OT: Advice for building an autograph collection

I'm not a collector but my grandfather, about 45 years ago, was somewhere and met Mickey Mantle and got me a signed baseball from him. I have it in a small display cube but unfortunately the signature is extremely faded.

I was at a trade show where Mickey Mantle was signing baseballs.  This was before superstars charged for such things, so I dutifully bought a baseball and brought it to him to sign.  After a 20 minute wait in line, he signed it and I (very young at the time) said "thanks" and went on my way.

My father was at the trade show on business, and chatted him up a bit.  Mickey grabbed two coffee cups, filled them with vodka (or some other liquor), and invited my father for a "drink".  My father joined him, but thankfully could not keep up. 

That was a funny story until I learned more about alcoholism, and now it strikes me as a sad one.  I was glad to hear that Mantle addressed his alcoholism later in life.

In any event, that's one of the few autographs I've ever gotten, and my most treasured.

I think you have to assume forgery until you know otherwise. Obviously going to shows and seeing the athlete sign live is the best way to guarantee authenticity. After that, basically assume Certificates of Authenticity are essentially worthless. IF you're going to do the buying you really need to find a dealer you can trust. If you're in SE Michigan I can tell you that DC Sports is legit but they mainly do Tigers/Wings/Pistons etc.Sometimes they do legends though.

You also mentioned trying to get some of the greats, there are websites out there with address lists. A lot of the HOF members have addresses you can mail to them and they'll sign directly through the mail for either a fee or a donation to their foundation (Nolan Ryan does the latter). Cuts out the middle man and more reliable. 

I have a pretty good autographed baseball collection but a lot of mine were from when I was young and visited and then lived in Florida and went to spring trainings. I also got hired as "muscle" (really an extra set of hands) for a bunch of autograph signings when I was in college and law school and got sigs that way. As I mentioned, Nolan Ryan was one that I could never make happen until someone told me about his signing for a donation to his foundation. The late Yogi Berra did that too.  

I'd avoid ebay entirely if you're talking about autographed baseballs.  

One other little trick, I carry a baseball with me whenever I travel and one in my car. I've probably gotten seven or eight balls signed just because I was in the airport or restaurant at the same time as a celebrity/athlete. When I was an undergrad I was flying back to UM and Hakeem Olajuwon was on my flight. Yeah he's a basketball player but whatever. Same thing happened with Jerry Seinfeld and a couple former baseball players in Enos Slaughter and Johnny Podres.  I was at a restaurant once and got long time Chicago Cubs player Mark Grace. Sometimes dumb luck happens.

While its not the most valuable ball I have by any means, my favorite is a ball signed by Japanese legend Sadaharu Oh who signed for me in Japanese and English on the same ball. Just different and kind of uncommon.

 

Is a Ty Cobb autographed baseball, which my grandmother got at a game in the 20s.  Fully authenticated.  I am a huge baseball fan, but not much of a memorabilia collector, so in addition to being my prize, it is also basically my only significant item.  

I buy/sell/trade sports cards and am familiar with the autograph business. The big thing to remember is that the only way you know something is real is to see the athlete sign it.

PSA/DNA and JSA (James Spence used to work for PSA/DNA are both very reputable but they are basing their decision on their experience and known samples. There is margin of error.

The big thing is to have fun and collect things that you want to collect. It sounds like you're on the right path.

One right handed, and the other left. He is ambidextrous for those who did not know.

The signature is pretty much exact between the two balls, except for one leans left, and the other right.

Borrow an eight-year-old, go to different events, and pay him $10 for every one he collects.  Lot cheaper than the open market.

collector of anything. You will live to eventually regret it.

I have thought about getting into collecting autographs but unless I can actually meet the athlete and have them sign I don't think I want it. There is too much chance of it being a fraud and there is no story behind the piece when you just purchase it.
But to each their own.

Get autographs.

Build a time machine and go back to when you were 5. You'll have a much easier time rationalizing your new hobby. Only 3 autographs I ever obtained were all before age 13: 1) Payne Stewart at the Memorial right before he passed in the crash 2) Dan Marino poster in junior high raffle for having good grades or some shit 3) Vince Carter skybox out of an ordinary pack of cards from the corner store

Carry a pen at all times.

Don't

I'm not a collector but my great grandfather, about 45 years ago, was somewhere and met Mickey Mantle and got my dad  a signed baseball from him. He has it it a small display cube but unfortunately the signature is extremely faded. When my dad croaks, I'll surely get it!

My 3rd grade teacher in the early nineties was awesome but also potentially an evil genius.

He loved hockey and got us all addicted (if we weren't already). He had this little scheme, though, where we would send cards into NHL clubs with letters written by us kids -- explaining how we loved hockey and would love an autograph -- but, we would always have to send-in two cards.  If one was signed, it was ours, of course. But, if both were signed, he got the second one.  They were both signed almost every time -- I imagine the whole "autograph culture" was very different back then, especially with hockey and kids.

He must have racked-up hundreds if not thousands of autographed cards throughout his career.  Like I said, evil genius.

I collect people that collect things.  I keep them all in my basement in this glass enclosure.  They seem to be working on some kind of weird dance routine.  Anyways, this one I just got made me a sandwich even though she is blind.  It was a good sandwich. 

In the mid-80's, I was working on a matter for the since-defunct Dallas Times Herald. The assistant managing editor (or something like that) had a collection of dozens of yellowed baseballs, signed by pretty much everyone who mattered from Babe Ruth to Lou Gehrig, Christy Mathewson, Hognus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Bob Feller, you name it. Some of the balls were signed by entire teams. It was astonishing. His dad had been an umpire, and gotten these signed in the days before collecting became a huge thing. He had no clue that what he had sitting in his office was worth thousands of dollars. I suggested he might want to look into that issue. Find a guy like him and buy him out!

I got 2 autographs. One was from PBA Hall of Famer, Amleto Monacelli and the other was from HOF Warren Sapp. I spotted Amleto at Fairlane, he was in town for a tournament at Thunderbowl I think. I saw Sapp at Universal Studios when he was still a Hurricane.