Vintage autograph value question.

[Lordstan]

OK,
So there is a guy on ebay with some signed cards, one of which interests me. He has an a card signed by a common player who died in 1963. He is asking at least 4x what I would expect a card from that player to sell for. The card is slabbed PSA/DNA with an autograph grade. He had many others, including some HOFers which were priced similarly, as I believe, out of line.

I called his office and inquired what he used to set his prices. His explanation was that the premium for the cards was because they were signed at, or close to, the time the card produced. His rationale is that a vintage signed item should value in the multiples, 2-3 or more times, of what a later signed similar item is valued at. He used as example of a rookie signed Jordan photo he sold for $1200, instead of the $300-400 usual price and a Lemieux item with a similar story.

My rebuttal was that only in certain circumstances does a signature dated to a specific time may increase the value of an item multiples the value of a regular sig. His examples of rookie signed M Jordan and M Lemieux items are both good examples where a certain provenance means something. A 1914 Baltimore News Ruth signed by a teenage Babe or a 1952 topps containing a 1950's era Mantle signature both certainly would value in the multiples of a later signed similar. The thing that ties all these items together is that all of these are players are/were the giants of the game they played. They are instantly recognizable across the world, for the most part. All are highly collected and command a premium even without anything special about the item. My point was that common players, and even some of the HOFers items would command a price increase, but only a percentage of the value(maybe 20-30%) instead of a multiple of the price.

Another issue I had, with this card, was that there is no documentation that comes with the card to prove this provenance. The card is only PSA/DNA encapsulated without any notations of "vintageness." After some discussion, we politely and amicably agreed to disagree on these points.

My questions for the community are what do you think? How much does a vintage signature on any item increase the price in relation to a later signed same item? Do you think there is a flat increment or does it vary by the item/player?

Thanks
Mark