Hard to find Hall Of famer autographs

[hawaiian bam bam]

for those that collect hof autographs, knowing that it is impossible to collect an entire complete set of hofers, does that dissuade you from collecting hof autographs? i ask because i collect hof autographs and i always think, what the point, ill never have a "complete" set. what motivates you to collect hofers in particular? also, to answer the OP, i think there are a at least a good 25-30 players that are impossible to find. i thought i once saw a list somewhere here of those impossible hof signers. not sure where i saw it. il ltry to find it.

[Bruinsfan94]

Yea if anyone knows of an article or anything like that on the subject, I'd love to read it. If I were collecting them, I wouldn't let that get me down. Still so many that you can get and every year theres more added usually.

[tazdmb]

PSA Ranks them based on mixture of price and scarcity on a level from 1-10, with 52 unranked simply because they are so scarce. I would recommend taking this with a grain of salt.

Jesse Burkett is a 9 and Jack Chesbro is a 10, and i have seen a total of 2 combined autographs of theirs in the last few years that I would call legit, while Barney Dreyfuss is unranked and I know he is around and not as scarce as other unranked individuals-or Jack Chesbro for that matter.

http://www.psacard.com/dnasetregistr...tion.aspx?c=37

[Klrdds]

Let me offer my opinion.. Some of you are familiar with my opinion and my autograph collection especially tazdmb. I have 297 HoFer autographs,of which I am confident in 280-285 of them. I started 30 years ago and bought only from a handful of reputable dealers or auction houses, many signatures were obtained long before TPAs entered the game and began to muddy the waters in both good and bad ways . I am not aware of anybody near me in numbers of HoFer autographs.
It is IMPOSSIBLE to get a full set because of the lack of any known signatures of 3-5 inductees, as well as the cost of acquisition of the rarest 20-25 signatures , the preponderance of forgeries , the demand for a TPA from companies that make obvious mistakes but yet are held in high esteem by the majority of HoFer signature collectors who I am sorry to say have NO CLUE what they are doing or buying when looking into the last 35-40 signatures because they don't do their due diligence or research and rely solely on the TPA; and finally the numbers of signatures available of many rare HoFers can't supply the demand for that signature.
For example I own, as many of you know , the only verifiable Addie Joss ( the one in Ron's book). Plus I own several HoHer autographs of which there are less than 5 known examples. So no matter how many HoFer autograph collectors there are there will never be enough signatures of some to fill the demands of the number of collectors.
I believe anything over 250 is a commendable collection and 275 is museum worthy .
These numbers may change as more people slowly liquidate their collections.
Also look at the Veteran's Committee this year .
Bill Dahlen exists but Harry Stovey , Chris Von Der Ahe are near impossible to find. I have been looking for Doc Adams since 1989 with nothing to show for it and money is not an object in most cases. So I have 9 of the 10 nominated this year but how many collectors have even 5 of the 10...that is why no one will ever complete the HoFer autograph set because of the sheer scarcity and potential cost of the rarest signatures.it is harder to complete than the Declaration of Independence signers of which I believe examples exist of all signers, but is near impossible to get even with its smaller numbers is signatures needed.
The wise HoF autograph collector goes into this knowing he will never complete the set but it never discourages them for whatever reason, and it never did me either . I have accepted the fact that I am where I am unless something fortuitous occurs . Also what makes this collection interesting is that it is not a static list it potentially changes every year, and every 3 years on the Pre integration list .
I totally agree with tazdmb... the PSA ranking system needs to be taken with a grain of salt. In fact I will say that it is way off base in its rankings.

[Bruinsfan94]

Wow that is some awesome information. I would love to know which 3-5 players have no known autographs? How do you even go about authentication with guys like Joss? Very cool to hear from someone that clearly has put so much time into this.

