Autographed Baseball Cards

[1996]

I have been a collector since I was in the single digits (about 20 years). After about a 4 year vacation from any personal time whatsoever, I recently got back into a lot of my old hobbies. Two of my new hobbies are metal detecting, and collecting autographs. I have loads of baseball cards from the 80s or so, so I naturally started getting signatures of the players I collected as a kid. Every now and then I find that a player that you wouldn't think would be easy to acquire, is signing through the mail.
This hobby takes a lot of dedication if you plan on getting many returns. I try to send out at least 5 requests every week, and a lot of weeks I send out 20+. I have hundreds of celebrity, sports, and political autographs, and I just started collecting in May of 2008. I have done pretty good on selling some of my extras as well. i sold a Toby keith today for 60 dollars, and all it cost me was 2 stamps (i put it in a picture mat with 3 guitar picks that cost me 2 stamps as well). I still have a lot more money invested, then I have taken in, but who knows how much they are worth.
Here are the baseball cards I have been able to get signed through the mail. Different players have different signing habits. Bobby doerr, for example, will sign as many as you send him in one envelope, but mark Grace will only sign one at a time. So for all four of my Mark Grace cards, it cost me two stamps. They sell for about 4 dollars on ebay.
Enjoy the pictures.

 

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[1996]

The address database I have used the most is movieeye.com. i really like the setup, and they have a one month free trial. There is a section called recent successes, and I just scroll through there, see who is signing, and write them a letter. Just be careful and make sure that the success was a real autograph, and not a preprint. I wasted a lot of money when I first started out sending off for autographs that i was 95% sure not to get. Don't mail to,. . . well I can't think of the name of the company now, but they handle loads of stars, and they only send out pre prints. Fake autographs.
I started using www.startiger.com recently, and i am sure my collection is going to get a big boost. They have many more sports stars available. i don't like the setup as much, and it costs 4.95 a month, but it is definitely worth the money if you ask me.

aout of my pictures, you can get bobby doerr, george kell, hank aaron, and i think mark grace for free (the addresses) at movieeye.com.


It's really fun waiting on the mail everyday.

 

[Billco]

You're putting together a nice collection. My son gets a ton of baseball autographs through the mail and at spring training in Florida.

I collect autographs also. I used to get a lot through the mail, but the success ratio is not as favoable as it once was, largely due to addresses being posted on the internet.

I haven't added to my collection in a while (busy with other things). Regardless of what the prevailing thinking is, eBay is the best place to build a nice collection cheaply. You do have to exeercise extreme caution. I look for bank checks, letters, contracts, estate liquidations, signed and numbered books, books from recent store signings, stuff from the actual celebrities - things like that.

I started a blog not long ago if you care to look at it:

http://billcosautographs.blogspot.com/

 

[1996]

Yeah, I buy some online. Mainly only deceased celebrities though. I did buy an Angelina Jolie, (oh yeah, i got jack nicholson 2)because she is just really hard to get right now. Note cards are one of the easiest things to get signed, in my opinion, so a large portion of my autograph collection is on note cards. Some of my best successes have been on note cards (steve martin). That's why I mainly buy signed note cards, when I buy online; but I really like the idea about the jean paul getty check, on your blog. I'm going to have to get one of those after Chriistmas. And that Booker T. Washington is something else. That's history man, museum type stuff.

 

[Monty]

I once had the entire NY Yankees team with autographed cards, including Mickey Mantle 's rookie card. I also had autographed cards from most of the big time players from the 40s to the early 60s. My mom cleaned house and threw them away while I was overseas in the service. They would be worth thousands now. Sigh, why me? Great collection you have there. Monty

 

[fortbball9]

Hang on to them Pete Rose he will be in the Hall of Fame someday.It might be after he is dead but he will be there.
He should have already been there,for what he did for the game itself.
Autographs are a awesome collection item congrats on all of the ones that you have,I know that you have a lot of time invested also.
Very nice collection

fortbball9

 

[1996]

Some of my latest additions.

