"Many players from this era were featured in a 'Where Are They Now?'-type of column in The Sporting News for several years. These articles would often list players' hometowns, if not their entire mailing address. This explains the availability of certain obscure players' signatures. I doubt that too many people would have thought to write to a Lou Fiene-caliber player otherwise."
Thanks! I always wondered why someone thought to get Mr. Fiene's signature on these T206 cards. Known as “Big Finn,” Fiene had a very short career as a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, from 1906-1909. Having recorded just 26 games and 138.0 innings pitched over his brief Major League career, Fiene was out of Major League Baseball before his 25th birthday. He played his final game on August 15, 1909. Given the brevity of his career, it is surprising that the manufacturers of T206 cards decided to include two poses of Fiene. While that remains somewhat of a mystery, at least now I understand why someone bothered to send those cards to him for his signature!
For anyone that is interested, my website (link in my signature below) identifies every signed T206 card I have ever seen or credibly learned about, with scans wherever possible (I only post the best example of each player's pose if multiples are known). There is also a brief article I wrote about the last two survivors of T206 -- Livingston and Marquard. The article identifies the following list of last known survivors. Of this list, I have never seen Pattee, Jordan or Shaw, probably due to the relative scarcity of their cards. Otherwise, I own every one of these last 13 aside from Donie Bush, of which several examples are known to exist. Certainly their long lives were the primary reason their T206 cards are available with signature.
Harry Pattee (07-17-1971)
Chief Meyers (07-25-1971)
Zach Wheat (03-11-1972)
Donie Bush (03-28-1972)
Davy Jones (03-30-1972)
Fred Parent (11-02-1972)
Dutch Jordan (12-23-1972)
George McBride (07-2-1973)
Larry Doyle (03-01-1974)
Fred Snodgrass (04-05-1974)
Al Shaw (12-30-1974)
Paddy Livingston (09-19-1977)
Rube Marquard (06-1-1980)
With respect to the actual question posed by this thread, the signatures identified are extremely easy to find and to me are not worth much of an investment. As obsessed with T206 signatures as I am, I get daily reminders of how prevalent these players' signatures are on media other than T206. A few new Wheat and Marquard signed things show up on ebay just about every day. Those who appeared in Glory of Their Times had a financial incentive to distribute the promotional cards and often did so with signature attached at events like Hall of Fame weekends year after year for a dozen or more years. I think non-card T206 signatures are a cool genre to collect, and I think the signatures identified would be a really great place to start. But the value of them is anywhere from $10-$75, depending, I would say. I would never pay more for Marquard or Wheat's signature on anything but a pre-1917 issued card. But that's just me...
