Victor Niederhoffer Collection: 5 fast facts

ALS George Washington Brigadier General James Clinton May 22, 1779 Victor Niederhoffer Collection RR Auction

Above: Signature detail on a correspondence written by George Washington to Brigadier General James Clinton on May 22, 1779.
Part of the Victor Niederhoffer Collection, offered by RR Auction.

5 intriguing insights into Victor Niederhoffer and his enviable letter collection

Victor Niederhoffer is more than a well-known hedge fund manager, champion squash player, bestselling author and statistician. He is also a world-class collector. June 22-28, RR Auction will present more than 100 rare and incredible correspondences from his vast collection, as The Significant Letter Collection of Victor Niederhoffer.

Here are five fast facts about a fascinating man and his fascinating collection.

 

1: He literally wrote the book on being a Wall St. speculator.

Victor Niederhoffer is best known as a bold and tumultuously successful hedge fund manager. His book “The Education of a Speculator” is an amusing but clear-eyed memoir of his life to date, with “offbeat reminiscences and observations” and interesting analogies that relate to his Wall Street experiences.

Read a review of the book here.

 

2: He squashed the competition in sports, too.

Niederhoffer was a winning hardball squash player and is a member of the squash hall of fame. At 6’2” and sturdily built, Niederhoffer doesn’t look like a traditional athlete of the sport, and had never played squash when he entered Harvard University in 1960 (though handball was part of his Brighton Beach youth). After asserting it would be so, a year later he won the national junior title. By the time he graduated, Niederhoffer was the National Intercollegiate squash champion. He won the U.S. Nationals five times and three national doubles titles. In 1975, he defeated one of the greatest players in the history of the game, Sharif Khan, in the final of the North American Open (the only time that Khan failed to win the title in the 13-year period between 1969 and 1981).

Read a historic account of his rise at Harvard here.

 

3: Books dumped in the East River factored highly in his life.

“Books and letters have always been an important part of my family life,” Niederhoffer said. “My father was a policeman in the book publishing area of east New York. In those days, they didn’t sell their overstock – they dumped them in the East River. They hired policemen to do the unloading. My father was paid 50 cents an hour to dump them in the river; instead, he saved them. Our house of about 750 feet, plus wife and two children, had his book collection. The whole house and basement were lined with books.”

 

4: Bears and bulls dictated the growth of his collection.

As his career on Wall Street rocketed skyward, so did a desire to purchase items in which his interest was sparked in that book-crowded house of his childhood. “When I learned that books and letters were available, I started collecting at 25,” Niederhoffer said, noting he had “very eclectic interests.”

Soon enough, sellers knew he was interested in only the most significant works, and would bring him suggested purchases. “Each week, the sellers would come to my office. If I’d had a good week in the market, I’d use my entire winnings,” Niederhoffer said.

“I collected for about 20 years, buying most in the 1970s. I kept them in archival volumes and often looked at them with great longing and nostalgia. I gained a lot of happiness looking through them and sharing with my family,” Niederhoffer said.

 

5: Only the best will do for Victor Niederhoffer.

In his personal and professional life, Niederhoffer knows what he wants, and how he wants it. His personal motto of “Create Value” influences him to curate a collection that is unrivaled in quality. He only selects content-rich and historically vivid correspondences from the arenas of politics, science, sports, literature and more. “I tried to garner the best writing and significance the author could have, [that best displayed] the writer’s contributing to western civilization,” Niederhoffer said.

When you have many thousands of letters, [you want] them to come to life. I’m happy to sell my best letters because they’ll be the ones more interesting and valuable to those who can appreciate their significance. I never bought a letter just because of a signature, a name or to complete a set. It will be nice to find surrogates who will enjoy them now.”

The Significant Letter Collection of Victor Niederhoffer is now live for bidding, through June 28.

VIEW THE INCREDIBLE COLLECTION HERE

Featured items: Olympics memorabilia

RR’s inaugural Sports auction (June 14-21) features more than 150 items of Olympics memorabilia. Here are just a few highlights.

