I am not a fan of the cut autographs that are being slabbed and sold in packs, with the remote chance of pulling a Ruth or Cobb, yet spending $60-100 for a Enos Slaughter or similar.
Sometimes though, you find a reasonable deal and this was the case when I went looking for a Steve Bilko autograph as part of my "seek out autographs from every Dodger from the 1950s-90s" project. Bilko died in 1978, which is one of those "in between" areas for autograph collectors. He died long enough ago where it is harder to find a reasonably priced autograph, yet not so far back that it's like a needle in a hay stack search. However, he also died at a young age, 49. I couldn't find much on it other than it was fairly sudden and an undisclosed illness.
Bilko was a Minor League legend. He had the kind of potential that would cause insanity these days. From 1955-57, he hit 148 HRs with 428 RBIs! Although he had parts of 10 seasons at the MLB level, he could only muster 76 career HRs with a pair of 20+ seasons; 21 (1953) and 20 (1961). He appeared in 47 games for the 1958 Dodgers, thus he registered on my radar where he might have otherwise not.
Not a bad pick up for $23.26 delivered. It's "certified", if you can call it that and it's "limited", #'d/5. A suckers product, but I got lucky and stole this one. The cheapest one on ebay now is a low quality, uncertified cut for $40
Sometimes though, you find a reasonable deal and this was the case when I went looking for a Steve Bilko autograph as part of my "seek out autographs from every Dodger from the 1950s-90s" project. Bilko died in 1978, which is one of those "in between" areas for autograph collectors. He died long enough ago where it is harder to find a reasonably priced autograph, yet not so far back that it's like a needle in a hay stack search. However, he also died at a young age, 49. I couldn't find much on it other than it was fairly sudden and an undisclosed illness.
Bilko was a Minor League legend. He had the kind of potential that would cause insanity these days. From 1955-57, he hit 148 HRs with 428 RBIs! Although he had parts of 10 seasons at the MLB level, he could only muster 76 career HRs with a pair of 20+ seasons; 21 (1953) and 20 (1961). He appeared in 47 games for the 1958 Dodgers, thus he registered on my radar where he might have otherwise not.
Not a bad pick up for $23.26 delivered. It's "certified", if you can call it that and it's "limited", #'d/5. A suckers product, but I got lucky and stole this one. The cheapest one on ebay now is a low quality, uncertified cut for $40
