Pre-War Autograph Opinion

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Posted By: T206Collector

...but you do have to be careful about provenance, etc. And, where there is risk, you had better have a certification from a reliable source.

Of course there will never be any guarantees of authenticity unless you were the guy who obtained the autograph in person. Some cannot get beyond that and can never collect autographs of deceased players. The way I view it is from more of an economic perspective.

Take an A.P. Leifield signed T206 card. How much would I pay in today's dollars to be the actual person obtaining Leifield's signature in person, i.e., to have that individual experience and knowledge that Leifield signed it himself. Let's say I'd pay $1,000 for that experience. Well, without that knowledge, how much am I willing to bet that a signature -- from a well established autograph collection from a period in which Leifield was alive and well and known to be signing -- is authentic? $200? $300? maybe $400? Sure. You are able to obtain these signatures at a discount given the lack of personal knowledge, is my point. And, when the provenance is shaky and weak, or nonexistent, the discount is even higher.

The signed T206 cards in my collection have been obtained primarily from two well-known collections of autographs that were compiled in the 1950's and 1960's. In one case, I actually have recorded the story of the guy who says he obtained them in the mail and in person (renown autograph collector Jeff Morey). Those cards line up well in a number of ways with the cards I already had that were obtained from a similar collection to Morey's.

So, again, it is all about provenance, learning about the signature -- where it came from, who authenticated it, what they were thinking, etc. But is there risk even there? Sure. And the risk goes up astronomically when you are talking about Ruth, Johnson and Wagner.

But before people cast aspersions on these signatures, I would recommend they sit down with Spence or his folks at a show (they'll be in White Plains this weekend) and talk to them about these signatures. And about authenticating Ruth generally. I won't speak for them, but their explanations are very enlightening and really helped guide my perspective on authenticating signatures. If you are just eyeballing it from a scan against another scan, you really are doing a disservice by giving an opinion one way or another. The truth is you'll never know 100%, and then the question becomes how sure are you and how much are you willing to pay for that level of certainty?

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