinsonsports.com

Thanks for the answer. I was just really curious. I actually never knew Madonna was so tough, I can imagine that people lke Castro, Mandela and the Queen are pretty impossible. You would probably need a source at Coaches' Corner to get any of them on a baseball. ;)

JimStinson
 

Strike Kevin Costner from the list as rumor has it he's lightened up in recent years ....but absolutely add CHUCK BERRY , I've seen Berry twice once at the Vegas airport and once in St Louis , both times he was alone and both times no one recognized him. I sat 2 seats away in the St Louis airport and started to turn to strike up a conversation as soon as he realized I recognized him he gave me this LOOK !......scared hell out of me.
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jim@stinsonsports.com

I saw a guy follow dylan about 1000 feet from a venue to the tour bus, just the two of them with him pleading to sign his album. Dylan just looked straight ahead. I guess after fifty years of not signing you acquire the "thousand yard stare"!

I think its still remotely possible to get a good deal on kurt but you'll have to be really really careful. If you buy through an auction house with provenance you can pretty much start at $1500 and upwards

I've actually heard of people having decent luck with Ford. And there always seems to be plenty of authetic stuff from him available.

I heard cartoonists Bill Waterson (Calvin & Hobbes) and Gary Larson (The Far Side) are extremely difficult.

PAUL McCARTNEY

He visited my hometown a few years ago (with now ex-wife Heather) when they were protesting the seal hunt (that's another story). I know that at the time he was quite approachable and signed without any problems. A friend of mine served him at Tim Horton's (Canada's coffee supplier) and McCartney just grabbed a seat and hung out for a while. Where I live is a laid-back kind of place, and celebrities are often more at ease around us Canadian east-coasters.:)

Ford does private signings for Official Pix once a year. Not cheap, but available.

I got Harper Lee TTM twice, but she now refuses all requests for the past 10 years or so.

Mandela used to sign TTM regularly.

Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders has been impossible for decades. When he rarely signs, he often intentionally signs differently or super sloppy or bends the photo just to mess with collectors.

Today marks 19 years since cobain passed away.

Wow... remember it like it was yesterday.

Now that I think of it, I heard it on the car radio and pulled over to a pay phone to call my girlfriend at the time. Guess it was a few years ago.

I would love to have a Layne Staley. AIC (with Staley) are one of my favorite bands of all time. He was a tremendous singer and writer. His is a sad tale.

Jim