When did Blue Sharpie Become Common?
 

Quick question for those of you who have been at this longer than I have. Can you comment regarding when blue Sharpies became commonly used for autographs? I am looking at an unauthenticated card for a player who died in 1991, and it is signed with a blue Sharpie. If there is nothing usual about a autographed card from the late 80s signed that way, I'll be doing more due diligence, but don't want to waste any more effort if this is unusual.

Thanks in advance.

Without giving you a dissertation about the subject, blue Sharpie was the norm in the late 1980's. Nothing to worry about.

Blue and black were my go to sharpies for autos. Sometime I would grab red, but everyone was using blue. Best I can tell ya from my experience. No real reason, just used blue.

Butch

Thank you both. I only got back into the hobby in 2011 and autographed cards are only a side part of my collecting, so I am not an experrt, by any means.

Blue sharpies were the norm for many autos back into the late 70s. In my mind, their rise to prominence coincides with both the rise in # of shows with signers as well as the prominence of the glossy photo as the autograph item of choice. At many of the shows in the early 80s, glossy photos and balls were the most common items signed.

The first show I can clearly recall was with Mantle in around 78 or so. He was signing all the photos in sharpies and balls in ball point. Other items were mixed.

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This photo was signed by both players in 1984 using blue sharpie

https://i.imgur.com/blCI6dS.jpg

Don't forget that blue Flair pens existed for several years prior to Sharpie. ;)

Those were groovy.

But boy, did they dry out fast!

I have a friend who made the rounds in the 73-75 time frame doing hotel IP graphing and commonly used a sharpie. A lot of times he used red, but it was definitely a sharpie.

As far as blue goes, I know especially with bats that black sharpie's color tended to change to a greenish tint. I believe this was the beginning of the changeover from black to blue as the preferred sharpie color.

This is my understanding, and I've seen such signatures. I always used to prefer black autographs for pre-60s items, but the consensus is that blue sharpie signatures hold up better.

Then there was that transitional window in the mid 1970's-early 80's where some IP collectors favored purple Sharpie. I've heard it said that it dried faster. It apparently lost whatever footing it had by mid-decade. Too bad. I personally think the purple looks great on period cards. The vintage ink also had a way of aging that can't be replicated. If you want to call it an autograph patina, I guess you could. I like it.