 

[HolyDiver]

I just got my 50th autographed baseball about 3 weeks ago by Joe Maddon. I'm at college now out of state, but when I get back I think you'll love my autographed ball collection 1996.

 

[1996]

Rhat's what I hate about the internet. lol. I do all I can and still only come out with a piss poor collection. lol. Everybody has got just ungodly amounts of this or that.
I've got 2 baseballs, and have checked into getting more, but I don't want to get cheap balls signed. roml b-balls can hit you for 12 to 25 a pop brand new. Maybe when I get on active duty and have some steady income.
alright,
later,
1996

 

[Cachefinder]

I will make one comment about mail autographed items

Most of the time the autograph u get is not from the "star"
they have assistants that open all their mail and handle it.........IE (sign it and send it back).

Now dont get mad at me-- this is just for the stars (high profile people).

***and i am saying this with 1st hand knowledge*** 100% for sure!!!

Cachefinder-

 

[1996]

I will make one comment about mail autographed items

Most of the time the autograph u get is not from the "star"
they have assistants that open all their mail and handle it.........IE (sign it and send it back).

Now dont get mad at me-- this is just for the stars (high profile people).

***and i am saying this with 1st hand knowledge*** 100% for sure!!!

Cachefinder-

And I'll make one comment about your comment. Out of every ball player I have pictured, there is 1 that I am not sure is 100% authentic. 1.



If you want to write "high profile" people, you don't get to pick and choose who you are going to write to. You have to collect whoever happens to be signing at any point in time. You watch for someone you are interested in obtaining to begin signing through a certain address, and write to them there. I got Gene Wilder today, if you wrote to Gene Wilder today at:

Gene Wilder
Pal-Mel Productions
10100 Santa Monica Blvd.
#1050
Los Angeles, CA 90067

There is a good chance that you would get a response in any where from 2 weeks to 2 months. There is a chance you would not here back from him at all, and yes there is a chance, albeit a small one, that someone who works for Mr. Wilder would sign it for him and send it back to you. Saying that most celebrities have assistants sign their autograph requests is akin to saying the world is flat, the earth is the center of the universe, or that cell phones cause cancer.

 

[Cachefinder]

1996 your quotes

"And I'll make one comment about your comment. Out of every ball player I have pictured, there is 1 that I am not sure is 100% authentic. 1."

Now unless u personally saw the ballplayer sign your card then you can not make this statement.
and if u did see them sign it in person, than u can make that statement ......but mail in i dont think
u saw.

"Saying that most celebrities have assistants sign their autograph requests is akin to saying the world is flat, the earth is the center of the universe, or that cell phones cause cancer."

Like i said in my earlier post-Most of the time the autograph u get is not from the "star"
they have assistants that open all their mail and handle it.........IE (sign it and send it back).
***and i am saying this with 1st hand knowledge*** 100% for sure!!!
I know MORE than one "assistant" and unfortunately this my friend is true!

Cachefinder-

 

[1996]

You may know more than one assistant. That's great, we should all be as fortunate as you, and be able to get autographs easily from our friends who are assistants to major stars.

There are thousands of people that collect many, many autographs through the mail, and have done so consistently for many, many years. I fail to comprehend how you can not come to the logical conclusion that it is possible to tell if a star is signing themselves or if they have an assistant signing. Hey, to each his own. You think that all stars are to busy to think about there fans, and I'll continue to write famous people and collect their signatures.

 

[Cachefinder]

1996

Thanks for listening and keeping the U.S. Postal Service running.

Good luck and have a great day!


Cachefinder-

 

[1996]

The few, The proud, The authentic.

 

[Cachefinder]

1996

See thats awesome -- a letter of authenticity-- way to go!

That one is real!

Cachefinder-

 

[OldSackofCoins]

Makes me wonder though, based on the previous arguements above, could an assistant have written the above letter and signed both.  It seems plausible and what better way to assure fans that they have an authentic signature than to do that. 

For me, I always get my autographs in person!! 

 

[Cachefinder]

For me, I always get my autographs in person!! 

Thats the way to do it correctly!!


