Phil Cavarretta Autograph

For the first time in nearly four months, I've added another Cub from the past to my autographed card collection.  The main reason for the slowdown is that I've already got an autographed card from most of the players I want.  At this point, I'm only go after the occasional card I chance upon that strikes my fancy.

This one did, of Chicago native and Cubs hero Phil Cavarretta.  If you want to learn more about Cavarretta, you can take a look at this post, written the day after he died at age 94 in 2010.

The card is from a set the Cubs released in 1999, their All Century Team set.  The cards were given away at Wrigley Field in three sets over three different dates.  Each set contained seven cards, making a total of 21 cards in the complete set.

I'm leery about buying on-card autographs because you just have no idea if the signature is real or not.  If you've ever read Operation Bullpen, you'll understand my leeriness.  The story with the Cavarretta card was that it was obtained by the seller's mother TTM.  Mom had passed away and the seller wanted to allow someone else the chance to enjoy the card.  Sound plausible.  Plus, is there enough of a market for Phil Cavarretta autographs that someone would bother to sell fakes?  I doubt it.

I decided to watch the auction and see what would happen.  The starting price was $2.99 and if things didn't go crazy, I figured it was worth a shot.  Well, not much happened.  One person bid on it, and then I sniped it at the end.  I got it for $3.54, which seemed reasonable.

I looked though my cards and found a couple with Cavarretta's facsimile signature, the Bowman and Topps '52.  I've got the three lined up together and you can judge for yourself whether mine is the real deal.

The Bowman is on top, mine is in the middle, and Topps is on the bottom.  Obviously, he signed "Phil" on mine, not "Phillip."  But otherwise, they seem to match up.

I'll consider this $3.54 that was well-spent.