A question for those that collect HOF signed baseballs

[hawaiian bam bam]

thank you both very much for your help i appreciate it.

you answered all my questions dean! thank you , thats exactly what i was looking for.

dean, may i ask out of curiosity why would you change your medium now? (instead of signed baseballs?

does anyone know exactly how many different HOFers are possible to include both living and deceased? thanks

[Huck]

Originally Posted by hawaiian bam bam

dean, may i ask out of curiosity why would you change your medium now? (instead of signed baseballs?

does anyone know exactly how many different HOFers are possible to include both living and deceased? thanks

Why change now? I am now wiser! Plus, 200 baseballs is not cheap to display the way I want the balls displayed. The 153 ball case cost a few shekels. Also, the signatures of this era of players are horrific. Have a look at Harmon Killebrew's beautiful autograph and then take a gander at Greg Maddux's scribble. Egad. Drop over $150 on a ball for that kaka?

In the early 90's, I ventured over to the autograph side of the hobby when I read in the local paper that Willie Stargell was signing for $9 at a local show. I didn't know much about the autograph side of the hobby, but I did know that single side baseballs were the norm (don't get me started on single signed bats) besides a snow white ball signed on the sweet spot in blue ink is pretty awesome looking! There was also a local shop in most of the malls around here by the name of the Artists Proof (long gone) which sold vintage black and white pictures. I picked up a picture of Pops as well. Back then, I was where you are now, how many living hall of famers and the big three were Mantle, Williams and DiMaggio. I quickly narrowed the 50 plus possible autographs down to half a dozen and then branched out to MVP, CY, ROY award winners and various feats (Vandermeer etc.). I also mistakenly added current players with a lot of buzz so I have snow white balls of JD Drew, Ryan Minor - who asked "You want me to sign on the sweet spot?" - I should have grabbed that ball back quickly. Alas and of course those signatures never fade!

I didn't think the signatures would fade. But signatures do fade. Back then signatures were relatively cheap, but now most guys command a c-note or better. Yesterday, newly hof minted Mike Piazza signed in NJ for $179 a flat and an inscription was another $59. A collecting friend who was at the show, said Piazza's line was strong. So, $15 for the ball another $179 for Piazza to sign the ball and in 10 years it starts to fade? You are going to pull out your hair and spit chiclets! What has not been mentioned here is that signatures also bleed.

I was always looking for one item for hall of famers to sign. I looked long and hard for a picture of the hall with size, but there was just nothing out there. A few years ago, a buddy of mine took a picture of the hall of fame. A buddy of his airbrushed out all of the pedestrians and blew the picture up to something like 20 x 24. It is cool looking so I decided to purchase a copy of the picture. I now have 50 some signatures on the photograph. Once the photograph is full, I will have it framed properly and those signatures will likely not suffer from fading or bleeding.

I would say that signatures of all 312 (not sure if that number includes Griffey and Piazza) hall of famers are possible. There might be only a few signatures of some of the players from the 1800's and some of the former Negro league players and executives might prove difficult.

[hawaiian bam bam]

Hey Dean,
Thanks again for your insight, i appreciate it tremendously. you have been a great help. I see now what you mean about signed baseballs. a signed baseball looks amazing, but your right if its going to fade in 10-12 years why spend hundreds of dollars on them now. I love the look of signed perez steele cards. i cant prove it, but i swear that sharpie fades over time or at least my items just dont look the same years after getting them signed. however i know guys that have had cards signed in sharpie that look perfect 30+ years later! so i must just have really bad luck with fading baseballs a(signed in pen) and cards and photos signed in sharpie. sometimes even the actual photo started to fade(white ends of the photo appear) maybe the seller or original owner used cheap photo paper! LOL either way ive had bad luck with items long term fading. im actually starting to go the way of signed cut signatures like the upper deck sp legendary cuts as those are the only things that havent faded on me (most are signed in pen cuts and checks) but then again i love perez steele cards signed..its a confusing hobby! what to do, what to do!