Dorando Pietri Olympics RR Auction
An original elaborate artist’s sketch commemorating the “Marathon Race” held at the London Olympics on July 24, 1908, autographed by Italian runner Dorando Pietri. Offered by RR Auction.

Lot 9527: Dorando Pietri Signature

An original elaborate artist’s sketch commemorating the “Marathon Race” held at the London Olympics on July 24, 1908, autographed by Italian runner Dorando Pietri. Pietri finished first in the marathon, but was subsequently disqualified: succumbing to utter exhaustion at the end of the race, Pietri fell several times and was helped back to his feet by officials. Although he managed to finish in first place, Pietri was disqualified for receiving assistance and the gold medal was given to the runner-up, American distance runner Johnny Hayes.

“It’s a famous story in Olympic circles,” said RR Auction’s Olympics expert, Jonathan Becker. “I haven’t seen [Pietri’s] autograph [at auction] in a long time.”

Jesse Owens Olympics tickets memorabilia RR Auction
A complete set of track and field tickets for every event that Jesse Owens competed in during the Berlin 1936 Summer Olympics. Offered by RR Auction.

Lot 9556: Berlin 1936 Summer Olympics, set of (8) Jesse Owens event tickets

A complete set of track and field tickets for every event that Jesse Owens competed in during the Berlin 1936 Summer Olympics. These include all four days on which he won a gold medal: August 3 for the 100m sprint; August 4 for the long jump; August 5 for the 200m sprint; and August 9 for the 4×100 sprint relay. In overall fine condition, with paper loss to top right of the largest ticket.

The historic importance of Owens’s success at the Olympics is unrivaled: no athlete is as closely identified with an Olympic Games as Jesse Owens is with Berlin 1936, and his four gold medals helped dispel Hitler’s notion of Aryan supremacy, on Hitler’s own “home turf.”

“It’s exceptionally rare to have a complete set of Berlin track and field tickets,” Becker notes.

 

Paris 1924 Summer Olympics vase RR Auction
Paris 1924 Summer Olympics Sevres Winner’s Vase. Offered by RR Auction.

Lot 9538: Paris 1924 Summer Olympics Sevres Winner’s Vase

Rare and beautiful Sevres pate-sur-pate porcelain vase awarded to gold medal winners at the 1924 Paris Summer Olympics, measuring approximately 13″ tall and 5.5″ at its widest point. This splendid vase was designed by M. O. Guillonet and executed by Bracquemond at the world famous porcelain factory of Sevres, and features golden laurel branches hand-painted on a French blue background. It features four ‘medallions’ portraying athletes in white against gray oval backgrounds bordered in light green, with the events depicted being sailing, shooting, tennis, and cycling. 

At the suggestion of the French Olympic Committee, these vases were developed to be given to the first place winners as a “special souvenir.” Several different variations were produced to accommodate the many different sports, and they were presented by the Paris City Council to gold medal winners in individual events only; a small number were reserved for dignitaries and institutions. Surviving examples of these stunning trophy vases are of the utmost rarity. 

“In only two summer Games, winners received more than just the medal,” Becker noted. “Amateur rules were strict. In 1920, winners got a statue, and in 1924, this vase. They’re spectacular and rare.”

 

See all Sports auction results here.

Featured item: 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers World Series Championship Ring

1955 World Series ring for sale Brooklyn Dodgers RR Auction
1955 Brooklyn Dodgers World Series Championship ring. Offered by RR Auction.

Lot 9407: 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers World Series Championship Ring

This astounding 14K white gold 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers World Series Championship ring features a genuine diamond (possibly a replacement) set into a dark Dodger-blue stone. In fine condition, with light wear to the maker’s mark inside the band.

The Brooklyn Dodgers’ championship victory over their crosstown rivals, the New York Yankees, was the first and only World Series won during the team’s time in Brooklyn. “The Dodgers faced the Yankees constantly in the World Series,” said Louis Bollman, RR Auction’s sports expert. “This ring is so exciting because firstly, players or their families would rarely sell them; and secondly, it symbolizes the one and only Brooklyn World Series win.”

A truly superb ring from a historic World Series.

