Pat tillman auto card - psa question
 

A question for the masses. I recently sent a card to PSA for autograph authentication and grading. Not that unusual, as I have sent several to them in the past. However, in this case the card is autographed by someone other than the player. I sent a Pat Tillman rookie card to them, autographed on the back by Mary Tillman, Pat's mother. I met her at a book signing and visited with her for a while. A very nice lady. She was gracious enough to autograph Pat's rookie card for me on the reverse.

My question is, does anyone have experience with having a card autographed by someone other than the player and how will it be labeled? It's been a couple of weeks and the card is still in the first stage.

Thanks.

I tried to get a signature on an index card authenticated years aqo and they could not because they had nothing in their database to compare it to. I can't see how they could authenticate yours. Still something to be treasured because YOU know it's good.

Yes sir, I'm doing it more to protect it and pass along more than anything. I checked their database and Mary Tillman is not in there, although she should be.

I suspect it'd be returned with a refund

They may have exemplars of her, they may not. Authenticators do always make sure to retain any exemplars of players' relatives that come their way, so you just may luck out in this case.

They have no problem in slabbing a card signed by someone other than the player depicted. Case in point, there are a ton of Perez Steeles out there that are signed in this way which have been slabbed. Think Cy Young's Perez Steele as signed by Cy Young Award winners, or Rube Foster's, signed by whatever Negro Leaguer.

In those cases, it's likely they won't grade the card, but may authenticate the autograph under the TRADING CARD header with Mary Tillman as the Autograph subject.

If they dual graded it, it would show up in the Pop Report as signed by Pat Tillman, which would be a lousy loophole to try to exploit.

I'd be shocked if they had enough exemplars to authenticate her auto. It has no value. No clue why you'd even send it in. Put it in a one-touch or a Cardsaver if you want it protected for some reason.

If they don’t have an exemplar they won’t authenticate. I once had a signed first bowman returned by PSA as unable to authenticate no exemplar, while the player had Bowman Chrome autos in the same set…

A lot of different takes on whether PSA would authenticate the card and autograph. It looks like Billy the Dodgers fan was the closest. I don't have the card back yet but got the results this morning.

The card graded a PSA 9, the autograph was authenticated and received a 7. The label reflects such. I'm very happy with the results of course. Thanks to all for the comments.

qft.