What baseball autographs could be considered uncommon

[Lordstan]

All good points.
I think Nellie fox is probably the best example of the rarity trifecta.
1) Dies young
2) Dies prior to autograph show boom.
3) Inducted to HOF way after death.

Despite all that there are still 70 Fox's listed on ebay as I write this. I think the ebay effect really has changed our perspective on who is a difficult autograph and who isn't. Greenberg, even with him dying before the show boom, still has 170 current ebay autograph listings.

That is a great Alexander Ball. Congrats.

[MooseDog]

It was not uncommon for autograph collectors in the pre-show signing days to send a player 3-5 items to sign and would get them all back signed. Despite his untimely death, Nellie Fox is by no means hard to find, and neither is Greenberg. Both were quite accommodating signers.

Uncommon would be ones that maybe weren't as popular, or that were elected to the HOF long after their passing.

The other problem is that there were at least two major forgers at work long before the Operation Bullpen gang, the passed a lot of bad stuff into the hobby, many extremely rare names like Keeler, Rabourne, etc.

[Exhibitman]

I agree that a guy who was around for decades post-WWII can't really be considered a tough signature, except perhaps for the occasional d**k who won't sign [like Neil Armstrong or Mike Marshall] or a few foreign players who disappeared back to South America when their careers ended. What's more challenging with postwar HOFers is trying to find specific items signed by them. I wanted a Satchel Paige for a long time but only on a card signed during his career. I finally got one this year:



A Groucho autograph can be had readily but try finding one on a Bowman card:

[JimStinson]

I agree with almost all of the above, any player that died prior to the 1980's card show BOOM's autograph would be considered kinda uncommon. However even Nellie Fox , Satchel Paige etc are are tough sells and don;t command much on the autograph market. Clemente of course does but I think this has to do more with demand than rarity as he was a pretty good signer. Jackie Robinson same, but the market was flooded with hundreds maybe even thousands of signed Jackie checks so it was almost like he did a couple card shows anyway.
So the post war toughies then become the umps and executives that typically were never asked to sign autographs. Then work your way back from there using the date of death as an indicator from fairly common to , mid range , tough and impossible. Of all of the Hall of Famers many of those fall into the catagory of "no known examples" of their signatures have ever been offered to "less than a handful" exist , the production of many of the all time toughies like Addie Joss, Tim Keefe, Mike Kelly, Buck Ewing etc etc has created a false sense that there are more of their autographs in existence than there really are.
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[7nohitter]

Addie Joss

[jdmeltz]

Billy Southworth, managed through the early 50's, died in 1969, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008. You can find his signature, but it will cost you.

[travrosty]

eddie gaedel is hard to find for non hall of fame but notable for the situation he was in.

[Mr. Zipper]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I agree that a guy who was around for decades post-WWII can't really be considered a tough signature, except perhaps for the occasional d**k who won't sign [like Neil Armstrong or Mike Marshall]

This isn't fair to Armstrong, who signed freely through the mail from 1960 through 1994. After almost 35 years, signing tens of thousands of autographs, and then realizing he was being scammed by dealers, he said, "enough." (people would send in requests such as, "I am a teacher... Can you send 25 signed photos for my students?" which he obliged for years until he realized it was often a ruse and they were being sold by dealers.) Can you blame him for quitting?

Armstrong is quite common and in good supply... Even so, demand is much higher because it is true global demand.

[packs]

I will never understand why someone would care that people are selling their signature. Neil got to walk on the moon. That would be enough for some people.

[3and2]

Collecting autographs from World Series teams are popular. Every team has guys that played marginally and are very difficult to find/collect.

For example, I'm a huge Mets fan. I have a team signed photo of the entire 1986 team minus reliever Randy Myers. Every time I look at the photo my eyes go right to him and I cringe. I'd probably pay a 100 bucks for him to sign it. Problem is he never signs at shows. If anyone knows of him signing somewhere please let me know. I've been scouring the Internet for 2 years now.

[MacDice]

Originally Posted by 3and2

Collecting autographs from World Series teams are popular. Every team has guys that played marginally and are very difficult to find/collect.

For example, I'm a huge Mets fan. I have a team signed photo of the entire 1986 team minus reliever Randy Myers. Every time I look at the photo my eyes go right to him and I cringe. I'd probably pay a 100 bucks for him to sign it. Problem is he never signs at shows. If anyone knows of him signing somewhere please let me know. I've been scouring the Internet for 2 years now.

Randy for a long time was coaching women's basketball at Clark College in Vancouver, WA. In the past he was very active in fundraising, you might try and contact the school and see if for a donation they could help you acquire his signature. Or he also has a foundation http://www.todayfoundation.com/

[JimStinson]

Walk on the moon ? When did that happen ? Neil Armstrong ? isn't that the guy that was in that simulated lunar landing film they shot in Hollywood back in 1969 ?

[earlywynnfan]

Originally Posted by packs

I will never understand why someone would care that people are selling their signature. Neil got to walk on the moon. That would be enough for some people.

So you're saying he should spend, what, an hour, two hours, five hours a day opening packages, signing his name, packaging back up, and mailing all this stuff so it can go to someone who ebays it and makes a pile of money?? This is how a man in his 80's should spend his life? "He walked on the moon 40 years ago, so he should gladly be in the public's debt for the rest of his life."

Ken
earlywynnfan5@hotmail.com

[packs]

Who said anything about signing autographs full time. I'm talking about the sentiment behind not signing autographs because you think people will sell them. So what if they do? Why does that matter to you? Sign an autograph when you have time, don't worry about what happens to it after.