See all Sports auction results here.

Featured item: 1966–68 Brian Piccolo Game-Worn Chicago Bears Road Jersey, MEARS A8

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1966–1968 Brian Piccolo Game-Worn Chicago Bears Road Jersey MEARS A8 RR Auction
1966–1968 Brian Piccolo Game-Worn Chicago Bears Road Jersey MEARS A8. Offered by RR Auction.

Lot 9435: 1966–68 Brian Piccolo Game-Worn Chicago Bears Road Jersey, MEARS A8

This magnificent Chicago Bears road jersey was worn by running back Brian Piccolo. The off-white durene pull-over jersey features embroidered “41” numbers to chest, back, and both sleeves, with the proper King O’Shea manufacturer’s tag sewn to the front left tail listing cleaning instructions and size, “44,” with hand-annotated “+3″ body.” In fine condition, with expected light wear.

The letter of provenance includes the statement that “this shirt was not worn by any other player since Piccolo came up in 1965, the year the Bears went to tear-away shirts for their running backs & return men. His uniform number was retired after his death.” Also included is a Mears letter of opinion with official worksheet, evaluating the jersey with a base grade of 10 and a condition grade of -2 moderate wear.

The tragic story of Brian Piccolo was told in the made-for-television movie “Brian’s Song” in 1971. The film focused on the unlikely friendship between Piccolo and his teammate Gale Sayers, as well as the former’s sickness and untimely death at the age of 26. Late in the 1969 season, Piccolo took himself out of a game complaining of breathing problems and was soon diagnosed with embryonal cell carcinoma. Doctors were unable to stop the cancer’s spread, and after several surgeries, Piccolo died on June 16, 1970.

Bollman notes that Piccolo “almost wasn’t good enough to play pro ball; but sheer grit and determination got him on the Bears roster. This is only the second [Piccolo jersey] we’ve seen come to market in the last few decades. The other was a home jersey; this is an away.”

He adds that the scarcity of surviving tear-away jerseys makes this an exceptional offering. “The material [used is] another reason you don’t see these very often. They’re usually all shredded from game use and destroyed.” A Mears A8 is a rare well-preserved example from a man whose story transcended the realm of sports.

See all Sports auction results here.

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Featured item: 1895 N300 Mayo’s Cut Plug Ed Delahanty, PSA EX-MT 6

1895 N300 Mayo's Cut Plug Ed Delahanty PSA EX-MT 6 RR Aution
1895 N300 Mayo’s Cut Plug Ed Delahanty PSA EX-MT 6. Offered by RR Auction.

Lot 9018: 1895 N300 Mayo’s Cut Plug Ed Delahanty, PSA EX-MT 6

This high-grade Delahanty is arguably the nicest N300 Mayo’s Cut Plug example featuring the Hall of Famer that the auction house has ever seen. It is stellar with very mild wear at the upper right corner, barely noticeable on a card which contains those unforgiving black borders. Other than light chipping along the right edge, which appears factory fresh, the reverse is near perfect.

Known as the Black Beauties, the Mayos were inserted as premium in plug tobacco, and are usually replete with stains. However, this example does not have any of the pesky tobacco stains, which commonly downgrade the N300s.

“Any example of the Mayo Cut Plug in an acceptable grade as a type is difficult enough to obtain,” noted Louis Bollman, RR Auction’s sports collectibles expert, “but to have a HOF’r of Delahanty’s stature, plus one of the highest grades possible for any a card in that issue, is a rarity.”

The card features a tremendous image of a dapper Delahanty, whose hitting and fielding prowess mesmerized 19th century baseball fans. He was the first “five-tool” player in baseball history. This is a stellar example, which would not look out of place in a PSA NM 7 holder.

“This is the highest graded PSA example extant, with only four cards within the entire N300 set (over 500 graded examples!) which have graded higher than this Delahanty,” Bollman said.

See all Sports auction results here.

