RARE SHOELESS JOE JACKSON AUTOGRAPH PHOTO MAY BRING $100,000

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

BY JOHN SEEWER

haron Bowen thought her late husband was a bit crazy for buying a scrapbook filled with black and white photos of Cleveland ballplayers from the early 1900s - but not anymore. It turns out that book held what may be the only autographed photo of Shoeless Joe Jackson, the Holy Grail of baseball signatures.

Jackson, who was tossed out of baseball for throwing the 1919 World Series and remembered in the movie "Field of Dreams," was illiterate and rarely signed anything but paychecks and legal documents, making his autographs among the rarest in sports.

How many Jackson signatures are in existence isn't clear, but most experts agree that it's probably less than 100. But this is the first signed photo authenticated by autograph experts, according to Heritage Auctions, which is handling the sale of the century-old photograph this month.

It could fetch at least $100,000, according to the Dallas-based auction house.

FULL story at link.



In this Jan. 22, 2015, photo, an autographed picture of Cleveland ball player Joe Jackson is shown at Heritage Auctions in Dallas. Sharon Bowen thought her late husband was a bit crazy for buying a scrapbook with a bunch of black and white photos of Cleveland ballplayers from the early 1900s, but not anymore. It turns out that scrapbook held what may be the only autographed photo of Shoeless Joe Jackson. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SHOELESS_JOE_AUTOGRAPH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-02-09-01-16-44

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Published on Jan 5, 2014
Shoeless Joe Jackson comes back to life to hit Ray Kinsella's curveball. Ray Liotta has great intensity as the legendary hitter and Kevin Costner does a great job as the shy pitcher

Published on Oct 22, 2012
http://www.argentaimages.com

Much controversy had surrounded Shoeless Joe Jackson after he was involved in allegedly throwing the World Series, here his story is told. Did Jackson help through the series or not, what do you think?

[Cooley Hurd]

1. I've been to Joe's grave...

I lived in Greenville, SC in the late 80's, and visited his grave one day during my lunch hour.

[Gemini Cat]

2. Wow!

Rare is right, what a find!

[liberalmike27]

3. This sort of thing

Is clear evidence, that some have too much money. When I hear stories like this, or about people who have hundred classic car collections and such, I just see it as confirmation of our worst problem--concentrations of income at the top.

[DFW]

4. Heritage has a history of helping out "ordinalry mortals" who turn up with windfall finds

A few years ago, an Iraq vet in Ohio bought some old pamphlet for $8 or so at a flea market. After a while he went to find out if it was something of importance, and sent it down to Heritage. They confirmed to him that it was a rare original edition of the Federalist Papers. When they heard that the guy was a struggling Iraq vet, they waived their usual fee and reduced the seller's commission to zero, which netted the guy an extra $12,000 or so (out of the $80 or so grand it sold for) before taxes.

There will always be a few rich people with more money than brains to pay big amounts for this kind of thing, but if this kind of occasional "income redistribution" happens every now and then, who are we to rag on the lucky seller?

[Hissyspit]

5. Joe Jackson had very nice shoes!

[They_Live]

7. LOL

that was the very image I thought of when I read the headline, only you know, without the shoes.

[louis-t]

8. Sharp-arp.

I would still wear those shoes.

[CanonRay]

6. I'll bet old Joe never made $100,000 in his whole life.

[louis-t]

9. It doesn't look like the signature of someone who was illiterate.

I have heard that his wife or an acquaintance signed things for him. Maybe his sig got better over time. I have seen examples of his real sig. This doesn't look like it.

[kwassa]

10. I agree, it looks like someone simply wrote on the photo to identify Jackson.

[DFW]

11. I wrote to a Heritage co-CEO, who is a friend

He said thanks for the heads-up and they are running a double-check before they sell it.

[DFW]

12. Heritage wrote back

They asked that it be noted that their catalog description specifically said that the signature was not in Jackson's hand.

[louis-t]

13. Smart move for Heritage. You did him a big favor.

The examples I've seen of his signature were shaky and almost child-like.

[DFW]

14. I wasn't the one who did them a favor

They had already described it that way. They said that obviously some people didn't read the catalog description before jumping on it, and that they maybe should have made it more prominent in their PR, but they never described it as anything else. They're really pretty straight, and don't try to put stuff over on people. They're big, so there's a lot of jealousy, but they started out small, and remember it. They also listen to people if they have a legitimate beef, and do respond to legitimate queries, admitting mistakes if they're convinced of them. If you have something of real importance, you can get a CEO on the phone. They're not like Christie's, where unless you're the baron of somewhere, you don't get past some suit and tie who's making $22,500 a year and thinks a snooty British accent makes up for the rest.