Ted Williams auto?

[Wihawk]

I thought I'd take a chance on this one. Do any of you experienced auto collectors feel its legit? Thank you very much for any comments.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...#ht_3205wt_950

[slidekellyslide]

Isn't that a card pulled from an UD pack? I would think you're pretty safe with that although I think I read somewhere that his son John Henry was sometimes signing for him.

[steve B]

Upper deck used to sell specially autographed stuff through retail places. There was a shop in the local mall that carried some of it for a while. I'm not sure if it was a generic replica jersey place or the Red Sox store. Both were in about the same place at different times.

The UD stuff was usually pretty nice, but also expensive. Some of it was made specially for the retail stores.

I'd feel pretty comfortable with one of those pieces.

Steve B

[chaddurbin]

is it always the case a williams sig should have a closed d by "ted"...or is there an exception? this ball is being an auctioned by a major auction house and they have many other autos i'm interested in. if this is bad i might just refrain from the whole thing (since they go by their own authentication).

[jcmtiger]

This is a ball I have, the signature does have the closed "D". Maybe others will chime in.

Joe

[drc]

UDA is reliable.

[Big Dave]

The "d" in Ted or the "a" in Williams is not always closed.

That is just a myth.

[shelly]

i would not take the chance of an open d or a. . If it is a myth I would love to see five or six open a or d balls authenticated by Spence or Psa.

[Moesalty]

It's legit....no worries.

[Big Dave]

These are all currently on eBay.
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This is a Upper Deck Authenticated Ted Williams jersey.

Open "a"

http://cgi.ebay.com/Ted-Williams-Upp...item519a25a953

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UDA TW ball - open "a"

http://cgi.ebay.com/TED-WILLIAMS-Bol...item254f25043a

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UDA TW ball - open "d"

http://cgi.ebay.com/RED-SOX-TED-WILL...item5ad74f48e3

[shelly]

The two balls are closed a's not open,

[Big Dave]

The first ball is an open "a". The tops do not touch, close, but no cigar.

You are correct in regard to the second ball, it does have a closed "a", but if you will look at my description, I state that it has an open "d", which it does.

The Ted Williams ball shown in the post also has an open "d", and that ball will pass anybody that actually knows an authentic Ted Williams signature.

As I stated before, it is a myth. There are four examples in the post, and three are UDA.

[RichardSimon]

Yeah, UD is the best, the absolute best.
Look at the great stuff they have brought into the hobby.
I have many more pictures of other UD beauties too.
No myths here, just UD cards that all had huge price tags on ebay over the years.

[Big Dave]

Yep, just like a lot of people, they depended on someone's opinion on those pieces.

The signed in person stuff under UDA witness program is different.

[RichardSimon]

Whose opinion could they possibly have relied on for those pieces of junk?
JSA? No way.
PSA? No way.
In my opinion they relied on nobody's opinion on those items. They just stupidly went out into the autograph minefield and bought the cheapest items they could find,with no regard to checking authenticity.
I wonder which of their corporate geniuses was responsible for that.
I would think that person is now in the UDA witness protection program, probably a barista at the local coffee emporium in Albuquerque, praying that the jerks who bought this crap don't find him/her.

[Big Dave]

They use to get a lot of their vintage autographed items from Kevin Keating, but once these cut signature cards started being scrutinized and questioned heavily in regard to authenticity, they started using JSA for their vintage autograph reviews.

[RichardSimon]

I can guarantee you that those crap autographs that I illustrated were bought by UD after they stopped buying exclusively from Kevin Keating.
I know Kevin.
He is an honest seller in the minefield that we call autograph collecting.
Kevin would never sell anything like that.
In all probability they decided to look for cheaper prices than they were paying Kevin and that is what they came up with.
They did not start authenticating their autographs until they were shamed into doing so by all the negative publicity that this crap generated.

[Big Dave]

You could be right, who knows.

Every company is crap to some extent.