When did Blue Sharpie Become Common?

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by Scott Garner

Don't forget that blue Flair pens existed for several years prior to Sharpie.

Those were groovy.

But boy, did they dry out fast!

[bjerome]

I have a friend who made the rounds in the 73-75 time frame doing hotel IP graphing and commonly used a sharpie. A lot of times he used red, but it was definitely a sharpie.

As far as blue goes, I know especially with bats that black sharpie's color tended to change to a greenish tint. I believe this was the beginning of the changeover from black to blue as the preferred sharpie color.

[icollectDCsports]

Originally Posted by bjerome

I have a friend who made the rounds in the 73-75 time frame doing hotel IP graphing and commonly used a sharpie. A lot of times he used red, but it was definitely a sharpie.

As far as blue goes, I know especially with bats that black sharpie's color tended to change to a greenish tint. I believe this was the beginning of the changeover from black to blue as the preferred sharpie color.

This is my understanding, and I've seen such signatures. I always used to prefer black autographs for pre-60s items, but the consensus is that blue sharpie signatures hold up better.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Then there was that transitional window in the mid 1970's-early 80's where some IP collectors favored purple Sharpie. I've heard it said that it dried faster. It apparently lost whatever footing it had by mid-decade. Too bad. I personally think the purple looks great on period cards. The vintage ink also had a way of aging that can't be replicated. If you want to call it an autograph patina, I guess you could. I like it.