T206 Player Autographs - Relative Scarcity

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by T206Collector

Thanks so much for sharing. My lists are an effort to be a sort of average of my experiences over the past 4 years of searching. Maloney is a great example. I used to think he was fairly easy, and now I'm not so sure -- because when I first started looking there were several options available on the market. Actually there are three available on eBay right now, but the price is higher than the scarcity, in my opinion. So they sit there like overpriced T206 commons.

Cicotte certainly isn't difficult, but people will pay $300+ for a nice one. He is on the easy side of expensive, so to speak. Like a Hall of Famer who lived a long time. Sam Crawford is a good comp for him in terms of price and availability.

Yes, that's a very close comparison price-wise, but would definitely say Wahoo signed a touch more. Another eerie similarity between the two men is that the vast majority of all available autographs were signed in the last decade of their lives. Sam, obviously due to his rediscovery with his 1957 induction and also his TGOTT chapter. Eddie due to his reemergence from living in hiding for many years. I either own or have owned one Cicotte 3X5 signed in fountain pen which predates all the material you normally see. That's a true rarity, but alas, not one that enough people see as special enough to command a rightful premium.

[T206Collector]

For sure Crawford signed more, and his autograph is way more available.

I definitely pay a premium for fountain pen signatures, all things equal — especially those players who are easier to find because they lived into the 1970s. Larry Doyle is a great example. Super easy to find with a ballpoint signature, but really tough to find with a fountain pen signature.

[Scott Garner]

Paul,
FWIW, I would elevate Bob "Dusty" Rhoads and Jess Tannehill into the more most difficult category, especially if you want it to be an earlier fountain pen signature.

Otherwise I pretty much agree with your list. Right on & great post!

[T206Collector]

Originally Posted by Scott Garner

I would elevate Bob "Dusty" Rhoades and Jess Tannehill

Okay, but who would you move up to an easier level than those two?

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by T206Collector

Okay, but who would you move up to an easier level than those two?

Hi Paul,
I would argue that Deacon Phillipe and Hooks Wiltse are much easier to find, IMHO.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Fountain pen examples aside, I'd put Rhoads into the second-easiest category and Tannehill into the second toughest.

There have definitely been more Philippes hitting the market lately than we've experienced in quite some time. Wiltse's availability fluctuates as well.

There will always be the lulls and relatively bountiful periods of availability with some of these, that's for sure, so several players will never permanently fit into one spot on the list.

I've been monitoring all of them forever; not because they're T206 subjects, but I just keep tabs on all autograph availability.

[T206Collector]

Okay, I made some adjustments with Rhoads, Tannehill, Phillippe, and Wiltse. I'm pretty happy with it currently. Thanks for all of the feedback.

For perspective, six years ago Jack Smalling sold his legendary collection of baseball autographs dating back to 1871 for $180,000 through Heritage. You can see that listing for over 13,000 different autographs here:

https://sports.ha.com/itm/baseball-c.../50002-50125.s

Heritage happened to include a link that listed every single one of the autographs here:

https://www.heritagestatic.com/c/d/c....825834710.pdf

If you match that list against the list of 391 players in the T206 set, you will see that Smalling only had 190 of those players, which is 200 shy of completion — not even halfway there!