Bill Dickey
 

Hi,

I’m hoping some of the collectors on this board that were actually buying or getting autographs of decent players or Hall of Famer‘s in late 1980s instead of chasing Gregg Jeffries and Kevin Maas rookies like myself would be able to answer this question. Why is there an abundance of Bill Dickey autographs but his baseballs sell for so much more then flats? Especially since he died in 1993. Also, did he not ever include inscriptions? Just seems strange that he passed away in the early 1990s yet people ask so much for his signed baseballs and none have inscriptions. Thanks for any info you can provide!

Dickey died before inscriptions became a "popular"/ common add-on to baseballs. In fact a partner of mine and I sent Dickey some baseballs to sign ( about 5 dozen ) in the late 1980s and we never even considered inscriptions for the baseballs , that goes along with the other 2 - 3 dozen private signings we did during that time with HoFers and current / retired stars. We just never considered inscriptions because they weren't common or requested.

Agreed, as usual with Kllrdds, yet all these crazy inscriptions are starting to emerge-makes you wonder....:rolleyes:

Yes. But other guys that passed away in the early to mid-1990s have baseballs with inscriptions floating around. Such as Charlie Gehringer. Anyone have recollection of how he was signing? Did he not sign inscriptions? Did he not like signing baseballs?

Gehringer was a very willing signer and his signed baseballs are plentiful but inscriptions are ultra rare on his baseballs , so much so that they should be approached with caution .
Mantle was probably the first big inscription signer beginning around 1988. He at first began with inscribing his uniform number then his HOF year and then it snowballed from there .
Inscriptions add value to baseballs in general but if the player died before say 1993 I’d be extremely cautious especially with elderly players or Negro Leaguers when buying an baseball with an inscription from that time frame .

Probably just a preference thing. Other Players who passed away close to that same time can vary as well...

Carl Hubbell - Typically no inscriptions
Lefty Gomez - Typically no inscriptions
Bill Terry - Commonly found inscriptions
Johnny Mize - Commonly found inscriptions

Dickey's sig towards the end got pretty shaky. So perhaps he just wanted to complete his name and be done with it. Same for Hubbell.

Terry, Mize and Gehringer all had beautiful strong sigs until the end, so perhaps they were more capable of adding inscriptions.

Of course this is all just conjecture, but makes perfect sense, right?

Inscriptions were very rare as no one ever asked for it. I learned from a mentor in the late 80’s to ask for inscriptions for the bigger name guys. Some would refuse, but most would comply. I rarely if ever saw anyone else ask. I agree Mantle was probably the first and he refused a lot, unless it was a female asking. There was always a way around it. Best I ever got from DiMaggio was a 5. Most of the time I asked if I had a chance.