Victor Niederhoffer Collection: Where content is king

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_raw_html]JTNDZGl2JTIwZGF0YS1jb25maWdpZCUzRCUyMjE0ODcxMzAlMkY2MTMyMzA4NyUyMiUyMHN0eWxlJTNEJTIyd2lkdGglM0ExMDAlMjUlM0IlMjBoZWlnaHQlM0E4MDBweCUzQiUyMiUyMGNsYXNzJTNEJTIyaXNzdXVlbWJlZCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRmRpdiUzRSUwQSUzQ3NjcmlwdCUyMHR5cGUlM0QlMjJ0ZXh0JTJGamF2YXNjcmlwdCUyMiUyMHNyYyUzRCUyMiUyRiUyRmUuaXNzdXUuY29tJTJGZW1iZWQuanMlMjIlMjBhc3luYyUzRCUyMnRydWUlMjIlM0UlM0MlMkZzY3JpcHQlM0U=[/vc_raw_html][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Victor Niederhoffer is more than a well-known hedge fund manager, champion squash player, bestselling author and statistician. He is also a world-class collector. In June 2018, RR Auction is pleased to present more than 100 rare and significant letters from his vast collection. Niederhoffer only selects content-rich and historically vivid correspondences, and these offerings are the best examples of the diverse writers featured, from the arenas of politics, science, sports, literature and more. From Werner Heisenberg to Thomas Jefferson to Charles Darwin, each intimate letter sheds a rare light on their personal day-to-day lives.

In Victor’s own words:

 

A family tradition of the written word

“Books and letters have always been an important part of my family life. My father was a policeman in the book publishing area of east New York. In those days, they didn’t sell their overstock – they dumped them in the East River. They hired policemen to do the unloading. My father was paid 50 cents an hour to dump them in the river; instead, he saved them. Our house of about 750 feet, plus wife and two children, had his book collection. The whole house and basement were lined with books.”

“Letters were always a traditional highlight of our family. The parents, the adults have always written letters supporting their children. My grandfather sent one to the coach of the Brooklyn College team when his son was taken out of the football game; I wrote my first letter when my daughter was taken out of a third grade talent contest.” [You can read about both of these, and the uproar they caused, in the Niederhoffer memoir, “The Education of a Speculator,” pg. 115-116.]

 

The collection begins

“When I learned that books and letters were available, I started collecting at 25. Very eclectic interests. The publishers and sellers have told me that often people collect one or two fields; what’s unique about me is that I collect in every field. Each week, the sellers would come to my office. If I’d had a good week in the market, I’d use my entire winnings. I bought them from key sellers in the area, and from auctions.”

“I collected for about 20 years, buying most in the 1970s. I kept them in archival volumes and often looked at them with great longing and nostalgia. I gained a lot of happiness looking through them and sharing with my family.”

 

Content is king

“I tried to garner the best writing and significance the author could have, [that best displayed] the writer’s contributing to western civilization. I love my letters.”

“The letters form a real tapestry of history. Nothing was bought just to fill a hole. They all show a tremendous vitality and the key events of their time. Eventually the sellers were aware that I only wanted the most vivid and influential letters, and would bring me those. I didn’t mind paying a premium price for a significant contribution, rather than buying a commercial or mediocre example of a person’s humdrum thinking. That’s important. I evolved so that my collection became very heroic and poignant.”

“What’s amazing is that all the writers were very salient; e.g., presidents Grant or Monroe or Jackson, you never think of them as great intellectuals. Reagan, Teddy Roosevelt… they always wrote great, poignant letters. I prefer letters to historic documents, because by the time they come to the president, they’re antiseptic and for posterity. Letters explain how people were really feeling. It gives you a feeling of what the normal day-to-day life was.”

“I particularly enjoyed the letters from wives about husbands. I know almost every great man had a great woman, caring for the reputation and impact of their spouses on the current generation. Since I have seven children, I was particularly interested in letters that described the family life, triumphs and tragedies, and hopes of great men and women. For instance, the letter when Ronald Reagan wrote to his daughter [Patti Davis] asking her where it went wrong… It’s so emotional. Every family has had some uncertainty.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

Sharing the Niederhoffer Collection

“My collection became so voluminous, that a letter that was the piece de resistance connected with that writer was lost in the myriad. For that reason, I wanted to share the triumphal [examples] of those contributions to western civilization with those [collectors like me] that had a special interest in the area.”

