- I have this J. Honus Wagner autograph.
COREY: Nice.
A Honus Wagner?
A Honus Wagner.
I didn't even know who he was.
He was a shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates,
arguably one of the best baseball
players of the dead-ball era. - Mm-hm.
They called him the Flying Dutchman because he was German.
[laughs] Yeah, I don't get it.
[laughs] - OK.
[laughs] [bang]
UMPIRE: You're out!
I'm a chairman of a local nonprofit thrift shop.
And someone had donated this.
I honestly really don't know how much it's worth,
but I'm hoping like a couple of thousand.
So Honus Wagner, he was the best
in the era where baseball was just a different game
than it is today.
They didn't wear helmets.
It was completely acceptable if the pitcher didn't like
you to peg you in the head.
Oh, perfect.
Owners were really, really cheap.
So if someone did hit a home or a foul ball,
they would go into the crowd and make you give the ball back.
Wow.
There was no restrictions on what the pitchers could
do to the ball either, so.
COREY: Yeah, and the spit balls are just commonplace.
Uh-huh.
COREY: It's just a weird era of baseball.
JOANIE: Yeah.
Honus Wagner was one of the greatest
shortstops of all time.
But most people today know him because
of his rare baseball card.
Back in 1909, the American Tobacco Company
put baseball cards inside of cigarette packs,
and Wagner didn't approve.
So he threatened to sue, and they stopped making them.
Only 57 are known to exist today.
So it's kind of like the holy grail of baseball cards.
Do you mind if I check it out a little bit?
JOANIE: No, absolutely.
COREY: OK.
It's weird the way it was broken apart.
JOANIE: Right.
But then again, maybe that's why it was donated.
[laughs]
JOANIE: Yeah.
COREY: What do you want to do with it?
Well, I'd like to sell it because I'd like the money
to go back to the thrift shop.
OK.
Any idea of what you're looking to get out of it?
Well, I'm thinking close to $2,000.
You know, honestly, I don't know.
Do you mind if I bring somebody down
to check out the signatures, see if it's real,
and let me know what it's worth?
JOANIE: That'd be great.
Want to give Steve a call?
Sure.
I'm really excited to see if it's real.
I'd love to get some money for it.
[laughs]
So Honus Wagner's signature--
I wish it was a card.
[laughs]
Unfortunately, I mean, the card you talked about,
the T206 Honus Wagner, it's the greatest
baseball card of all time.
If it wasn't for that card, I mean,
you really wouldn't know a thing about him.
JOANIE: I had no idea of that.
He's one of the originals inducted into the Hall of Fame,
really one of the greatest baseball players of all time.
So he's kind of a big deal.
Honus Wagner, I mean, he was just able to hit the ball.
I mean, the guy had 3,400-plus career hits.
And he was the best fielding shortstop, or one of them,
of all time.
So people who start autograph hall-of-fame collections
or just collect autographs, they want him.
COREY: You know, it was obviously
framed and matted at one point. - Sure.
And just something seems odd about it.
OK. We'll have a look at it.
You know, I do see the J, which is a good thing.
He signed like that, you know, really predominantly.
So we do have J. Honus Wagner on here.
First thing I want to look at, just
check the whole surface for ink here.
Well, that's pretty interesting.
What is that?
The ink isn't aged well enough.
And that's kind of a big thing.
OK.
Next thing I want to do, what I assembled here today
are basically his autograph, authentic examples--
pretty intricate, nice signature, pretty basic.
Now, what I see here is something
with some severe baseline issues, kind of just
jumps all over the place to me, doesn't
have a real good flow to it, and doesn't
have a real good style to it.
Now, taking a look at the ink, taking a look at the examples
here, there's no question.
It's not the real deal.
You don't have Honus Wagner's autograph.
What I will tell you what this is.
You guys, go to your library, and this
is what I'll have people do is they take out
the blank pages out of books.
JOANIE: Wow.
This is the same case.
This is a book page taken out, old book.
And what they do is they sign the signature,
J. Honus Wagner using bad ink.
So unfortunately it's not the real deal.
COREY: Well, thanks, man. - Yep.
Good to see you.
I mean, most of the time when you see a cut signature you
have to be kind of cautious because they're the cheapest
medium for the foragers to do because you just take
out something that looks old, and you
fake someone's name on it.
At least it didn't cost you a bunch of money, right?
No, it didn't.
And I really appreciate your time.
It's great to meet you. - Thanks a lot.
Thanks.
Really sad, but then, again, I'm pretty happy that I didn't
put any money out for it.
I'll just take it home, and it'll
be a reminder to be careful about all these fake autographs
out there.