Take care,

Cachefinder-

 

[1996]

waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

[Billco]

Well this is an interesting topic. I began collecting collecting autographs for about 14 years ago. I haven't added very many things to my collection this year. It takes time to shop auctions and sites. It takes even more time to do "through the mails." I just haven't had the time lately.

You can certainly get authentic autographs through the mail. But you can certainly waste your time and stamps getting fake autographs. Celebrities sign through the mail more often than a lot of people think. The vast majority have their time in the sun that might last for years or even decades. But almost all of them reach a point if they live long enough where all of the assistants are gone, and they spend much of their days just like the rest of us. If they've managed to save a lot of money, they might even have more time on their hand than most of us would.

A lot of these celebrities genuinely like hearing from their fans, and they do spend a portion of their time corresponding with their fans.

Take the Three Stooges for example. There were six Stooges (seven if you want to count Emil Sitka). They did thousands of personal appearances where signing autographs was routine. They generally signed when approached in public. I'm not sure if they signed through the mail when they were on the road and doing shorts and later in their careers, movies. However I am sure that Emil Sitka, Joe Besser, Joe DeRita, Moe Howard and Larry Fine not only signed autographs, they wrote lengthy letters to their fans in retirement. When they were written in the 70's and 80's not very much of the general public thought much of the Three Stooges, so those letters were practically worthless. Today those letters, especially Moe's and Larry's, sell in the hundreds. One with good content might sell in the thousands. You couldn't have given Moe's canceled bank checks away in the 70's. Now they are worth several hundred dollars each. The assistants, if they ever had any, were long gone when they wrote those letters. (If they had time to write letters, wouldn't they have had time to sign a photo or index card?). And the Three Stooges were arguable the most successful comedy act in history.

Clayton Moore, the Lone Ranger, is another one. I have no idea whether he signed authentically through the mail when he was doing TV. I do know for a fact that he not only signed autographs through the mail in retirement, he wrote lengthy letters when asked a question. I doubt he had more to do the last twenty years of his life than my grandmother did. The assistants were long gone.

Kenny Stabler was one of the top football quarterbacks of the 70's (maybe top two or three). He wears a super bowl ring and took Alabama to a national championship. For the last twenty years he has never to my knowledge not signed an autograph when approached in public, nor has he not returned an autograph through the mail. He was one of my neighbors for ten years on the Redneck Riviera.

I could go on an on, but the fact is that celebrities do sign through the mail. They also send preprints, rubber stamps, and secretarials through the mail. Usually most of those go out when they are at the top. Tom Cruise and Madonna aren't going to sign anything for you. Nor would Marilyn Monroe and Humphrey Bogart when they were on top. When the assistants are long gone, you are more likely to have your autograph request ignored than to receive a fake (though it does happen). You stand a very good chance of getting a legit one.

But when you buy baseball cards, you could buy counterfeit, trimmed, or over-graded cards. Even the experts get fooled.

I collect arrowheads. Knappers are good at faking them. In fact, fakes sometimes end up in museums. People look at them and ooh and awe at the beauty and the history ... but they are fake. Some people even know how to fake patina. Some people like to knapp arrowheads, bury them in the ground them for awhile, dig them up and "plant" them in fields for people to find them.

Point is every hobby can have fakes, and often the more "fake-proof" a hobby appears on the surface, the more easy it is to get away with the fraud.

Of course meeting a famous person and getting an autograph is fun and those autographs are probably going to have special meaning to you, but getting back to the "you only know its real if you got it in person," argument, for me that wouldn't be a worthwhile pursuit. What good is a collection if you are the only one that gives it validity? When you die, nobody would want it.

I had rather have a collection that passes my own judgment. After awhile a collector develops an intuition about what is legit and what isn't. He learns to collect what others would want and would deem genuine.

I like to buy signed letters, documents, bank checks, contracts, autographed books from recent book signings, signed & numbered things. I have hundreds of those things in my collection. I also have many signatures and signed photos in my collection because I have decided that they are legit -- and I like them. .

Here is my new website if anybody is interested.

http://www.collecting-celebrity-autographs.com/