Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

I'm in the process of writing a story for "Sports Collectors Digest" about getting gloves signed by players. I would like to invited forum members to send me a line or two or about having your gloves signed, experiences, how many, etc.
You may email me direct at glovecollector@mac.com
Thanks
Joe Phillips
The Glove Collector

thank you all for the nice response I got on getting gloves signed by the players!

Hi Joe,

Hope no one takes this the wrong way as it's just one idiot's opinion. I have never had a glove signed nor will I ever. Ink is my only pet peeve on a glove no matter who put it on there. I would rather have a glove chewed by a dog, thrown off the Empire State Building and run over by a steamroller than have ink on it. I prefer a single signed baseball to put with a glove if you want the personal connection. That's seems more natural for me. As Dennis Miller used to say, "That's just my opinion, I can be wrong."

I think a glove signed by the endorser is a cool piece and I hope some people obtain them. They just don't interest me as I have yet to see an ink or Sharpie signature look great on a glove or last the test of time. Also, with the exception of a few, I have never seen signed gloves do well with the extra signature. I have sold four or five gloves with autographs on them and they seemed to sell for less than they would have if they didn't have the signature.

Would love to hear what you all think.

JD

JD-

I agree- Ink drives me crazy. However, if I were to meet a Hall of Famer who happened to be signing, and all I had was a glove at that moment, it would be hard to pass. But I would look feverishly for a ball, a scrap of paper, perhaps my shirt I was wearing…anything.

But if the leather was the absolute last resort in that moment…well….man, I don’t know! Tough call. You got me thinking- it’s too early in the morning for that. I’m still thinking about my Utes miraculous win over TCU last night.

JD- I'm with you all the way. To me, once it is signed you are saying this glove is no longer ready for service - it becomes a memento. Sure, most gloves in our collections sit on a shelf and never catch a ball again... But, no matter how old or valuable, I like the glove to have the essence of a player's glove. It is as if the glove could still be used in a game somewhere; even if that game would of taken place many years ago. An exeption would be on pro gloves where the player's last name or number may have been written lightly on the back of the glove or thumb... but this isn't an autograph. And I don't like it if it was written too big with a fat marker. I have an Andy Fox black colored glove and it has Fox written with a white marker on the thumb that is hardly noticable. That one I like.

Mike.

Guys, thanks for your input. i understand each's reasoning.
What I'm talking about is mostly having the player endorsed glove signed by the player himself. A closer personalization for the glove.
Just me but I'd rather have Allie Reynolds sign a non endorsed glove rather than a baseball.
I've had some sharpie signatures fade and others hold fast and golly knows I've tried to take enough ink signatures and writing off gloves.
But grateful for your opinions!

Hi Guys,
I'm new to the forum and feel a little odd about posting this before formally introducing myself, but I have to agree with Joe that getting a player's sharpie signature on his endorsed glove can be a very memorable experience. In the mid 1990s I found store model gloves for many former Milwaukee Braves ( Mathews, Burdette, Buhl, Schoendienst, Pafko, Logan, and Conley ) and had them signed thru the mail at shows advertised in SCD or by writing to them. Also bought a signed Warren Spahn glove at a Milwaukee card show at that time ( and could never find an Adcock mitt or Aaron glove.) Anyway I really cherish those gloves and the fact that my favorite childhood players were unbelievably nice about signing them. That said I doubt if I would have my favorite really nice ( no ink! ) 1950s PM autographed ( unless it was Aaron...) Greg

Believe I can take a bit of the contra view on this subject as well. Back in the early 1990's I had quite a few of the old gloves signed. I have many great memories (some sad) of my son (s) or friend (s) going to the old shows and getting DiMaggio, Williams, Mantle, Feller, Mize and many, many others signed. It really boils down to personal preference. I don't get many gloves signed these days because I am mostly looking for pre war gloves.

This is one of those either love it or hate it things. Personally, I'd rather not have an autographed glove but if I had a favorite team from back in the day, I might think it would be fun to put together an autographed glove collection together.

Speaking of autographed gloves, there is one in the current Hunt's live auction that is autographed by the 1937 Philadelphia Phillies. It's too bad because the glove is gorgeous on it's own

http://www.huntauctions.com/online/imag ... search.cfm

The below image of a Gehrigner glove in the early 90's is special to us and left my collection abount 7 years ago and we got it back last year and real glad we did. However all aspects to glove collecting is like individual opinions, everyone has them and they are all right.

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I tend to agree with JD.I'd much rarher have a signed ball as opposed to a glove.At the signings I've attended lately it's considerably more for a piece of equipment than a ball or a flat.I have a nice Frank Robinson PM triple crown commemorative MacGregor that I took to a signing in Cincinnati a couple of years ago.Now I realize Mr.Robinson is getting up in years but the quality of his signature on the glove isn't very good.I decided against taking a nice XPG to Brooks Robinson last year.Brooks isn't exactly known for his penmanship anyway although a fantastic person.I do have a Mac G105 Hank Aaron that I purchased from a gentleman in California that wasn't hurt at all by the autograph.It's strictly for display and in great condition so I don't have to worry about smudging while playing catch.BTW,The Big Red Machine is in town Nov.14,15 and 16.14 total players from 75 and 76.This'll put a dent in the pocket.

Hi all, Ok I as well I hate ink on any glove for the most part in any form. However I think a nice signed personal model glove such as the the one displayed earlier, is outstanding! I am not fond of Jane or John Doe putting thier name , phone number, address, etc on the glove or little Jimmie coloring all over the thing and putting his name on every finger, palm, lining, etc. so the value of those to me is not much, I'm not sure I could bring myself to have a player sign a Nr-MT or Pristine glove either but if I had a lesser quality version then why not, after all if a signature on a card can add value to the item then why can't it increase the value of a glove?

Joe, it might not be that fair asking about autographs on this site as many of us are hard-core glove fanatics, not autograph collectors. Gloves though are a way to get a more personal autograph from the players and can be fun. Starting in 1993 I sent endorsed gloves to over 75 non-HOF players and virtually always got the glove back signed sometimes with a nice letter. Both Herb Score and Frank Baumholz let me come over to their house to sign their glove model. The gloves though, once signed, are hard to re-sell so you should like them for what they are. Autographed gloves have many little variations. See my HOF Shortstop glove, Yogi and my son with glove (he is now 21!), Hank Aaron autograph, and personalized mitt from Harry 'the Hat' Walker.

Beautiful Aaron glove! I'd always heard that his signature was tough to get. Seeing yours makes me think about checking into it, though!