What used to be the consensus on getting Vintage cards signed?

[mattsey9]

Originally Posted by Seven

Fascinating how times change. What Steve said about Mantle during his shows makes me think how many other players also thought this and asked people if they were sure, that they wanted the card signed.

I remember hearing this story about Andy Pafko and his 52 Topps card.

[Republicaninmass]

Originally Posted by mattsey9

I remember hearing this story about Andy Pafko and his 52 Topps card.

Funny because I'd wager a guess while Andy stopped signing, his kids kept the carss sent to him ttm. Sent him 3, never had one returned!

[rhettyeakley]

I can also confirm the idea in the 1980's that is was bad form to get an expensive card signed. It was pretty much the consensus that an autograph on a nice card hurt the value, not by a little but by A LOT.

Honestly, it never made much sense to me and I should have followed my gut that that wasn't going to be that way forever. I did to a degree and picked up a few nice cards but I never had the available funds as a kid to do much with the thought process.

[T206Collector]

There were several collectors in the 1950s and 60s who were getting baseball cards signed, including some like Jeff Morey, Tom Marsilio, Don “Barefoot” Post, and John D. Wagner, who pursued autographs on pre-war cards. The recent sales of the Uncle Jimmy signed Goudey collection show this aspect of the hobby was active as far back as the 1930s and 1940s.

Here’s a fun article from autograph pioneer Jack Smalling published in the April 1966 Sports Trader. Smalling talks about his pursuit of Mantle’s signature on his 1951, 1952, 1954, and 1955 Bowman cards. Read on to see what happened to Jack’s ‘51 Bowman Mantle!

[whitehse]

I remember running card shows in the early to mid '90's in the Chicago area and I had Andy Pafko as an autograph guest. As the line of autograph seekers filed past Mr. Pafko, a twenty-something collector plopped down a '52 Pafko he wanted signed.

We all tried to talk him out of it.

The autograph will devalue a big dollar card we told him.

He is going to regret getting that card signed we told him.

Mr. Pafko tried to talk him out of it.

The collector persisted he wanted his card signed. I looked at Andy and he looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and put his autograph on the card.

As soon as the sharpie hit the cardboard, the whole room groaned!!

[scottglevy]

One of my favorite old time players was dodgers HOFer Harold “Pee Wee” Reese. I got to meet him in person - along with Johnny Bench at a charity golf event on Long Island over two (maybe close to three) decades ago.

I brought a few low dollar value cards and a ball for him to sign and a reprint of the 1953 Bowman set ... one of my all time favorite cardboard images. To this day I regret not having him sign the original card. But back in the day it was too valuable to ruin