“I was pleased RR went through them; I gave them full access of the collection and they chose the ones they thought would be most salient and heroic of western civilization. I think the letters are unique in that they span every field: it’s a good sample of heroic life from the 17th c. to the present.”

“When you have many thousands of letters, [you want] them to come to life. I’m happy to sell my best letters because they’ll be the ones more interesting and valuable to those who can appreciate their significance. I never bought a letter just because of a signature, a name or to complete a set. It will be nice to find surrogates who will enjoy them now.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”10029″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Endless inspiration

“The letters are very inspirational. I think about them when I’m trying to do great things. They provide a beautiful background, very resonant. They also come to life often – for example, I just read today a big article about the significance of Superman. I have the first draft of the original Superman. When you collect the great contributions, you see things come back around.”

 

Curating historic letters into the future

“I’m pleased that these letters are going to contribute to awareness of the greatness and impact of these people. I hope the recipients enjoy them and will share them with their colleagues and families, the same way I have.”

The Significant Letter Collection of
Victor Niederhoffer:
Bidding is June 22-28
View Auction Now

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John Brennan Collection: 5 quick questions

Autograph collector John Brennan Nirvana Dave Grohl RR Auction

This is third in a series of blogs highlighting the life of autograph collector John Brennan. The Brennan Collection will be offered by RR Auction from May 10-17.

 

Five quick questions with John Brennan

 

  • Favorite band of all-time, as a fan?

 

Guns N’ Roses.

 

  • Favorite band to follow on the road?

 

All of them! Guns N’ Roses, Van Halen, Paul McCartney – following any of them, you knew something exciting was going to happen. It was always so crazy and so cool.

 

  • Favorite person to get photos/autographs from?

 

Slash – It was chaos, total madness (with Guns N’ Roses); they were all partying up a storm. I had that fever – the adrenaline rush of never knowing what was going to happen. My favorite photo with Slash would have to be the one in Chicago in 1989 at like 6 in the morning in the back of a van. Total stoned look on his face; I can always imagine it.

 

  • Favorite photo of yourself with a celeb?

 

Man, that’s hard. Do I say a certain person because it’s rare? The one with Ronald Reagan? The one where Bob Dylan has his arm around me? Prince, Madonna, Michael Jackson?

 

  • Favorite place to hang out to meet celebs?

 

Easy. Parker Meridien, New York City, 1984. The best place to be to meet celebrities in 1984.

 

See the results of the John Brennan Collection auction here.

 

John Brennan Collection: Brennan’s Big Apple

Autograph collector John Brennan Rolling Stones Keith Richards

This is second in a series of blogs highlighting the life of autograph collector John Brennan. The Brennan Collection will be offered by RR Auction from May 10-17.

 

John Brennan’s Big Apple

How long is your commute? Teenager John Brennan was logging 150 miles daily on the round-trip driving back and forth from his home in Shelton, Connecticut, to New York City – and loving every minute of it.

Once he got his first autograph from the B-52s in 1979, he began a hobby that would come to define him. “Early on I realized, ‘this is IT, this is what I want to do in my life’,” Brennan said. He would go on to amass tens of thousands of autographs from all the pivotal music stars of the last 40 years. Brennan’s autograph collection is a labor of love by a passionate rock music fan.

Nobody had what we had in New York City;
it was the rock capital of the world.

Beginning in the early 1980s, Brennan was driving his IROC Camaro back and forth to the city every day, collecting autographs by day, dodging deer at 4 a.m. on the way home. But it was all worth it. Nobody had what we had in New York City,” he recalled. “It was the rock capital of the world.”

 

Dropping names

Brennan’s timing couldn’t have been better. British rockers like Keith Richards and Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, Bowie and Sting all lived in New York City in those early years. Sassy unknown Madonna was making “Desperately Seeking Susan” when Brennan met her and co-star Rosanna Arquette in the hip neighborhood of St. Marks Place. From Prince to the Grateful Dead, everyone came through the Big Apple. And John Brennan was there to get their autographs.

