The Strange Saga of the Autographed B&W Hall of Fame Plaque Postcards

[JimStinson]

In the interest of sharing information , thought I'd post this story which I'm asked about often instead of repeating it over and over . Most long time collectors and dealers are aware of it but it still surprises me how many haven't.
In the 1980's I was visiting the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in the winter. I loved visiting the Hall in the winter because there was never anyone there , there was snow on the ground it was cold and you could walk around inside the HOF and not see a soul, Like being in your own private museum. Anyway I remember on my way out stopping at the gift shop and along with the usual trinkets they sell there were boxes upon boxes of the old Black and White Hall of Fame plaque postcards all in mint condition , There must have been at least a few thousand. I thought they had stopped selling those in the 1950's or 60's so I asked the clerk and she said they had stumbled across the boxes in storage and had just that week put them out for sale.
I walked down the street and into a gift shop and MORE boxes of black and white plaques which they had bought as overflow from the Hall with a slight markup in price and were selling them too.
I always liked the look of those old style plaques displayed with autographs and was going to buy a bundle of them because they were priced pretty cheap but didn't want to jockey them around with me on the airplane so I asked about shipping and was told it was no problem. I enjoyed the rest of my vacation and when I got back home a couple weeks later I called the Hall to place my order and guess what ?......SOLD OUT. I figured there must be some mistake so I called the gift shop down the street and to my surprise they too were SOLD OUT
So I figured since they were priced so reasonably that someone smarter than myself knew a bargain when they saw it and that was that. UNTIL ABOUT A MONTH LATER....................
In those days not EVERYONE was an autograph dealer that sold baseball autographs so I used to get ALOT of mail from people selling their collections. I still do today but back then it was Crazy ! In fact even when I used to do card shows if someone walked in the door with a box of autographs the dealers who were all selling baseball cards would tell them "You got autographs ? Go see Jim"
So now I start getting mail from all over the country with ....you guessed it , Autographed Black and White Hall of Fame Plaque collections , and not just one part of the country , they were coming out of Mississippi, Lousiana, NY, etc etc , complete with photo copies and the signatures looked convincing , many were even inscribed. All from different people that when I called them on the phone and asked them where they got em ...all seemed to have the same thing in common. "My grandfather.....blah, blah, blah"
I tipped off all of the other collectors and dealers I knew who amazingly were all getting the same offers that I was. It was easy to network then.
So Maybe it was just a coincidence that all the Hall's plaques got bought up at exactly the same time as dozens of "Plaque Collections" hit the market. Maybe I am just a cynic
Anyway rumors began swirling about where those things ended up, and one of the stories was that a well known autograph dealer (now out of business) and another well known dealer (now deceased) bought most of them. But it was after that the trail went cold. So probably some well intentioned individual realizing his folly destroyed them all and that was the end of the story. Or Maybe not. But to this day after over 30 years as a collector/dealer I can count on maybe one hand the number of tough signed HOF Black and White plaques I've bought and sold and always tracked the provenance back beyond that day at the Hall of Fame when I looked at ALL THOSE boxes of plaques and asked myself "What would somebody DO with all these ?"

[RichardSimon]

Sounds like Chapter 9 in the life story of Ron Dross.
He bought them and pulled off a huge scam, nailing a couple of dealers in the process for big bucks.
I still have the photocopies from this scam.

[JimStinson]

I had heard that Dross was involved but I have always suspected it was more than one person , Because some of the forgeries were REALLY convincing and while I will admit the fakes that Dross was cranking out could fool alot of people especially compared to the relatively crude stuff that was floating around back then. Alot of the ones I looked at and still have copies of would fool most people and in fact have !

[RichardSimon]

I was actively doing New York shows at that time and the 100% consensus in NY was that Dross was the one and only forger though he had a front man selling them for him. I cannot remember the name of the front man but I know of at least three New York area dealers who bought this crap. I bought some of them, sight unseen, with a money back guarantee. I bought them from one of those New York dealers but as soon as I saw them I returned them and got my money back.

[BERTO]

Originally Posted by richardsimon

i was actively doing new york shows at that time and the 100% consensus in ny was that dross was the one and only forger though he had a front man selling them for him. I cannot remember the name of the front man but i know of at least three new york area dealers who bought this crap. I bought some of them, sight unseen, with a money back guarantee. I bought them from one of those new york dealers but as soon as i saw them i returned them and got my money back.

for ron dross....was "bobby moore". He disappeared at the exact same time ron did, ron's dead...for along time. I was close friends with a lawyer who told me that, as he had handled dross's divorce also. Dross even gave the lawyer a few fake balls which i saw in the guys office and i told him they were fake. Thats when he told me he got them from dross and i said....oh, boyyyy...lol....

Thats how i found out ron had died....this happened in 1997 or so.

[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by BERTO

for ron dross....was "bobby moore". He disappeared at the exact same time ron did, ron's dead...for along time. I was close friends with a lawyer who told me that, as he had handled dross's divorce also. Dross even gave the lawyer a few fake balls which i saw in the guys office and i told him they were fake. Thats when he told me he got them from dross and i said....oh, boyyyy...lol....

Thats how i found out ron had died....this happened in 1997 or so.

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure."- Clarence Darrow