Ted Williams First Day Autograph
 

I picked this up from a member of this site. It looks good to me. Just wondering what your thoughts are?
Thanks!

I saw that and know it was a reputable dealer on here. I just forget where. It looks fine, and if you were worried, you should have spoken to the dealer.

My advice is to never buy and then after the purchase ask if it is good. Do your research first.

I'm not an expert, so take this with however many grains of salt as you wish.

This is a Gateway Sports cover, and they have a good reputation for getting authentic autographs on their envelopes. This is just me - Klrdds' advice to do your research first before buying is spot on - but I would not hesitate to trust the authenticity of an autograph on a Gateway Sports cover.

Here's an unusual Wayne Gretzky Gateway cover from 1982, where "The Great One" mistakenly signed inside the gold box (where the "silk" cachet image is supposed to be). Below the image is the relevant part of a 1994 flyer from dealer Steve Ciniglio explaining the background of the piece.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7220/6...0676d9fd_b.jpg

You saw it on the bay.
I don't believe I have ever seen a questionable autograph on any official Gateway issue. Though they do issue unsigned cachets and one of those may appear with a mystery signature.

If it helps, here's my Williams from the same release for comparison. Was passed by PSA.
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps3gnkzlsw.jpg

I have collected Gateway covers continuously since 1981.

There have been two occasions where Gateway covers were "ghost signed". 250 of the Pete Rose National League Hit Record envelopes from 1981 were actually signed by Tommy Gioiosa (one of Pete's gambling buddies back in the '80s). The other one involved Reggie Jackson, on his 400th Home Run cover in 1980. Reggie originally had a secretary sign the first batch of covers. In both cases, Gateway found out relatively quickly, and got good signatures to replace the bad ones.

In the Jackson case, you'll see covers that have two signatures, one bad and one good. I don't think any of the bad Reggies got out without the good signature being added. In the Rose case, some of the Gioiosa signed covers were released before Gateway found out about them. They requested the bad ones be returned to them in exchange for ones with authentic Rose signatures, but not all were returned. Even today, you'll see Gioiosa-signed Rose NL Hit Record Gateway covers on ebay.

The fake Jackson and Rose signatures are easy to spot, as they are markedly different from the authentic autographs.

Steve

Good post Steve, very informative.
Leave it to Pete Rose and Reggie Jackson to get paid and then use a ghost signer. Once a pr--- always a pr---.
Though for certain they are not the only ones to ever do this.

Here are the fake Pete Rose and Reggie Jackson autographs (apparently, Tommy Gioiosa also faked Pete's signature on some 1980 World Series covers). The fake Reggie is the top one; the bottom Reggie signature is real.

Steve

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h8...pstt85nbdp.jpg

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h8...&1454390066268

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h8...&1454390066268

Those are horrid ghost signatures.
Rose allegedly did this many, many times from what I have heard. His guy should have practiced more.
Thanks for showing them.

The fake Pete Rose signatures look like Pete Bose.

The fake Reggie's are misspelled - Jcakson. You don't even need to know his signature to pick up on that.

Now that I know about Gioiosa's ghost signatures, I might actually try and find one. I wonder if it will cost me more than a real Pete signature? :)