Hauls of Shame: Honus Pocus: Magical Honus Wagner Autograph Uncovers Authentication Malpractice

The latest dirt on the crumbling baseball memorabilia industry. Worth a read, especially if you are planning on buying anything certified by JSA or PSA in the future (why you would want to buy cards and memorabilia arbitrarily graded and stuck between slabs of thick plastic is beyond me, though).

One of the items was a true gem that REA called an “extraordinary 1939 Hall of Fame first day cover (that was) signed in black ink by each of the eleven living members of the Hall of Fame present that day.”

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Having just paged through scores of old auction catalogues to find each and every offering of a signed first day cover or Baseball Centennial program at auction, I picked up a catalogue from a Mastro auction from April, 1999, and flipped through it quickly.  Within seconds a page caught my eye, as it showed the same first day cover and the exact same Cobb letter being offered as lot 824 by Mastro as, the “Fantastic Hall of Fame Cover and Ty Cobb Letter.”

Looking closely at the cover something just didn’t add up, it just didn’t look exactly the same as the REA cover.  I couldn’t put my finger on it at first, and I even thought for a moment that it might have been another cover altogether that Ballard had.  So, I copied both covers and put them side by side.  I could not believe my eyes.

The Honus Wagner signature that appeared on the 2001 REA cover had vanished right before my eyes. Poof. Gone.

Noted in the 1999 auction lot description was another absolute stunner in regard to the Cooperstown cover:  “Offered with LOAs by James Spence and Mike Gutierrez.”  So, when Spence and Gutierrez authenticated the cover for REA it was their second look at the same, rare item.

And Honus’ John Hancock was actually present back in 1999 as the auction description also noted: “The Wagner signature along the left border is somewhat faded but fully intact and legible.”  However, the image in the Mastro catalog showed that the signature was so faint that it was barely visible and looked more like it had been removed or erased.  None of the other alleged signatures showed any visible signs of fading.  In fact, Spence noted they were “9’s/10.”

Before the alleged Honus Wagner signature reappeared in 2001, the cover sold for $16,200 at Mastro’s auction.  When Spence wrote his LOA for REA two years later, without mentioning anything about the Wagner signature other than it was now graded a “10″ out of “10,” the cover appreciated in value by about $4,000.