1954 First Issue Sports Illustrated

[sicollector1954]

Anyone watching the weekly Heritage auction? There is a signed Eddie Mathews first issue which is currently at $1300.00 not including the BP. Am I missing something or is this a crazy price? Would be interested in people comments and reasoning. Thanks.

[sicollector1954]

$2300.00 and not done...this auction is nuts. What am I missing here?

[ronniehatesjazz]

Definitely seems a little pricey to me but it's not completely unlike the current frenzy for vintage autographed rookies. Since it's him swinging on the cover of that issue and given the fact that he died before the autograph craze really kicked off starting around 15 years ago, I'm not all that surprised that it's going at that price.

[sicollector1954]

Well, I wonder what my rare mint signed S.I. would be worth then. I have a hardback first issue that was a denim cover with the letters S.I. printed all over the front. Because of the hardcover, everything inside was protected. I asked Eddie Mathews if he had ever signed one of these before and he told me he had never seen one. Over the course of my collecting, I have seen 3. The only story I ever got was that they were issued later to the original first 500 subscribers. I would be interested if anyone could verify that or if there is in fact another explanation as to why these were issued in this manner. Thanks.