The HOF plaque society (Looking out for everyone!)
 

As my thread in the B/S/T forum indicates, I am ga ga for Hall of Fame plaque postcards.

I first started collected in 2003. That was my first trip to Cooperstown. I wanted to get some Hall of Famers autos but wasn't sure what medium. An expierenced collector overheard me and suggested the HOF postcards due to their easy travel size and wealth of information. He also told me to erase the top so that the signature didn't streak or skip. I didn't listen at first so that's why some of my earlier ones (Feller, Marichal, Killebrew) don't look so good in my album.

So this thread serves many purposes:
-Show off collections including recent wins on auction.
-Show off more information on these items
-Track HOF'er signings private and public
-Expose sites clearly showing fake postcards

And speaking of the last one, see what you can find wrong with this listing other than "most of them are clearly signed with the same sharpie"
https://memorabiliacenter.com/produc...e-postcards-2/

Good Luck! I was deep into signed HOF Plaques some time ago (ran HOFPlaques.com). Some of them are TOUGH!

As for that link- nothing looks good from them. How do they have a FAKE Jimmy Carter Auto? And on top of that a Fake Bobby Doerr? Those guys signed(or sign) just about anything!

...and that Campanella is way too neat for a post accident sig. Geez

Thanks! I LOVED your site. Sorry it's not up anymore.

Another one, Bill McKechnie in that link is impossible. He died before the golds were printed.

Wow, every one of those is fake, and they were all signed by the same person.

Absolutely Horrible.

So today's topic is Ebay. The vast marketplace of items that is part Estate sale, part dingy flea market in a bad neighborhood.

I personally don't mind buying the cheaper ones on there but I'd never go for any bigger names. Even with the "lesser" names, I will still hesitate.

Yet another collection of clearly fake plaques from our "favorite place" including a Tommy Connolly gold (which is not possibly, he died in 1961 and they came out around 1965)
http://www.myccsa.com/lot/332/(15)-d...stcards-1.aspx

Look like same hand. Also a fake Bob Feller lol.

No way. That could actually be more scarce than a real Bob Feller.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Baseball-Re...gAAOSwWc1ecnJJ

Signed Red Ruffing postcard with a stamp dated 3 years after he died :P

The date is the first day the stamp was for sale, and from Cooperstown where the stamp was issued.
At the first day ceremonies, it was/is typical for people to make their own first day covers, including stamps on the picture side of a postcard.
With popular topics, having that done on an item that may not have any direct connection to the stamp subject.

Unlike a postcard or envelope that went through the mails, the postmark on something like this isn't something that would exclude a signature from being real. On these, the signature should be judged on its own.

I bought a few covers from Elten Schilers collection at a stamp show, and some of the all star game "covers" were unusual to say the least. But he was a Padres employee and collected Stamps and autographs.

The combination is unusual, I'm not sure I'd consider combining those two players.

I was in Cooperstown for induction weekend that year. The USPS had set up a small tent on Main Street outside the post office where you could buy the Gehrig stamp. You had the choice of affixing it to whatever you wanted and then using their rubber stamps to postmark it yourself. I saw some people with very strange notions about what to put the stamp on, including items of value which made my jaw drop. You'd think that people would have known a bit better by then, but clearly not.

Thanks for clarifying. That is a weird combination though. I can see collecting stamps but why years after getting it signed?

The stuff I bought from that collection, and from the same dealer was pretty odd. I think that having odd items stamped or signed was his "thing"

Some of the autographs were a bit odd too. Not odd for the item, just people who probably didn't get many requests at all.
Like a 1986 All-Star game commemorative cover signed by Don Davidson the Astros travelling secretary. (Houston was the host city)

Stamp with a special cancel from the queen city stamp market... On a 1988 ASG Brunch buffet ticket.

Gehrig stamp and 1989 ASG cancel on... an Angels ticket envelope.

He had some nice stuff too though, like large ASG covers with multiple signatures of all stars that year.
He had a box of much better items, but nothing I could afford after buying stamps for a few hours.

I don't usually buy signed stuff for much, but I went over budget for a couple nice but not too expensive items, and a handful of just strange ones.

