Themes for Your Baseball Autograph Collection
There are plenty of different ways to put together a collection of baseball autographs. If you’re into baseball cards, of course you can separate them by which cards you have an autograph on and which ones you don’t. But maybe for the sake of division purposes you can showcase your collection and break it down into themes. Here are some tips and ideas to put a little something extra into breaking down and showcasing your baseball autograph collection.
1) MVP Autographs – Baseball has been handing out it’s Most Valuable Player Awards for many years and collecting autographs of baseball MVPs is a way to ensure you’ll have great players in your autograph collection. Trying to attain some of the cards and/or autographs might be tough because some of the greatest players of all time have passed away in the nearly 70 years the modern MVP awards have been presented. MVP awards have gone to the likes of Joe DiMaggio, Hank Greenberg, Stan Musial, Yogi Berra, Jackie Robinson, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Mike Schmidt, Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols.
2) Cy Young Award Winners- This baseball theme would present many challenges for any serious collector. The Cy Young award began in 1956 and there have been many multiple winners so you don’t need to buy hundreds of autographs to complete this collection. Only one winner was named from 1956-67 before the award was divided by league. You can have a blast looking for authentic autographs from Cy Young Award winners like Warren Spahn, Sandy Koufax, Whitey Ford, Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson.
3) Hall of Fame Members-It might also be fun to see how many autographs you can get from Hall of Famers. Out of the nearly 300 members, finding over 100 autographs might be a test for any baseball collector. Mustering over 200 would be another plateau. Yet going this route involves several attainable contemporary players that could put your collection off to a great start. Babe Ruth autographs aren’t cheap, but you can find a simple Ruth cut autograph—something affixed to a scrapbook or check for about the price of a nice one-month mortgage payment. Collecting autographs of Hall of Famers one at a time is a very rewarding journey through baseball history.
4) Team Themes-I am sure this is one of the most obvious themes baseball autograph collectors use. If you like the Yankees then it makes perfect sense to focus on Yankee autographs. A Cub fan prefers Hack Wilson, Ernie Banks or Ryne Sandberg autographs. In some case, finding all of the autographs for a particular team for a given year might be as tough as some of the themes listed above. You can collect team-signed baseballs from various seasons or collect individual signed items from players who suited up for the same team.
5) Autographs from One Authenticator- You can have a certain symmetry to your collection by obtaining only items authenticated by one specific company. No matter if your choice is someone like James Spence Authentication or PSA/DNA or Steiner Sports, you’ll become familiar with the process and your authentication stickers and paperwork will have the same look.
Baseball autographs remain the most popular of any sport. Fans have been chasing them for generations, at spring training, team hotels, the ballpark and through the mail. How you choose to build your collection is entirely up to you. A little creativity and organization can go a long way toward creating a collection that will stand the test of time.
