Home Autographs Forum

OK....Let's see what you've got.....post something!

1246717

Comments

  • AFLfanAFLfan Posts: 1,272 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Possibly the only bubble gum card ever signed by Mack Lee Hill before he died post-surgery in 1965.

    Todd Tobias - Grateful Collector - I focus on autographed American Football League sets, Fleer & Topps, 1960-1969, and lacrosse cards.
  • AlanSkiAlanSki Posts: 1,925 ✭✭✭✭✭

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭

    In honor of long-time Jeopardy host Alex Trebek, who passed away this past weekend:



  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November 14, 2020 4:48PM

    We've all been there. Being inexperienced and not knowing or thinking of the best way to get or preserve an autograph. But at least you had the idea to write to him when you did.

    Back in that era the Titanic was one of the world's great mysteries. It was lost and no one knew where it was. It was quite a shock when Robert Ballard and team found it. It was almost too bad that the mystique was now gone.

    I only wrote to Millvina Dean, who was the youngest and last survivor. But she had no memories of the sinking.

    One possible option for you would be to have the letter and article deacidified and then rebuild your display so the article covers up the stained part of the letter.

    It sure makes me feel old to dig out some of my earlier stuff that I got and see that the passage of time has left some toning or foxing on the paper.

  • dad2cl3dad2cl3 Posts: 331 ✭✭✭✭

    Just back from PSA/DNA

    Jason

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Here is a recent acquisition that has led me to embark on a mission to study and document this specific type of autograph.

    It is a hand-signed free frank from Eleanor Roosevelt (adding her real first name "Anna").

    She got the franking privilege for her mail as a widowed first lady after her husband (FDR) passed away.

    Eleanor Roosevelt soon changed to using a rubber stamp signature for her mail, but this is an early envelope from before she did that. I have found a couple later examples where she signed free franks for collectors but so far this the only one of her early free franks that I have been able to locate. (I am sure others exist).

    What intrigues me the most, apart from its rarity, is the way she signed it. Traditionally the signature would be in the upper right-hand corner of the envelope. I am speculating that she signed her name in the upper left and added "free" in the upper right because that is how servicemen in WWII exercised their franking privilege and she was following that format that she undoubtedly had seen before.

    I was excited to find (and win) on Ebay a transitional rubber-stamped free frank in the same format as this one. (It has not arrived yet). So, it seems that she implemented her rubber-stamped free frank before moving her signature to the upper right corner of the envelope.

    I will look to add a few more varieties of her rubber-stamped free franks as they become available. Eventually I hope to document the evolution of Eleanor Roosevelt's free frank.

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭

    In honor of statesman George P. Shultz, who passed away at 100 yesterday.

    My last response from him, from last October:

  • LarkinCollectorLarkinCollector Posts: 8,975 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Sweet Berto's!

  • ernie11ernie11 Posts: 1,949 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Sometimes I can't get a through-the-mail autograph because the subject is deceased. So I sometimes find other signees who had a secondhand tie to that famous person. Among my obscure baseball autographs is a pitcher named Willis Hudlin, who gave up Babe Ruth's 500th career home run back in 1929. He sent me back his autograph in this letter below. He was pretty old and his handwriting is hard to read, so I'll translate: "The Babe had his good years about the same time that I had mine. Yes he hit his 500 HR off me 8/11/29 in Cleveland. It was a sinker ball that he hit. The Babe did not have much luck vs. me. In 9 years he only got a total of 5 HR's off of me. With all good wishes, Willis Hudlin".

    Hudlin's age maybe caused him to drop a stitch - he dated the letter from 1987, but it was really 1997.

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @ernie11 said:
    Sometimes I can't get a through-the-mail autograph because the subject is deceased. So I sometimes find other signees who had a secondhand tie to that famous person. Among my obscure baseball autographs is a pitcher named Willis Hudlin, who gave up Babe Ruth's 500th career home run back in 1929. He sent me back his autograph in this letter below. He was pretty old and his handwriting is hard to read, so I'll translate: "The Babe had his good years about the same time that I had mine. Yes he hit his 500 HR off me 8/11/29 in Cleveland. It was a sinker ball that he hit. The Babe did not have much luck vs. me. In 9 years he only got a total of 5 HR's off of me. With all good wishes, Willis Hudlin".

    Hudlin's age maybe caused him to drop a stitch - he dated the letter from 1987, but it was really 1997.

    These "association" pieces are great. Real history.

    I seek out this sort of thing when I can.

    I'll forgive his error on the date. It was 67 years after the historic HR. Hudlin must have been in his late 90s when he wrote it.

