Opinion on ruth
 

Hi all,

I have my doubts on this, but I am far from an expert and wanted to put it to the crowd. What do you think of this sig?

Do you have two user names?

Nope always used the same one.

why, do I seem like someone else?

Steve D asked about the same auto here http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=228401

Ahh, that makes sense.

Nope we just both ran across the same thing it looks like, lol. Wish I would have saw that thread first.

100% no good

Hunt Auctions disagree with you, Brendan.

The B is abnormal, the a is abnormal, the R is abnormal, the crossing of the t is abnormal, the pen pressure is abnormal, the flow is abnormal, the darkness is abnormal, the spacing is abnormal, and it looks like it was signed yesterday. I wouldn't buy it.

You just reminded me of Marty Feldman in Young Frankenstein, when he was telling Dr. Frankenstein (Gene Wilder), what the labeling on the jar he took the brain from, said. He thought it was from someone named A.B. Normal :D


Steve

Thanks for the input Brendan.

I have been getting the same feedback privately also. The reason I would never buy a Ruth without consulting with the pros first.

Thanks!

Not a problem. Keep 'em coming!

I second Justin's thanks to you Brendan. I was also interested in this Ruth autograph, and had asked for opinions.

Steve

Well, that all sort of makes me happy.

I didn't like it, but more based on the item. A FDC for that stamp is a good candidate for a sig, but not necessarily that one. (It's also a good candidate for fakery since they're cheap and common) The cancel is a machine done cancel, so it would have been in a big stack of covers being run through the machine and those almost always went into the mail rather than being handed back. I'd have to check, but at some point they were very against cancelling and handing the cover back because it was mail and had to go through the system.
The typed address is also more like a mail ordered cover than one that was gotten in person. A quick search finds five with the identical cachet but no autograph all with different typed addresses and all canceled with the 9 AM time. So the commercial cachet maker sent a bunch to Cooperstown beforehand, the PO processed them and put them into the outgoing mail from the ceremony.

Of course a cover could be signed later, but that's less likely.

Steve B

Keep in mind that this particular cover was addressed to Rutherford, NJ, which is a suburb of New York City. Perhaps the recipient couldn't get up to Cooperstown personally on induction day, and was far more likely to encounter The Babe locally over the following nine years.

Since this signature does have issues, however, all the above would be moot in this specific instance. I'm just saying that one thing to consider is the recipient's proximity to the player's home/ballpark.

Steve

That's a fair point.

A lot of first day covers were obtained through the cachet makers, or by direct mail to the issuing post office. Nowhere near as many are gotten in person. Since they're usually cheap I sort of collect first day covers that have "problems" or are odd in some way. Like one that was return to sender because the stamps covered the address, or one damaged in transit, or cancelled wrong.....

Steve B