Thanks for posting that , Was a lot of fun to read ! Amazing how collecting autographs evolved. Especially sports autographs.
The hobby itself has been around for a long time but the "main" field of collecting was always Presidents, Historical figures etc. it was (kind of) a high brow hobby....
, with the most often forged signatures being those of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln
When collectors branched out into sports the historical collectors wanted nothing to do with it. So it became like a hobby outside of a hobby. The really funny part was when the Vintage Hollywood collectors mingled with the sports collectors , I can remember being told "Those guys are WEIRD" !!! Seems funny today.
Now the most often forged signatures are Babe Ruth & Lou Gehrig and a Christy Mathewson will set you back at least double the $$$ of George & Abe.
There are still quite a few guys still collecting from those days Jack Smalling. , Doug Averitt., Dick Patman., Mort S., Jeff Morey., and a fellow who's an active and extremely knowledgeable member of this forum who's name I won't mention as I don't want him to feel old (Tom). And several more that came in shortly after.
Honorable mention to those that were there but have left us like Ted Elmo, George Sanders, Bill Van Buskirk, Dick Dobbins, Bill Zekus, Ralph Winnie, Johnny Bos, Jim MacAlister, and more
This may sound crazy today but when the Baseball card shows started booming if you were one of the few autograph dealers set up at the show , usually the ONLY autograph dealer set up at the show and someone came in with an autograph collection to sell, the card dealers would actually take them by the arm and bring them to your table. Things were pretty civil..
At one of the last Nationals I did which was a LONG time ago , I saw a guy almost get ripped to pieces that walked in with a collection.
Thanks for the memories !
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jim@stinsonsports.com
STILL selling Vintage autographs on my web site
stinsonsports.com