  • ernie11ernie11 Posts: 1,949 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @JBK said:

    @ernie11 said:
    Sometimes I can't get a through-the-mail autograph because the subject is deceased. So I sometimes find other signees who had a secondhand tie to that famous person. Among my obscure baseball autographs is a pitcher named Willis Hudlin, who gave up Babe Ruth's 500th career home run back in 1929. He sent me back his autograph in this letter below. He was pretty old and his handwriting is hard to read, so I'll translate: "The Babe had his good years about the same time that I had mine. Yes he hit his 500 HR off me 8/11/29 in Cleveland. It was a sinker ball that he hit. The Babe did not have much luck vs. me. In 9 years he only got a total of 5 HR's off of me. With all good wishes, Willis Hudlin".

    Hudlin's age maybe caused him to drop a stitch - he dated the letter from 1987, but it was really 1997.

    These "association" pieces are great. Real history.

    I seek out this sort of thing when I can.

    I'll forgive his error on the date. It was 67 years after the historic HR. Hudlin must have been in his late 90s when he wrote it.

    Another one like this that I have, I don't have an image for - it is an autographed index card I got back in 1998 from Tim Forneris, the St. Louis groundskeeper who retrieved the baseball hit by Mark McGwire as his 62nd HR, to break the single-season home run record. Last I read, Forneris was an assistant public defender in St. Louis.

  • IronmanfanIronmanfan Posts: 5,484 ✭✭✭✭

    picture signed by Milt Pappas, Jack Fisher & Jerry Walker

    image

    IMF

    Successful dealings with Wcsportscards94558, EagleEyeKid, SamsGirl214, Volver, DwayneDrain, Oaksey25, Griffins, Cardfan07, Etc.
  • IronmanfanIronmanfan Posts: 5,484 ✭✭✭✭

    remember when Upper Deck would give these away at games?

    image

    IMF

    Successful dealings with Wcsportscards94558, EagleEyeKid, SamsGirl214, Volver, DwayneDrain, Oaksey25, Griffins, Cardfan07, Etc.
  • ernie11ernie11 Posts: 1,949 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Found in a junk shop. Damaged, I know, but because the Duprees were one of my favorite harmony groups, I couldn't resist.

  • IronmanfanIronmanfan Posts: 5,484 ✭✭✭✭

    Hank Aaron signed ball

    image

    IMF

    Successful dealings with Wcsportscards94558, EagleEyeKid, SamsGirl214, Volver, DwayneDrain, Oaksey25, Griffins, Cardfan07, Etc.
  • 291fifth291fifth Posts: 24,371 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Back at the time Hank Aaron broke the home run record a magazine, I believe it was SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, sent Hank Aaron autographed baseballs to many, many people involved with advertising. I received one of the balls but was always suspect as to if he had actually signed it. (I no longer have it.) Hank Aaron is a signature that needs to be authenticated.

    All glory is fleeting.
  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I was emailing some photos to someone so I figured I'd also post here.

    A two dollar bill with an ink signature of Mary Ellen Withrow who was Treasurer when the note was issued.


  • PipestonePetePipestonePete Posts: 1,940 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Back in the early 1990's I sent two Series 1935 Silver Certificates (With Motto and Without Motto) to C. Douglas Dillon who graciously honored my autograph request. Here is one of those notes.

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @PipestonePete said:
    Back in the early 1990's I sent two Series 1935 Silver Certificates (With Motto and Without Motto) to C. Douglas Dillon who graciously honored my autograph request. Here is one of those notes.

    Nice!

    I got a few things signed by Dillon but never got around to getting some uncirculated silver certificates to send him.





  • Great day yesterday picking up my Autograph submissions at PSA in N.J.---these are the 4 I got graded

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Nice sigs, in top grades!

  • PastaBoyPastaBoy Posts: 184 ✭✭✭

    Just found this in an old stash:

  • PastaBoyPastaBoy Posts: 184 ✭✭✭

    One more change of pace.

  • PipestonePetePipestonePete Posts: 1,940 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Mr. Monk and Ms. Dunbar. Very nice items!

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭

    My Neil Armstrong from the early 1990s, near the end of his signing days.

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 28, 2021 2:14PM

    In the late 1990s Eric Clapton was easy to get. Just send a SASE and he would send a postcard-sized photo. He added the year after his name.

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 28, 2021 2:22PM

    Gerald Ford taking the oath of office in 1974 and Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter walking to the White House after their 1977 inauguration.

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Back in "the old days" you got your cancelled checks back in your monthly statement.

    Here are a couple checks I sent to Mother Teresa (now a saint) for return postage, and donations for Habitat for Humanity where the checks were made out to Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.

  • PipestonePetePipestonePete Posts: 1,940 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Those are all fantastic!! I wish I had thought of writing Clapton. I obtained several Carter signed books when he did a signing in the Twin Cities back in the '90's. And that Armstrong is exquisite. That is a $4K+ signature. It looks pristine! How were you able to get it signed but not personalized?

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I am sure that i just wrote to Armstrong and asked for a signed photo. It was his decision to not inscribe it. My guess is that by then he was either tired of all the photo signing, or perhaps he was out of town and left a stack for filling autograph requests, but that's all just speculation in my part.

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Years ago I attended my one and only baseball card show because some Red Sox players, including Ted Williams, were there signing autographs.

