Amazing find at a church sale yesterday! (sorry no photos)

[spyguy]

Went to a yearly church yard sale yesterday and made a stunning find! I bought 7 books from various sellers one of which was called 'The Jim Thorpe Story: America's Greatest Athlete'. Paid fifty cents for this small hard cover thinking it would make for interesting reading. When I got home I discovered a pencil signature on the inside front cover "Jim Thorpe". There were two others --- a poor one done in red pen on the inside flap and a very bold one " To Katie: from Jimmy Thorpe" in black fountain pen inside the back cover on a checkout card holder. Seems this book was formerly part of the library at the Oktaha School in Oktaha, Oklahoma. Need to look into getting these signatures authenticated because ebay shows only a few Jim Thorpe autographs for sale in the few thousand dollar range! If they are in fact authentic, this is by far the best garage sale find I've ever made in several years of going to them!
HH -spyguy

 

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[insontis]

Very cool! Fantastic buy and you didn't even know it. Must have had a rush finding the signatures & their value. Hope they are genuine!

 

[GibH]

If genuine, it should be worth a small fortune. The book was first published in 1951 and he died in 1953. I can't imagine there are man around. I would probably have s**t myself.

 

[diggummup]

It's a shame such a great American athlete died broke and penniless. Today he would have been a rock star.

 

[vpnavy]

Nice buy. Thanks for sharing...

 

[GibH]

It's a shame it costs so much to get stuff authenticated. I stumbled across an autographed John Wayne picture. I paid a whopping $.50 for it, but PSA or JSA want $100 to authentic a John Wayne signature. I'm not sure I want to take that gamble.

If I were you, I would find as many pictures of his signature from 1950-1953 as I could to compare them against those in your book. Some things seem strange. 3 different autographs and one in pencil seems weird, especially in a library book.

If the signatures seem legit after comparison, I would pay the $100 for authentication. I hope it's legit for you. I'm sure that book would be worth way more than just his autograph.