PSA/DNA Authentication Services has certified more than 9,000 signatures for a new baseball memorabilia product now hitting shelves.
Historic Autographs 2010 Hall of Fame and All-Star Edition will feature a total of 846 different past and present major league baseball players, represented with cut signatures encapsulated in PSA/DNA holders and packaged three-to-a-box by Historic Autograph Company of Philadelphia.
Every player represent
ed in the new product appeared in a Major League All-Star game, and some of the boxes contain a certified autograph of players such as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, Jimmie Foxx, Rogers Hornsby, Walter Johnson, Tony Lazzeri, Mel Ott and Honus Wagner.
Some packages also have an autograph from post-World War II and modern era stars, such as Jackie Robinson, Sammy Sosa, Derek Jeter, Cal Ripken, Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire.
“This is an opportunity for collectors to get something really special at a price that is affordable. I think this will do a lot to help the autograph hobby and get more people involved,” said Kevin Heffner, principal owner of Historic Autograph Company.
“These are true pieces of history. Each signed piece of paper is something that one of these great players touched.”
The first deliveries of the Historic Autographs product to master distributors were made in early May and now are being offered to the public by local hobby dealers. Heffner anticipates they’ll likely also be offered on the Internet.
“In conjunction with Historic Autographs, PSA/DNA will offer free autograph grading to the person who achieves the highest completion percentage of this product,” said Joe Orlando, President of PSA/DNA, a division of Collectors Universe, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLCT).
“If a collector reaches a minimum of 70 percent completion of the 800-plus autograph set and is the current leader by the end of the day on December 31, 2010, PSA will grade their entire set for free. That’s a value of nearly $10,000.”
Once the set is graded by PSA it will be eligible for inclusion in the PSA Set Registry™.
An illustrated story about Historic Autographs 2010 Hall of Fame and All Star-Edition will be in the July 2010 issue of Sports Market Report magazine.
Heffner says his company is planning an even larger product in the coming months that will include perhaps as many as 18,000 autographs.
