period autograph GPC

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Michael,

Pros:

Vintage
Fountain pen
VERY early
Stamped/postmarked
Not personalized (almost guaranteed in later life examples)

Cons:

Trimmed
Trimmed very poorly and in an aesthetically unpleasing shape and size (for some peoples' tastes)
Trimming touches the salutation
Trimming would make matting this piece an absolute nightmare

It's really difficult to gauge if the bad will outweigh the good (or vice versa) insofar as commanding any sort of premium. I haven't paid any recent attention to the Owens 3X5/GPC market because there was never really a huge collector base in the past; at least not one that drove prices up. For the longest time, you could always find 3X5s signed later in life at reasonable prices, and those prices didn't seem to change much over a two-three decade stretch. Maybe with how the world now embraces all African American pioneers, the values have risen a little and I haven't bothered to pay attention.

If this was a DiMaggio piece, for example, it would command a very strong premium all day long as compared to a modern 3X5, even in spite of condition issues. I'm just not sure how this translates to Owens due to both Owens himself and the item's condition. If there was a premium, I definitely wouldn't bet money that it would be as comparatively exponential as a DiMaggio signed as a San Francisco Seal.

I'd defintiely try to research what Owens was up to around the time of that postmark! There's always a chance that could help increase price.