Net54baseball.com Forums - Questions about this Babe Ruth auto

The first question obviously has to be about authenticity. Is this one good?

I have never been a collector of autographs although I have picked up a scant few here and there over the years. I know that the story behind a signature is meaningless if the signature is not authentic. It only means that the story is not authentic either. That being said, this is the story...I bought this from a middle-aged man 25 - 30 years ago. It was from his autograph book which was mostly people wishing him well as he was about to enter Junior High. The reverse side of this has one such inscription.

He also had an original photo of Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb at one of those WWII charity golf outings. Unfortunately, I sold the photo a long time ago. He told me that Ruth signed this for him at that event. The golf course was in Belleville or possibly Glen Ridge, NJ, if I remember correctly. The interesting thing to me is that this signature is in green fountain pen. Ty Cobb used green fountain pen often, I believe. So I always wondered if Ruth signed with Cobb's pen.

Back to my questions...As you can see, this otherwise bold Babe Ruth signature has a flaw (2 flaws if it is not authentic :) ); some paper loss which affects the "a" in Babe. So my questions are: If you believe this autograph to be authentic, is this still collectible \ desireable like this? And, how much does the flaw affect its value? For example, do you think it is worth 75%, 50%, 25%, of what it would be worth without that flaw?

I think there are a lot of people who want a Babe Ruth autograph and are willing to accept a flawed example because they can't afford or don't want to spend the money on a "10". This is evidenced by the many signed balls which sell even though the signature is very faded or worn out. Is some paper loss on the signature any worse than a badly faded example?

I would appreciate your comments.

http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/a...psbdbd7qow.jpg