Ted Williams First Day Autograph

[Steve D]

Originally Posted by RichardSimon

You saw it on the bay.
I don't believe I have ever seen a questionable autograph on any official Gateway issue. Though they do issue unsigned cachets and one of those may appear with a mystery signature.

I have collected Gateway covers continuously since 1981.

There have been two occasions where Gateway covers were "ghost signed". 250 of the Pete Rose National League Hit Record envelopes from 1981 were actually signed by Tommy Gioiosa (one of Pete's gambling buddies back in the '80s). The other one involved Reggie Jackson, on his 400th Home Run cover in 1980. Reggie originally had a secretary sign the first batch of covers. In both cases, Gateway found out relatively quickly, and got good signatures to replace the bad ones.

In the Jackson case, you'll see covers that have two signatures, one bad and one good. I don't think any of the bad Reggies got out without the good signature being added. In the Rose case, some of the Gioiosa signed covers were released before Gateway found out about them. They requested the bad ones be returned to them in exchange for ones with authentic Rose signatures, but not all were returned. Even today, you'll see Gioiosa-signed Rose NL Hit Record Gateway covers on ebay.

The fake Jackson and Rose signatures are easy to spot, as they are markedly different from the authentic autographs.

Steve