Autographs- Do you collect? Do your care?

[drc]

I've collected autographs over the years. I think they're interesting. Nobel Prize winning scientists are amongst my favorites. Though I've collected sports, Hollywood, military and political. I don't buy anything particularly expensive or stuff like Babe Ruth signed baseballs. A letter from a Nobel scientist or a minor WWII General would be as as interesting as anything to me. That an autograph has a $10,000 price tag on it doesn't make it interesting to me. A Babe Ruth baseball doesn't particularly excite me.

In any area, some collectors are attracted to the price tag not the item. The only reason they have any interest in a T206 Honus Wagner or Babe Ruth signed baseball is because they're expensive.

[slidekellyslide]

The only autographs I collect are team signed baseballs and 3x5's of Lincoln minor leaguers...the only ones that anyone would try to fake would be Nellie Fox and maybe Dick Stuart.

[thetruthisoutthere]

My days of collecting autographs are behind me. The few autographs I've gotten in person or through the mail I certainly do cherish. Tom Tresh (Rest In Peace) is my all-time favorite Yankee. When he lived in Michigan I would send him a card to sign once a year and he would return the card with his signature every time. Below is a photo of just one of those cards. Also pictured below is my one and only team-signed baseball. It is from the 1985 Yankees with Billy Martin on the sweet spot. The ball also includes sigs of Don Mattingly, Rickey Henderson, etc.

TRESHMINE.jpg

TEAMYANKEES.jpg

[keithsky]

My days of autograph collecting are over to. To much garbage out there. Ebay doesn't do anything to police the fakes, Coach's Corner ruined the hobby also. I thought when Operation Bullpen was finished it would have cleaned up most of the bad stuff and scum bags in the hobby but just as it tried to Ebay and C.C put it all right back. I'm starting to get into game used stuff now and even that is getting shacking.

[Writehooks]

I'm a sportswriter by profession and have been in the hobby for 40 years, but autographs were never appealing to me until my son was born in 1983. For a five- or six-year stretch when he was a little guy, I discretely asked athletes that I met through work if they would personalize an autographed photo for my son. To a man, they were all very amenable. While the "gallery" didn't mean a lot to the kid until years later, today his office is proudly adorned with more than three dozen framed photos signed to him by the likes of Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Gordie Howe, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Patrick Roy, Evel Knievel and Jack Nicklaus.