    I bought my $35 ticket to get my baseball signed by Williams, and while I was waiting for my timed entry, I bought this photo for $3. It shows Williams, Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio, and Johnny Pesky.

    I knew I could get all except Williams through the mail, and so I did over the course of the next year or so. That left me with only the Ted Williams signature missing. I could have had him sign it for $30 the day I bought the photo, but that day I was focused on getting my baseball signed.

    When he did a private signing a few years later I had to pay $183 to get it signed. I went ahead and mailed it out since I did not want to be cursed by future owners for skipping the most valuable signature. I am not sure it is worth today all the money it cost me to complete, but I'm glad I got it done.

  • ernie11ernie11 Posts: 1,949 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 1, 2021 1:21AM

    Speaking of checks, an autographed check from the Three Stooges' Moe Howard.

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 1, 2021 1:30AM

    @ernie11 said:
    Speaking of checks, an autographed check from the Three Stooges' Moe Howard.

    Excellent!

    As I understand it, his kids or grandkids sold off a lot of his memorabilia just a few years ago and these checks were part of that sale.

    As I recall, they weren't cheap, but I am glad to see that the TS are still sought after.

    I think there were six "Three Stooges" and yet I don't have any of them. :(

    The closest I have is a check signed by Zeppo Marx, but that's not the same thing. :)

  • ernie11ernie11 Posts: 1,949 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 1, 2021 1:52AM

    @JBK said:

    @ernie11 said:
    Speaking of checks, an autographed check from the Three Stooges' Moe Howard.

    Excellent!

    As I understand it, his kids or grandkids sold off a lot of his memorabilia just a few years ago and these checks were part of that sale.

    As I recall, they weren't cheap, but I am glad to see that the TS are still sought after.

    I think there were six "Three Stooges" and yet I don't have any of them. :(

    The closest I have is a check signed by Zeppo Marx, but that's not the same thing. :)

    Actually, I got this one for free, when I bought Moe's daughter's book about Curly back in 1985 - she was giving them away with the purchase of the book.

    The same thing happened when I bought Baseball Hall of Famer Edd Roush's plaque card from his estate - they sent me one of his cancelled checks as an extra.

    P.S. I have no Marx Brothers' autographs, wished I did.

  • PipestonePetePipestonePete Posts: 1,940 ✭✭✭✭✭

    When did you make that purchase?

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @ernie11 said:

    Actually, I got this one for free, when I bought Moe's daughter's book about Curly back in 1985 - she was giving them away with the purchase of the book.

    :o
    That was the deal of the century!

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 1, 2021 7:08AM

    An observation on the Red Sox photo I posted above...

    It still amazes me that the ink on all the signatures matches - blue extra fine print Sharpie. They all used the same type of pen.

    That is amazing since they all signed it separately when mailed to each one.

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Back in the late 1980s I wrote to Woody Woodpecker creator Walter Lantz and asked if Woody had ever been portrayed in a military uniform. I knew that he had appeared in patriotic shorts during WWII but I was curious to know if he ever wore a uniform.

    After Walter Lantz responded that Woody had never appeared in uniform, I wrote to ask if he would send me a sketch of Woody wearing one.

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2, 2021 3:49PM

    Years ago I went through a period where I actively sought authentically signed free-franked envelopes from politicians. The response rate was a little disappointing so I pretty much gave up on that project, but I did get a number of nice ones.

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2, 2021 3:50PM

    The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1980, and as Inauguration Day on January 20, 1981 approached I wrote to the US embassy in Kabul to ask if I could have one of the photos of outgoing President Carter that had been displayed there.

    A diplomat from the embassy sent me a photo, which I subsequently had Carter sign.

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2, 2021 1:34PM

    Presidential autograph cards with printed signatures were easy to get from the White House and provided a good host for adding real signatures.

    Oliver North and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on Reagan cards, and a genuine Gerald Ford added above his printed signature.

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I stumbled on this historical figure quite by accident. I got my first reply from him in response to a letter about something unrelated which I had read in the newspaper. He responded on a special postcard that highlighted his historical role on D Day.

    I subsequently got a few more examples.

    Major John Howard, who led the British unit that flew gliders into Normandy to capture Pegasus Bridge hours before the beach assault began.

  • PipestonePetePipestonePete Posts: 1,940 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Damn.....you're killing me. These are super!!

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭

    At one time it was pretty easy to get nice 8x10 photos (real photos on photo paper) from the White House. I used to ask for them occasionally for potential use after the president left office.

    Here is an official photo of Pres. George HW Bush with VP Dan Quayle. I sent it off for signatures after they left office.

    Quayle signed it first and he used a big fat Sharpie. I figured it would look ridiculous with a small Bush signature, so I asked him to use a thick pen as well.

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,682 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 4, 2021 3:35PM

    Aside from maybe a book plate for one of his books, I was only ever able to get one autograph from Ronald Reagan. :/

    But what a success it was. :)

Sign In or Register to comment.