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Posted By: warshawlaw

The pool of prewar cards signed is definitely limited. Among the HOFers DiMaggio, Appling, Gehringer, Herman, Hubbell and Terry are all pretty readily acquired on prewar cards, as all were active signers late into long lives that carried into the autograph era. Feller is darn near worthless; I think he's gonna be buried with his hand clutching a pen above the ground. Others are quite hard to find. REA had a lot of 4 exhibits signed by Young, Speaker, Cobb and Alexander that sold for an (appropriately) sky high price.

The premiums vary. In 2004 in Cleveland I paid $90 for a 1941 Goudey signed by Hubbell. I collected vintage cards signed by Appling, Feller, Gehringer and Herman "live" for the cost of the cards and the autograph fees. A Lefty Grove (d. 1975) autographed HOF plaque cost me nearly $300. I bid well into the hundreds but did not win a Lefty O'Doul (d. 1969) auto'd card.