Ricky Wright signed 1987 topps-stolen scan?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by djson1

Oh..and this...I'm totally baffled:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/160951429134...orig_cvip=true

$5,000+??!!:confused :

and 4 bidders were over a thousand dollars??

[chaddurbin]

wright only signed a handful, people need it to complete the set (87 topps set popular). probably not a 5k card but 2k easy. of course i wouldn't trust psa to authenticate a 5k sig, for that money i better see wright sign it himself. lots of debate whether the current card is legit or not.

[djson1]

I saw a post on here back in January about that (Wright not signing this card), but still....even if a collector/dealer was obsessed enough to pay that much to complete a signed set, I still think that's crazy. Even if you were to later sell the set, you would need to bump up the price by $4K-$5K to make any kind of gain and that's just insane.

[jerseygary]

What is his problem with the card? Doesn't look like a bad likeness or anything. Is it JUST the '87 he's pissy about or signing in general? Sounds like Clancy Smyres.

[Baseball Fan]

I would think the scariest part would be that he could decide some day to start signing the card for a private signing or a charity, and suddenly the $5,000 card is down to a couple hundred if not less.

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by jerseygary

What is his problem with the card? Doesn't look like a bad likeness or anything. Is it JUST the '87 he's pissy about or signing in general? Sounds like Clancy Smyres.

I can't find anything in a google search and I asked here days ago with no response so I'm not sure anyone knows why. It would be interesting to find out the reason.

[earlywynnfan]

I swear there was a thread about him right here a while back. Maybe not a dedicated thread, but remember reading his story here.

[MooseDog]

I don't know about Wright's situation, but I can relate a similar stance by another player.

Kelly Gruber will not sign his 1990 Leaf card. That set is being collected by a LOT of people and that apparently will be a hole never filled.

Gruber will sign anything else, and is a really good IP signer (or was), great guy even, but he will politely decline to sign the 1990 Leaf. Apparently he wants that card to be very valuable and said in time he will only sign them for his sons. Whether his sons sell them off, who knows, but if they ever come to market I would expect some insane prices. I have traded with a couple of very well heeled collectors of this set who are down to a handful…including Gruber.

[dgo71]

I remember Gruber being exceptionally nice the last time I saw him and telling me the same story, although at that time he was not signing ANY Leaf card as he skipped over my '90, '91 and '92. He did sign my 1993 Leaf though and I thought he must have just overlooked it since they went glossy that year and I thought maybe he didn't recognize it as a Leaf.

With Wright, he is a difficult signer in general, on any card. It's not just the 87T he does not sign, he doesn't sign ANY Topps cards. The only other Topps issues he had were 86 Traded and 87 Texas Rangers Leaders card. He cannot be found on those cards either, but they don't get the publicity of the 87T. Collectors are happy to have Geno Petralli or whoever the other guy is sign the Leaders card and call it done, while there are fewer collectors working on the 86 Traded set.