[travrosty]

muhammad ali opponents in boxing is similar, there are 50 but no known autograph of jim robinson, but it doesnt stop people from trying to collect them all, the next 4 or 5 autographs in terms of scarcity are eight cost prohibitive in some circumstances or else very, very difficult to find so any Ali opponent collection that approaches 45-46 of the 50 is doing very well and nothing to sneeze and that is fine with most Ali collectors.

[Bruinsfan94]

I remember reading about some one looking for Jim Robinson. Has there been any new information? Would be great if someone found him. If he is indeed alive and homeless, I'm sure someone would make him a lot of life changing money to sign a couple items.

[Klrdds]

Originally Posted by travrosty

muhammad ali opponents in boxing is similar, there are 50 but no known autograph of jim robinson, but it doesnt stop people from trying to collect them all, the next 4 or 5 autographs in terms of scarcity are eight cost prohibitive in some circumstances or else very, very difficult to find so any Ali opponent collection that approaches 45-46 of the 50 is doing very well and nothing to sneeze and that is fine with most Ali collectors.

Thanks for bringing to my knowledge a collecting niche that I did not know existed . That is definitely an exclusive club as well!

[Duluth Eskimo]

Originally Posted by Klrdds

Let me offer my opinion.. Some of you are familiar with my opinion and my autograph collection especially tazdmb. I have 297 HoFer autographs,of which I am confident in 280-285 of them. I started 30 years ago and bought only from a handful of reputable dealers or auction houses, many signatures were obtained long before TPAs entered the game and began to muddy the waters in both good and bad ways . I am not aware of anybody near me in numbers of HoFer autographs.
It is IMPOSSIBLE to get a full set because of the lack of any known signatures of 3-5 inductees, as well as the cost of acquisition of the rarest 20-25 signatures , the preponderance of forgeries , the demand for a TPA from companies that make obvious mistakes but yet are held in high esteem by the majority of HoFer signature collectors who I am sorry to say have NO CLUE what they are doing or buying when looking into the last 35-40 signatures because they don't do their due diligence or research and rely solely on the TPA; and finally the numbers of signatures available of many rare HoFers can't supply the demand for that signature.
For example I own, as many of you know , the only verifiable Addie Joss ( the one in Ron's book). Plus I own several HoHer autographs of which there are less than 5 known examples. So no matter how many HoFer autograph collectors there are there will never be enough signatures of some to fill the demands of the number of collectors.
I believe anything over 250 is a commendable collection and 275 is museum worthy .
These numbers may change as more people slowly liquidate their collections.
Also look at the Veteran's Committee this year .
Bill Dahlen exists but Harry Stovey , Chris Von Der Ahe are near impossible to find. I have been looking for Doc Adams since 1989 with nothing to show for it and money is not an object in most cases. So I have 9 of the 10 nominated this year but how many collectors have even 5 of the 10...that is why no one will ever complete the HoFer autograph set because of the sheer scarcity and potential cost of the rarest signatures.it is harder to complete than the Declaration of Independence signers of which I believe examples exist of all signers, but is near impossible to get even with its smaller numbers is signatures needed.
The wise HoF autograph collector goes into this knowing he will never complete the set but it never discourages them for whatever reason, and it never did me either . I have accepted the fact that I am where I am unless something fortuitous occurs . Also what makes this collection interesting is that it is not a static list it potentially changes every year, and every 3 years on the Pre integration list .
I totally agree with tazdmb... the PSA ranking system needs to be taken with a grain of salt. In fact I will say that it is way off base in its rankings.

Well said and thanks for the info. Jason

[Bruinsfan94]

Does anyone have of or know of a scan of a George Davis? I've been pretty interested in his career and would love to see one.

[prewarsports]

Two George Davis signatures exist (that I am aware of) but the owners I would imagine are very secretive about images being released for prospective forgers to use as an example. I have never seen either one, just have spoken to the one-time owner that had both of them so I know they exist.

[Baseball Rarities]

Originally Posted by Bruinsfan94

Does anyone have of or know of a scan of a George Davis? I've been pretty interested in his career and would love to see one.

There is an example of Davis' signature in Ron Keurajian's book.