Autogtaph Collecting Question???

[bfeather]

I am new to this forum but not new to collecting. I am 26 years old and have been collecting since I started playing hockey when I was 10 years old. At that age I decided to write a letter to all of my favorite hockey players; with a card enclosed with a card for them to sign, by looking up their teams stadium address in my Beckett. I received many letters back from those players with my card signed. I was just wondering if there is anyway to tell if those AUTOs are real, because I would like to trade some of them???

Thanks for reading,

Brian F.

[Wingsfan-13]

First, welcome to SCF. Any other questions feel free to ask. As far as authenticating them, it may be more expensive to get a COA (certifacate of authenticity) from a reputable authenticator than what they are actually worth. I have never actually done it but I would look to PSA or Beckett and they may have pricing!

[bfeather]

Thanks for the advice Josh. Some of the players I wrote to and received autographs from were P. Kariya, T. Selanne, Gretzky, P. Bure, B. Hull, J. Vanbiesbrouck, and Adam Oates. I will definitley do some more research on this through Beckett, although I love the memories and feelings when I received the letter in the mail.

Thanks again,

Brian F.

[v3rs3]

Unfortunately not many of those have great value though since they were signed cards and not originally a certified auto. TTM and IP autos don't have a huge market as far as selling/trading goes unless the player is deceased and it's been PSA/DNA certified.

[Wingsfan-13]

Yup...I did the same thing and got Gretzky and Hull. Fond memories, but not worth much to most collectors! You should hold onto them!

[jbudny]

If you do a little research you can figure out the authenticity. Just check ebay. Look at certified autos and other IP/TTM autos. You can also post scans here if you know how to do so and you can get some help from other collectors.

I can almost guarntee that the Gretzky is autopen and that the Bure is probably a pre-signed picture depending on what year you got it

[grandmastablank]

I prefer not purchasing or trading for TTM autos myself. Even when I send away for them, I dont know if they are real, but at least I know the guy at the Flea market didn;t sign them. At least I hope not....:S

[bfeather]

Yeah at least I know it was either him, an autopen, or someone that signed for that player. Who knows, I still have the original letter that all the autographed cards that were returned. I will try and post the autos that I have collected when I was younger. I just recently was doing a trade with someone from here on this forum and mentioned that I have an alfredsson auto from back in the day and sent a picture I took on my laptop and suprisingly he wanted it...along with some other cards for a trade. It was very interesting to see which players would sign my card or send me an auto photo...and sometimes the autos on the photo were not real, like Eric Lindros and John LeClair. It was just cool at the time to get something in the mail from an NHL player. Thanks for all the posts.

Brian F.

[xirxious]

I get stuff like that to keep in my PC. The market is so saturated with things of questionable originality, people usually go for the car company authenticated stuff. I've wanted a signed jersey of Yzerman for years, but didn't want to risk getting a fake. I'll catch him somewhere.