You are in a great area for good paper/stamp collectible shows. The April paper show in Boxborough has been cancelled, but they will probably have it again in September. You can sign up for an email notification. The stamp show is still scheduled for the Boxborough Regency July 24-26 which I believe is two weeks after the summer edition of Brimfield. Papermania in Hartford is also a great show. Usually the weekend before Labor Day and the weekend after New Years day. When I lived up there I would hit all of those shows and the Ephemera Society Show in Greenwich, CT. I found lots of great items. Many of the dealers will have signed items, but not value them as much. Some of the items I sort of wish I still had - Johnny Evers signed 1939 baseball cover, letter written by a Confederate General killed at Gettysburg in Picketts Charge, Nikola Tesla signed card, multiple documents signed by the Confederate General who gave Stonewall Jackson his nickname and was killed at the First Battle of Manassas, but that was just a phase of my collecting life.

I've been to Boxboro, and some ephemera shows. That's where I bought the Elten Schiller stuff.
I've found an occasional autograph in the dollar boxes.


There was a Boston book fair with a side ephemera show that was strange. The book fair was in the Hynes, the ephemera was in the parking garage next door. Weird seeing a fairly high end show being held like a flea market, and many booths on the ramps.

Once the kids came, I don't get out as much.
I get to Boxboro most years, and one or two other shows of some kind. Blockmania/legomania was sort of cool, except for lego being aggressively litigious. Even people making lamps out of legos couldn't call them "Lego lamps" supposedly because it implied that they were a product of the company.

I remember that show. ABAA bookshow in the Hynes and the ephemera show in the garage on Dalton Street. The ABAA people are a bit of dicks. No bags, no coat no nothing or you cannot enter. Yet strangely, a few of the sellers are people I would not trust with a bag of dog crap.

If you can make it down to Hartford for Papermania it may be worth your while. I can remember going down there prior to moving to Virginia in 2004 and seeing quite a few Morgan Bulkely signatures. The show had gotten a bit less intense the last time I went (2007 or 2008). When I first started going you would get in line several hours before the ticket booth would open, then after buying the tickets you would get into another line to get in the door. After the door opened you would walk down the stairs to the exhibit hall below the coliseum and stand behind a rope until they opened. Many of the dealers were the same and had the same booths. I knew which ones may have autographs I was looking for and would head there first. After that I would spend the rest of the day scrounging around. I even recall Josh Leland setting up and having a booth filled with press photos. Gary Somers (ponytail, glasses and Hawaiin shirts) from "Antiques Roadshow" and a good acquaintance would also set up.

I am hoping to check out the Allentown, PA paper show when I remember to go.

This Red Ruffing HOF Plaque is authentic

Yup, corrected myself above. I saw the date stamp and only based it on that. Learned from this.

Our favorite place at it again:
http://myccsa.com/lot/335/(20)-diffe...postcards.aspx

Once more...why even forge the lower value guys? Also, yet another Roy Campanella signed extremely well for a paralyzed man :P

So I've decided I am going to maintain a website on plaque postcards. I've already sent an inquiry to Dumbarton Oaks in DC which originally had the Curt Teich Company collection as well as the Newberry which has the collection now.

If I can't do my archival work for my career at the moment, at least I can keep my skills sharp right now :D

I'd love to see the site when it's up. I am missing Campanella, Goslin and Jackie Robinson and then a few of the more recent ones. I've been going at it since 1991 when I thought it would be cool to get Brooks Robinson on my postcard!

Thanks and glad to see yet another plaque collector here!

Probably will a bit with the site. Still doing research and I've only finished the A-C names.

Early pieces starting to take place. The researcher at the Newbury found this:
https://archive.org/details/new-york.../n560/mode/1up

Hopefully we'll eventually find completion and shipping dates. Looks like they didn't even order them until a few days after the Induction back then. Note the many mistakes including Arthur "Vans" and "Paul G. Wagner."

As mentioned in my Plaque thread in the buying section, there will not be any postcards in 2020 due to the ceremony being cancelled.

Also, a seller to avoid. REALLY bad fake plaques here and other bad autos:
https://www.ebay.com/usr/kheimy6?_trksid=p2047675.l2559