I want to begin by thanking each of those who offered valuable insights and analysis of the autograph on this card. I strongly suspected it was not genuine, but wanted to get the wisdom of this group before putting it to bed.
I thought you might be interested in the background and how I ended up with the card. As many of you know, I had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and given 6 months to a year to live. You may also know that i still believe the diagnosis was a blessing as I have experienced numerous silver linings directly attributed to my diagnosis. One if those blessings was the diagnosis forced me into disability freeing time for me to dive back into my boyhood passion and ultimately building life long relationships with some terrific fellow collectors.
After organizing my collection and building a massive spreadsheet to document what I have and need, i started to fill in the many holes. After a period of time, i decided to start selling or trading my duplicate signed cards. I have now sold or traded 3300 vintage signed baseball cards and still have about 6000 duplicates. I have over 21k in total and thousands of cuts, pictures 3x5s, PC's, etc. I am a passionate nut!
One of my first trades was with another net54 member, whom I trusted. It was a massive trade (many hotf signed cards on my end including some very difficult and high demand signed cards. On his end were also a number of cards that I needed, including this one. I was very naive and assumed anything he offered was authentic. He offered this card with a relatively low trade value, which should have been a red flag. Fast forward 5 years or so and I decided to scrutinize any high end autographs that I did not obtain directly (mine were obtained mostly at hotels and ttm in the late 60s through mid 70s). Armed with experience garnered by many of you, this signature seemed off to me. You have confirmed my suspician. It is disappointing news, of course, but in the balance of all of the great trades and purchases I have made and the joy and relationships this hobby has brought, I am WAY ahead!! I've been burned twice (both from net54 members...the other trade was much worse😥
but if you keep your foot on first base, you'll never make it to the next base and beyond. Hopefully, I've learned from each experience.
Now for the health update. After well over a hundred rounds of chemo, radiation and surgery, I am remarkably in remission. My oncologist gave me less than a 3% chance to be alive today and 1 in 1000 chance of being in remission. .
Thanks again to this board for facilitating many of my positive relationships, educating me and sharing your wisdom,
Robert