One Big Apple hotspot was The Parker New York (aka the Parker Meridien back in the day) – “the” hotel for hanging with celebs, Brennan said. He began an acquaintance with Julian Lennon (and mom Cynthia) and was lucky enough to be at gatherings that included the Grateful Dead, movie and television stars of the day like Don Johnson, and many others. “There were always [famous] people there. I followed Iron Maiden there once,” he said. “But the first time I stayed there was in early 1984 because Van Halen was there, and I met other people. Then Duran Duran was there and all the girls following them. It was like the hot club where all the teens hung out,” he recalled.

 

See the results of the John Brennan Collection auction here.

John Brennan Collection: Collector life

Autograph collector John Brennan Collection Robert Plant Led Zeppelin RR Auction

This is first in a series of blogs highlighting the life of autograph collector John Brennan. The Brennan Collection will be offered by RR Auction from May 10-17.

 

Collector life: John Brennan

Lifelong autograph collector John Brennan is ready to (reluctantly) part with a sliver of his vast 20,000+ collection. Gleaned over the past 40 years, the Brennan Collection features pretty much every rock n roll band of the last half-century, and then some. He used to be out 270 days a year collecting; he’s still out there, but only about 50 days a year nowadays. But it’s still a total labor of love for this diehard music fan.

I was a collector first; I just wanted my own albums signed.

“I was a collector first; I just wanted my own albums signed,” said Brennan, 53. Now living in New York City, he grew up in Connecticut and developed his love of rock n roll at an early age. From Aerosmith to Zeppelin, he listened, collected and followed the defining bands of the last decades of the 20th century. “Music WAS the drugs (for me),” he said. “All the Led Zeppelin, the Black Sabbath.”

‘The original selfies guys’

“We were the original selfies guys!” he joked about himself and his fellow hobbyists, posing with rock stars for photographs taken with actual cameras. “I was the Master of Getting. In the early days, it was always at the stage door; I was a teen with no connections, just wanting to be part of it. I wasn’t going up to these people to make a living; I just loved music. Once you do it just to sell it, you start to cut corners. I was a collector first.”

Daily life of collecting autographs was on-the-job – or maybe on-the-hob(by) – training. Brennan learned as he went; where the stars hung out, when and how to approach them. And for him, it wasn’t going to be just anyone. “The key to my success was that I was listening to the music. I stuck with what I knew; I wasn’t, like, going after Garbo,” Brennan said. “Whoever I listened to, I had to like; they had to have talent. I was a music guy; just a total maniac fan.”

It wasn’t easy

He cautions seekers to know when to say when, while soliciting autographs or photos. “My advice is just be nice and polite; if you get rejected, try again another time,” he said. “Keep asking. Their niceness [about signing] goes in and out, based on where they are in their own personal lives” – e.g., relationship problems, etc. Stars are human too, after all.

Modern-day autograph collectors might not realize how much more work it was just a few decades ago. No cellphone pics, no touchscreen finger-signatures. If you wanted an autographed photo with a celebrity, it was going to be more than one interaction.

You had to go through a time-consuming process to get a physical photo,” Brennan explained. “After we’d get a photo with someone, we’d immediately run to a photo store and print a photo — you didn’t even know if the picture came out! You’d wait a day, or at least an hour or two, hoping it’s not blurry, etc. And you had to order and wait for an 8×10. It was much more difficult to get the actual photo. And then you had it to get the autograph!”

Finding the celebs was no picnic, either. Remember that just a few decades ago, there was no social media oversharing; no instant check-ins at locations to let you know where to find your music or Hollywood hero. “I don’t think people [now] realize what a different world it was back then,” Brennan said. “There weren’t huge crowds of autograph seekers crowding around [celebrities] who just tweeted where they were. They weren’t guarded and annoyed because they figured you’d be turning around and selling their autographs on eBay or wherever. It was a totally different vibe back then,” he said.

See the results of the John Brennan Collection auction here.

‘Sign’ of the times: Are signatures a thing of the past?

