Bonus Autographs

[mrmopar]

I won an ebay auction a couple weeks ago for a Frank Demaree autograph on an approximately 4x6 photo that looks like it may have come from a scorecard or other periodical. it was one of several fairly inexpensive items I won from the same seller. When they arrived, I was checking them out when I noticed the back of the photo had a photo of Tuck Stainback that was also signed. There had been no mention of the reverse side, so perhaps the seller didn't even realize it was also signed. A similar photo of Curt Davis from the same periodical (signed) was also won by me from this same seller and the reverse of his photo was Lonnie Frey, but that side was unsigned.

It was nothing epic, but a nice surprise bonus autograph that obviously could not have been separated from the Demaree, but may have possibly helped the seller get a little more $, had it been mentioned.

This reminded me of another item I won maybe 10-15 years ago. It was a Dodgers Media Guide. I bought it because I was trying to get a run of guides issued during Garvey's active years. When the item arrived, I quickly looked through it (something I have not always done with magazines/books and other printed materials) and happened upon a Sandy Koufax autograph. I have never shown it to anyone, but as it was not described in the listing and I found it by accident, plus it looked good to me based on other signatures, I have always assumed it to be authentic.

I also bought a lot of Dodgers program once that included one item with 5-6 Cardinals signatures, including Lou Brock, that was not shown or described. I am guessing the seller never looked and didn't realize one of the programs had signatures on it.

A couple nice bonus signatures that I was not expecting.

I am sure it is not uncommon for multiplayer signed items to be sold where the seller has not identified all of the signatures. Maybe some folks have even noticed a desirable signature on an item, where it was not described, thus making it the "bonus" signature of the lot.

I share this because I am curious to know what kind of bonus signatures others may have ended up receiving from a purchase that you had no idea you were getting, whether you identified something in an unidentified group as being significant after the fact or it was not shown/described, but you found it later.

[roarfrom34]

Curt

Very cool stories about bonus autographs!

I think the closest I came to this was back in 1986, when late in the season I sent a 8x10 to Cal Ripken Sr. c/o The Orioles thinking I could then add Jr.'s signature in the off season at an event/public signing.

Imagine my surprise when the photo came back to see that not only had Sr. signed it, but he had his son sign it too!

[jerseygary]

I was pleasantly surprised when I received a used copy of the 1941 Who's Who and found that it may have belonged to Pirates ace Max Butcher who marked the cover "Prop of Max Butcher." I looked at versions of Butcher's signature and it looks pretty good to my untrained eye. Max must have studied up on the hitters in his Who's Who because he recovered from a 17 loss 1940 and won a career-high 17 games in '41. Unfortunately he spent his career with really bad teams and died of alcohol-related liver problems in 1957 at the too-young age of 46.

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[Bigdaddy]

I recently won a group of 3 used NY Yankees postcards on the 'Bay. There was no mention of any autographs on the three, but you could see from the photos that the Joe Collins had signature on the back.

Once I got them in hand, I could tell that the Collins was authentic, and also found that the Rizutto was addressed in his hand. No autograph, but the address was clearly written by him as it has his telltale letter formation for the two 'B's in 'Brown' and 'Bronx' that he uses for the 'P's and 'R's in his name. I could not determine if the addresses on the Bauer and Collins were in their hand or not.