Looking for opinions on this Chick Hafey signature

[packs]

I thought so too. The seller had a Lefty O'Doul one too that was very similar. A snapshot of O'Doul on the Dodgers with a signature on top. I thought the O'Doul looked good too and probably should have bought it as well. It ended up going for $22. I was the only bidder on the Hafey. Seller had them listed as being from 1932.

[GrayGhost]

Good indeed.

[mr2686]

Looks good to me too. The only thing that looks a little different than the one's I've seen is how the K ends. Most end like the one in Jay's post...but that could have to do with the period in which it was signed. I think you got a great deal.

[MooseDog]

It's good. Not a lot of money in forging Hafey sigs.

[steve B]

Interesting thread, I think I'm about to learn some stuff.

So as someone that doesn't do much with autographs, I'm seeing lots of differences between the two that would make me think it wasn't Hafey, but was someone that learned the same writing system.

No quotes around "chick"
placement of the dot over the I or over the C
both the K and y end on a down stroke on the card but upstroke on the photo
on the photo the h conects to the a but not on the card
on the card most of the loops are tighter, nearly closed but are more looped on the photo
The right stroke of the H is curved on one, but very straight on another.
And a few more too.

I know signatures can change with time, but some of these differences seem like something that would be a bit more constant. The general formation of the letters is the same, but most anyone that learned the same penmanship system would be fairly close.


So do signatures change that much, or is it just assumed it's real because it's not an expensive one? The differences are bigger than some of the things that make people think some Ruth sigs are fake (I don't usualy see anything obvious on many of those)

Steve B

[prewarsports]

I would speculate that it was not his signature, but just my opinion. It might be real, but I saw it on ebay and passed on it.

[packs]

I don't know if it's real or not but will know when it comes. I had questions too but since the seller didn't even mention the possibility of it being signed, I figured the photo came from a collection that he either bought or was given. It would be hard to track down an original snapshot of Hafey, especially one like this which to me looked like Spring Training. So I'm assuming the photo was taken by someone who worked on field, like maybe a reporter. If it was a reporter and he was able to get this close to Hafey, I don't know he would then label the subject in the photo in a manner that looks very close to his signature. Why not just write it in your own handwriting? The O'Doul signature looked very different from this one so I ruled out the possibility that a forger had obtained both photos and forged both signatures. But again, I have no idea if it's authentic or not.