Help identifying "rubber stamp" autographs...Mickey Mantle edition **4 months later**
 

Hope everyone is doing well.......

I picked these 2 Mantles up a couple of years ago. Mostly because the cards are real. I was reading another post today that spoke of a rubber stamp autograph. Is that what these are? Or just a bad forge job?

Another question I had is, regardless of what these signatures may or may not be, will SGC grade something like this?

Specifically I am wanting to send them in and have the card authenticated, not graded. I know the '64 is gonna grade out at a 1 because of the paper loss on the front top. The '66 is in pretty nice shape in my opinion and I mention SGC b/c they are my top choice when it comes to slabbing these days.

Any and all help would be sincerely appreciated, thanks!

*apologies if I have posted this in the wrong area, wasn't sure where exactly to go with this*

In Photoshop, I laid the autographs (or the visible parts of them) on top of each other for comparison, and they are exact matches, so it's definitely a stamp job (I have plenty of them from Yaz and other players from back in the day).

With SGC, use the on-line submission form to mark it as "authentic only" (or whatever it is specifically) and in the the toploader you mail the card in, include a small slip of paper saying something like: This card is to only be labeled "authentic."
That will reinforce what you want and prevent errors from happening.

My man......a sincere thank you for taking the time to do that! Great info and much appreciated!!

My concern was that they would reject grading it completely b/c they are no longer in the autograph business and if they were to authenticate the card it could be misinterpreted as them authenticating the card and the auto or something along those lines (hopefully that makes sense).

Thanks again!!!!

Now I understand your worry a bit more - the gray area between authenticating the card itself and giving the false impression that the auto is real. Gotcha.

SGC is great with the customer service, so send them an e-mail explaining the situation (with pics) and they will LYK the situation.

Since the goal is to only have the cards deemed 'authentic' anyway, have you thought about soaking them to try to get rid of some of the ink? That's definitely worth thinking about, as it may help solve the problem (if enough of the signatures disappear to eliminate the possible confusion).

Hey, thanks for the follow up. I haven't been around my computer again until today (I uninstalled the app)

I just sent them a "general inquiry" thingy from the website, I'll reply back when they do :D

Oh....and I'm a big 'ol chicken when it comes to soaking. Even though I have a small pile a plan on attempting to soak.....one day :rolleyes:

Thanks again for all the information, greatly appreciated!

Houston we have an update.......I was hornswagled, hoodwinked, bamboozled:eek:

By SGC.....

So I emailed per the friendly suggestion and received a response back instructing me that yes that would authenticate the cards, just send'em on in. Waited a bit, then sent them in around Christmas (yes this post is that old) However, I did print out the letter and wrote a little note explaning what I was hoping/looking for them to do.

A lil' while into their journey after being received by SGC I get an alert on my phone that I've been refunded on my CC for $30 from SGC. When I get them back they were slapped with a do not grade/we dont grade type sticker, no explanation, and my letter was gone.....I did not pursue the matter further (thought about hounding someone for a discount voucher or something but meh...whatever)

I can see why they would have a problem grading them. Your best bet is to remove the stamp. I doubt I would use soaking for that. If soaking would work so would a damp Qtip and a cotton ball. Then send them in for grading.

Interesting
 

I bought a rubber stamped autographed 1953 Bowman Campanella from the Gray Ghost here on Net54 recently.... and it has the same issue your 1966 Topps Mantle has! These were probably in a large stack.... stamp, stack, stamp, stack..... etc..... and you can see a bit of the prior card stamp wet transfered onto the back! Not a big deal but shows they were in a "production line"..... cool cards just as they are IMO.