Dick Williams HOF plaques JUST IN and advance preview list! This week we have some really great items on our advance preview list and even more new acquisitions are listed on our website http://www.qualityautographs.com  We’re certain the items listed below will go quickly. Be sure to contact us at 800-241-4809 or qualityautographs@msn.com to reserve your finds early before they are advertised in the hobby press. Hot Items include: Dick Williams signed Hall of Fame plaques, Honus Wagner PERFECT personal check, Mel Ott bold fountain pen ink signature on a 1940 Play Ball #88, and much more. Keep reading for Kevin Keatings Weekly Collecting Tips & FAQ.
Kevin Keatings Weekly Collecting Tips & FAQ.
How important is the provenance of an item? When authenticating an item, should you allow an item’s provenance to impact your conclusion about its authenticity?
I think one is a fool if one dismisses ‘provenance’ categorically. It can be a very valuable piece of information associated with a piece, though it can also be misleading. If there’s concrete provenance that an item is a certain thing, it could absolutely add confidence and even monetary value to the item. Thus, an autograph being sold directly from a person’s estate or likewise from someone who’s reputation is substantive in the hobby may bring a higher price than a similar random piece being sold from an unknown seller. For instance, if you have a Babe Ruth game-used bat without provenance it would almost certainly sell for a lot less, all things being equal, than if it had provenance. Let’s say that the same bat came from the family of one of Ruth’s teammates like Joe Sewell with a family letter stating that Ruth gave Sewell this bat and the bat’s been in the Sewell family ever since, and there’s even a letter signed by Joe to that affect, then that bat is going to get a lot more money because of its provenance.
So provenance can be very important. But when it comes to autographs, its more difficult to associate provenance with items, since most autographs lose their provenance over time as they change hands. Thus, the most important factor for an autograph is always whether or not the item can stand on its own merit. It’s also important to remember that provenance is really an associated ‘story’, which may or may not be accurate. When it comes to ‘provenance’ as it is applied to autograph material, I like to refer to it as “contextual evaluation.”
More on this topic next week. We welcome your comments or questions as well to post in future newsletters.
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Thank you for choosing Quality Autographs as one of your premier sources for building your sports autograph collection and we look forward to hearing from you soon!
Sincerely,
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Kevin Keating
Quality Autographs
