August pickups

[bender07]

Originally Posted by tazdmb

Manny being Manny-with my baseball from the National

Was that a paid signing?

[tazdmb]

Originally Posted by bender07

Was that a paid signing?

Hard to believe, but yes.

[yanks12025]

Always wanted a Michael Jordan auto. So picked up this flag signed by him and Emmitt Smith, John Elway, Lance Armstrong. Thinking if I ever have the chance maybe I'll try adding more autos of top athletes to it.

[dscards]

Originally Posted by tazdmb

Hard to believe, but yes.

You got a great signature from him compared to some of the others he gave. The black squiggle is the autograph he gave one collector at the same show.

[khkco4bls]

Exactly the reason why I would never collect Autographs these guys just don't care what it looks like

[mcgwirecom]

There are a bunch of guys who signed very nicely early in their career and then just got worse and worse. Or shorter and shorter. I believe that the earlier type of signature will continue to go up in price while the later one will go down. I try to snag up these early signatures while you can get them at a good price. Manny is one of these players. Frank Thomas is another and McGwire has really shortened his signature in the last few years even for paid autographs. Here are the earlier signatures of each that I would buy up.

[7nohitter]

Randall,

I don't think I've ever seen a Thomas auto like that. Nice!

[mcgwirecom]

I'm pretty sure it was signed before he was drafted. Since the farther back you go the more complete the autograph. Plus all the ones I've seen when he was on the White Sox included his number. Also ball is from 1985-89. Bobby Brown A.L. haiti.

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by 7nohitter

Randall,

I don't think I've ever seen a Thomas auto like that. Nice!

It's funny, because I was going to post a photo of my early Thomas ball, but Randall beat me to the punch. Great minds think alike, I guess...
Great examples, Randall!

That's a classic example of Big Frank from 1990 and earlier. He signed a ball for me with that signature during Spring Training of 1990. I got his sig at a paid signing in 1991 and his sig had evolved into Fr___ Th___35.
By 1991 his popularity had exploded and necessity is the mother of invention I suppose...
He abbreviated his sig because of the long lines of people that were waiting to get his autograph. One positive thing that I can tell you though is he was a signing machine during his most popular years. He always showed up at the stadium early prior to the game in Anaheim and would always sign for the fans...