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, fully signed by The Beatles John Lennon Paul McCartney George Harrison Ringo Starr autographs signatures RR Auction

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Above: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, fully signed by The Beatles. Sold by RR Auction for $179,358.

With credit card companies eschewing them, are signatures signing-off?

Two articles recently took contrarian viewpoints on whether or not the handwritten signature is going the way of the dinosaur.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

An antiquated notion?

In the New York Times story “Credit Card Signatures Are About to Become Extinct in the U.S.,” writer Stacy Cowley notes that as of April 2018, American Express, Discover, Mastercard and Visa have stopped requiring card users to sign receipts during transactions. With the advent of microchips to authenticate purchases, “the signature has really outrun its useful life,” said Mastercard’s Linda Kirkpatrick.

“I think they’re done,” added Mark Horwedel of the Merchant Advisory Group, a trade group that represents large American retailers. Horwedel predicts three-quarters of his group’s members will have stopped asking customers to sign their names on credit card receipts by the end of the year, the article states.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”9955″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The NYT article paints the signature as an antiquated notion on its way out:

The signature, a centuries-old way of verifying identity, is rapidly going extinct. Personal checks are anachronisms. Pen-and-ink letters are scarce. When credit card signatures disappear, handwritten authentications will be relegated to a few special circumstances: sealing a giant transaction like a house purchase, or getting a celebrity to autograph a piece of memorabilia — and even that is being supplanted by the cellphone selfie.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”9959″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The story even included this video where people talk wistfully about the significance of their signature as it relates to their personal evolution, as if the “extinction” has already happened.

It’s clear that signatures have little bearing on 21st century purchasing validation. NYT also included this humorous video of two friends on a comedy buying spree in L.A., signing obviously fake names on their receipts, including Justin Bieber, Jessica Alba, Vin Diesel and Oprah – even “Mr. Fake Name.” None were rejected by the cashiers, even when pointed out.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”9963″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”9964″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”9965″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

Signatures still carry a certain cachet

In his Washington Post article, “The digital age killed cursive. But it can’t kill the signature. Here’s why,” Adam Arenson disagrees that there is no value left to the handwritten signature. He asserts that signatures still carry a certain cachet, “a power we can attribute to their long history as marks of personal authenticity.”

From clipping signatures from handwritten letters, to in-person requests of notable figures, to printed “carte de visite” calling cards, all the way to signed glossy photographs of the modern age, collectors have sought and savored autographs for centuries. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”9967″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Said Arenson in the WaPo story:

And yet signatures still matter. Documents signed by Abraham Lincoln — even mere receipts — fetch thousands at auction. And even the absence of a personal signature attests to its power: I have peered at the signed “X” on many government documents — the mark of a Native American on a treaty, an ex-slave on a deposition, a veteran on a pension claim — wondering at what we cannot know about them because the subjects were unable even to sign.

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What does RR Auction think?

We certainly agree with the Washington Post article here at RR Auction. Though signatures may not be necessary for making credit card purchases, they nonetheless still hold value in the arena of autograph collection and historical artifacts.

“Our business was built on signatures,” said RR Auction founder and CEO Bob Eaton. “Interest in historically significant autographs on manuscripts, documents and correspondence has only increased in our 40-plus years as an auction house.” Eaton further notes that celebrity autographs from entertainers, politicians or other notable personalities – whether on the previously mentioned formats or on photographs, posters, books, etc. – continue to garner passionate collector interest and huge paydays for consignors.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”9973″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”9975″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Bill White, lead autograph appraiser at RR, said there’s no sign of signatures slowing down in the collectibles marketplace. “With handwritten items becoming more scarce in the digital age, it’s very exciting to own something put on paper with pen, pencil, quill or whatnot,” White said.

Collectors desire these items because there’s a palpably personal feel to them –
a more vivid connection to the author.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]So while perhaps signatures will become obsolete in realm of credit card purchases, RR Auction will still seek out the very best examples of history-makers putting their John Hancock on it.

Read about how Steve Jobs signatures are a hot commodity here.

Scroll through some of our best-sellers, including items with signatures, in this list.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]