Posted By:
DJDan,
No, that's not what I'm saying. My bad. Perhaps I should have noted that my opinion revolves around cards signed shortly after their playing careers came to an end maybe limiting that timeframe to the 1950's and 1960's. We have all seen authentic pen signatures of those who passed away in the 1970's (Parent, Livingstone, Flick, a horde of Marquard's), but are there many common signed fountain pen examples of the lesser guys who may have perished before it was vogue to locate addresses of obscure players and have them pen something outside of a three by five card? There are exceptions to every rule and super collector Jeff Morey is one (Cicotte, Young and Cobb), but highly, highly unlikely that Donlin exists as well as many around that time frame and that obscure nature.
I remember back in 1999, one seller had a small quantity of signed T206's, of all the "toughies" including Chance, Waddell etc. and admitted that they were not authentic and signed instead by what appeared to be a child's scrawl. That lot sold cheaply ($100), but then flipped by a seller who failed to tell the potential bidders when he broke it up, that they were not authentic and turned what would be probably $10,000 worth of signatures at the time from a modest $100 investment into a what would be a $500 profit.
DJ