When people my age (I’m retired) were kids, or even older, some of us no doubt sent stamped, self-addressed, envelopes, perhaps with a card enclosed, to the team addresses in hopes that the player would send back his autograph. Sadly in retrospect, I was not one of those, only because back then the idea never crossed my mind.
Not that I didn’t like autographs. I obtained several dozen, standing outside the players’ entrance after games at D.C. Stadium in the early- and mid-’60s. Not only did I get their autographs, I got to see them up close. To this day, I’m ashamed that I told the Senators’ Ken McMullen, who was offering to sign my scorecard, “I already have yours.” What a jerk I was.
I hit the mother lode one afternoon before a night game there in June 1965, waiting for the Senators to wander in and then greeting the Yankees team bus as it arrived: Mantle, Ford, Bouton and Elston Howard all signed for me. They were probably shocked that anybody was around, given attendance at Senators’ games. I had gotten Frank Howard hours earlier, as well as Nats’ manager Gil Hodges.
It hadn’t occurred to me to bring cards for the players to sign, even though I had a bunch of ’61 through ’65 Topps cards at the time.
I just handed a loose-leaf piece of notebook paper for the Yankees players, but I did have a pack of those Jay Publishing B&W team photos for the Senators. Thankfully, I still have them.
Sometime in the mid-’90s at a card show, I had my Hodges photo authenticated on site by PSA. I haven’t bothered to do the same with my Mantle autograph because PSA at the time charged $100 to authenticate the Mick’s distinctive signature, which is often forged.
Herein lies the problem, of course: If you collect cards with autographs that you didn’t get while standing next to the player: Are you sure it’s real?
Authentication, while far from foolproof, plays an important role for those among us who collect autographed cards (of which I have just a few.) Unless you’re lucky enough to pull a certified autographed card from a pack or you buy one somewhere, you’re often taking the word of the seller that the signature is genuine.
Even among the authenticators, some are more reputable than others. PSA/DNA, which has become the favored source, offers quick opinions on autographs for sale on eBay for $10, a price that makes little sense if you’re buying an item that might not even cost that much. A recent PSA promotion offered full autograph authentication on site at PSA’s East Coast office in New Jersey, for as little as $15, depending on the player.)
Years ago, I helped my then 11-year-old try the old SSAE method by sending letters to Tony Gwynn and Paul Molitor. Right before the’98 World Series, I had written an editorial in the paper I worked for, headlined “In praise of Tony Gwynn.” I suggested to my son that if he wrote a nice short letter, included a Gwynn card and a copy of his dad’s editorial, Tony might actually sign it.
Indeed he did. Long before that, I always admired Gwynn, a feeling amplified by his hitting prowess and by the unforgettable baseball card commercial with Bip Roberts (“10 cents mint!”). RIP, Tony.
Molitor signed his card, too, although my son included nothing but a polite note and an ’88 Topps Big card in that request. I’m sure lots of us here have many similar stories. It’s the kind of thing that makes collecting addictive.
A few years later, my son wanted to be sure those autographs were real and not something signed by a clubhouse attendant, so I sent them to PSA to be authenticated. If I recall, it didn’t cost too more than the basic slabbing charge at the time. Not knowing any better, I didn’t ask that the cards just be marked “authentic,” assuming the signatures were genuine, rather than additionally be graded for condition.
Both cards passed muster, and my son has no intention of selling them, so the low grades of the cards themselves don’t really matter. (The Gwynn card got creased in the return mail. Duh!) We can always have them re-slabbed as authentic, in any case. Of course, a recent post here warned that even slabbed cards will deteriorate.
Although such estimates can be self-serving, supposedly 60 percent or more of the autographs of the most famous athletes are fakes. I don’t care that most of those I obtained face-to-face haven’t been authenticated, but I certainly want to know that one I might buy is real.
During the years I spent tracking minor league games for Baseball Info Solutions, one of my partners (BIS sent two game-charters to every Eastern League game back then) was an obsessive autograph collector. He came armed with notebooks full of minor-league player cards, intent on getting them signed by top prospects. This guy was a bank executive, by the way. He had strong opinions about every ex-MLB player he had encountered, based on their willingness to provide an autograph.
Now, former players charge to sign at card shows. Signers and seekers have turned the whole thing into a business.
lf this probably seems obvious to serious collectors of autographed cards. I just don’t have the same attachment to the couple of autographed cards I’ve purchased. There’s no personal story behind them. That’s important to me.
I’d be interested to know how others feel about this topic.
