Ghost Signers

[deltacards]

Thanks for all the info guys.... Darn it, I just mailed to Steve Young

thanks
Nate

 

[premium1981]

Its been a long time, so I dont remember where I read it, but Nolan Ryan either uses a ghost signer or a stamp. Can't remember which. I have one from 10-15 years ago.

 

[houbb]

Pacino, DeNiro, and Depp are all secretarial TTM. Their TTM sigs look nothing like their IP sigs. Don't know about Thome. Right now those are just rumors. Looking at my TTM sig of his and authentic sigs of his I just don't see the difference. I've heard the rumor about Montana's sig, too. His sig is so simple and sloppy that's a tough one to authenticate. However, I don't think he honors any TTM requests any more. Bernie Williams: definitely a ghost signer.

As for Nolan Ryan TTM: if you don't send your item with a donation to his foundation, and instead send it c/o Rangers or his home address, you will get an autopen sig. If you send the item to his foundation with the requested fee you will get the real deal.

 

[deltacards]

Not to sign dumb, but what exactly is an "autopen" sig, how is it different from a stamp?

thanks
Nate

 

[buck1982]

An autopen is a machine that basically makes mechanically produced 'replicas' off of a real signature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopen

 

[houbb]

Not to sign dumb, but what exactly is an "autopen" sig, how is it different from a stamp?

thanks
Nate

It's simply the person's signature signed by a machine. The user puts a stencil created by a real signature and that signature is then duplicated on other items with a pen. In short, it's not done by hand. Autopen signatures are fairly easy to identify by the absolutely even flow of ink, as well as pressure throughout the signature. When a person signs his/her name it is impossible for them to keep the pressure throughout the sig constant. Not so with an autopen. The autopen also leaves mechanical dots at the end of the characters in a sig. A real sig would have a natural tailing at the end of the characters.

 

[expos94]

Wayne Gretzky also uses autopen... I knew of this but gave him a shot anyway last year. Both my cards came back plus a postcard was thrown in... all 3 autographs were identical and matched exactly "Gretzky Autopen" examples I found on the internet.

 

[tribefan]

It has been mentioned more than a few times here that the Bernie Williams ttm successes are from a ghost signer. I have compared 2 different of his ttm autograph cards with certified autos of him, and they are very very similar, if not identical.

I have in-person autographs of the following in this thread...

Bernie Williams, Nolan Ryan, Fernando Valenzuela, Roberto Alomar, Paul Konerko, Bob Wickman, Pat Hentgen, Lee Smith, Jim Thome, Mark Grace, Joe Nathan.

If anyone wants to see any for comparison, PM me and I'll dig it out.

The reason I bring this up... getting a signature in person is going to look somewhat different than pack-certified. They aren't sitting at their desk in the relaxed off-season. Often they are walking, in a hurry, p*&^ed off about it, drunk, etc. It's one more variation to consider when comparing autographs.

Then, we have the issue of ghost signers for pack-pulled autographs. I know it happens because I know one of the ghost signers! I know who it is - not saying it's a friend of mine by any means. In fact, it disgusts me.

 

[whalerfan9]

Not to sign dumb, but what exactly is an "autopen" sig, how is it different from a stamp?

thanks
Nate

FYI, here's my Sanders stamp...

 

[Wassdogg]

My Zimmer cards started all this and I was of course disappointed that they are probably fake, but I'm glad that I know. That's one of the primary functions of this site, to let fellow collectors know who signs, who doesn't and who ruins cards with the signatures of relatives or flunkies.

 

[deltacards]

My Zimmer cards started all this and I was of course disappointed that they are probably fake, but I'm glad that I know. That's one of the primary functions of this site, to let fellow collectors know who signs, who doesn't and who ruins cards with the signatures of relatives or flunkies.

I agree.... I would actually prefer my cards be sent back unsigned, than be sent back signed by someone else... Kind of unrelated, but I was at a minor league game last summer and I saw a kid with a team set, he was trying to get the whole set signed and the team set included a card of the team trainer when a guy came out who the kid thought was the trainer he yelled out the trainers name and the guy came over and signed the trainers name on the trainers card. I knew for a fact that the guy signing wasn't actually the trainer and it made me mad that he would do that to that kid who honestly didn't know... I didn't tell the kid that he got the wrong person because the damage was already done and after all it was just the trainer card, I didn't see any point in disappointing the kid, but I just don't understand why that guy would do that to a kid. It made me wonder how many other people try to pull stuff like this on people...

 

[tigsfan]

I'm still debating this one, but I'm going to toss it out there for discussion...

Don Mattingly (saw one return a couple days ago and seems like he wouldn't return his mail. Not a clear fake based off of other examples, but I'm concerned).