1934 Goudey Lou Gehrig display sign

[Al C.risafulli]

Hi guys:

Thought I'd drop into this thread.

Over the years, I've gone back to this piece a number of times because as I've handled more Goudey pieces, I've become less comfortable with the print quality of the Gehrig piece. When I read this thread earlier today, I did some further research into the item, and became even less confident with its authenticity. The washed-out look reminded me of some other, inauthentic display pieces that I've recently had to reject for authenticity reasons, and the image Bob posted of an authentic piece is far closer to what one of these should look like.

Tonight I had a discussion with Rob Lifson about the piece, and he confirmed it: the pieces sold in my auction are not authentic. Rob has handled the only two of these items that he's aware of, and as many of you do as well, I trust Rob's judgement on these things implicitly. The piece shown in this thread as having been sold in Mastro/Legendary is the actual, authentic display.

Authentic 1934 Goudey signs should NOT have easel backs. What they were actually designed to do was mount on the back of the box of Goudey cards, as a display. The piece was a standalone piece, so that when the box was empty, the retailer could remove it and mount it on the next box.

Because of how they were intended to be used, they are very rare.

It seems that somewhere along the line, someone made a print of the photo of this piece from the Legendary catalog, carefully cut it and mounted it onto cardboard with an easel back. There are multiple fakes of these, floating around the hobby. The quantity of these easel-backed pieces that have popped up over the last couple of years is an indicator of something fishy.

This evening I reached out to both buyers, and will be issuing them full refunds for their purchase price, and have asked them to return the pieces to me so that I can get them out of the hobby.

If you see one of these displays with the easel backs, they are not authentic!

Special thanks to Rob Lifson for helping get to the bottom of a mystery, and for sharing his immense knowledge so freely.

Thanks,
-Al