What is better for autographs on a card? Pen or Sharpie

[homerunhitter]

In regards to 50’s and 60’s cards do you prefer pen or sharpie? For me my cut off for pen is 1970. I think 1971 and above looks better with sharpie. But keep going back and forth on the 50s and 60s cards. What do you think?

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by homerunhitter

In regards to 50’s and 60’s cards do you prefer pen or sharpie? For me my cut off for pen is 1970. I think 1971 and above looks better with sharpie. But keep going back and forth on the 50s and 60s cards. What do you think?

Regular ink pen or fine point Sharpie (if you are hell-bent on using Sharpie). The thick sharpie sigs are often a mess, and tend to deface the card more than they enhance it.

[Chris-Counts]

While I prefer pen to Sharpie, and fine Sharpie to regular Sharpie, I like fountain pen signatures the best. I agree that the post-1970 cards look good with Sharpies — they even work on Kelloggs 3D cards.

[bigfanNY]

If I am going to ask for an autograph with a sharpie, I carry a fine tip Sharpie extreme. Significantly better fade resistant. I use for topps wall art ( 10×14 small posters of current Topps cards) and modern cards. I always have extras because Signers almost always keep them..

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by bigfanNY

If I am going to ask for an autograph with a sharpie, I carry a fine tip Sharpie extreme. Significantly better fade resistant. I use for topps wall art ( 10×14 small posters of current Topps cards) and modern cards. I always have extras because Signers almost always keep them..

Good info. Can we see a few examples.

[bowmanred]

In terms of market value, sharpie signatures will sell quicker and may carry a slight premium, simply because they show up much better in the tiny picture windows on eBay on most other online marketplaces. A ballpoint sig no matter how bold just doesn't draw the buyer's eye as strongly, which means in some cases that people skimming through search results only using the thumbnails may not even realize the card is autographed. It's interesting that the prevailing opinion here is that old cards are better signed in BP because I haven't found that it always translates to sales. Aesthetically, 100% agreed on fountain pen. Especially when they used a flexible nib pen and there is a lot of shading to the ink.

[Seven]

While I can't say I own any of them, I prefer the look of Fountain Pen on vintage cardboard. If I were to get a more modern card signed, probbably fine tipped sharpie.