Roy Campanella Autos

[sbfinley]

A guy I know heads up a 5k run and a charity auction with the proceeds going to cancer research. Last year he was given a baseball signed by 12 different NL MVP's and got a bid of 1k but the bidder balked when he discovered the ball didn't have a cert. So this year they sent to ball off for cert and the company verified 11 of the 12 but wouldn't touch the 12th sig which was Roy Campanella. The company (not sure who he used PSA/Spence/Someone Useless) said they would not certify any Campanella autographs. Being that a certified Camp auto would add considerable value to the ball this seems weird. Anyone ever heard of companies dodging certain autos and where could we get the auto certified?

Also I have not seen the ball yet and I'm not sure what company they used for the verification. We just had the discussion at the bar tonight and if I can get a photo of the ball later I'll post it here.

[william_9]

Obviously, aside from the machine assisted signatures in the late 80's, he was unable to sign autographs post-accident. Perhaps the wording your friend used was misleading? It's common for authenticators to say that a signature can't be certified when it is a known secretarial signature. I think I'm correct in saying that his wife did the majority of his signing for him, even for other players at the annual Induction Ceremony that he commonly attended. He would eventually work himself back to partial use of his hands, but signing autographs were outside of his ability or were just simply embarrasssing.

I'm sure that any of the reputable authenticators would certify a genuine pre-1958 Campy.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

I can assure you that both PSA and JSA have no issue in examining both pre and post-accident Campys. Some others have gone on record as saying that post-accident (device-assisted) examples are difficult to authenticate, but I really have to take the opposite stance on that argument. There are still plenty of very obvious characteristics marking the formation of the latter-day version. Also, as a result of his disability, Campy's post-accident signature was marked with unique qualities in both pen pressure and what I can only call its "spastic quality". I really have never seen a forger come close to being able to mimic all of Campy's very unique post-accident "tells".

[aaroncc]

Here is my example. I have thought about sending it to JSA. Any opinions?