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Chuck Yeager

I've been following eBay seller Gabi-2311 from Germany for a while and it seems she only deals with Space related items. She now has two separate auctions for signed Chuck Yeager FDCs which seem a little off to me. Two things in particular - the line through the 'C' flourish, and the hook at the beginning of the 'Y', I've never seen on a Chuck Yeager autograph before. If they are fake I'm pretty sure she's selling them without knowing it as stuff I've seen in the past from her looked legit. So if anyone has an opinion on either this seller, or these signatures, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks!

Tags: Yeager

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on July 6, 2016 at 4:58pm

In my opinion, the questioned example is an authentic 70s era signature, which is a match to the era of the postal cover. I added a similar example below from the 70s.

The vast majority of the Yeager signatures you see are 1990s or later, and those style signatures don't have the extra flourish on the C and Y.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on July 6, 2016 at 5:12pm

Regarding Gabi-2311...

In my opinion, she makes a good faith effort to offer authentic material and most of her items are authentic.

That said, I have seen some items she has offered that were not authentic in my opinion, including Autopens and documented secretarial styles.

I would buy from her -- and I have -- because she gets some good collections. But, I would not rely solely on her for authentication purposes. Just my opinion.

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Permalink Reply by Greg on July 6, 2016 at 7:10pm

Thank you so much for your opinions Steve, they mean a great deal!
It's good to know there are variations on Yeagers' signature to look out for!
Just curious, in the world of collecting, if you have someone's earlier signature, such as this, does that necessarily make it more valuable?
And yes, I will continue to buy from her, but I'll be sure to post it on here first in the future ;)
Thanks again!

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on July 7, 2016 at 6:03am

I almost always prefer earlier signature examples and I think many collectors feel the same. Whether it's astronauts or baseball players, a signature from before the era of mass signings is more desirable in my opinion. For example, a Mickey Mantle playing days signature will sell for a premium over a 1990s show signed item. Same with astronauts... a 1969 Apollo 11 signed photo is going to go for more than one that was put together through the mail years later.

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Permalink Reply by Greg on July 7, 2016 at 10:49am

Good to know...thanks Steve!

Off topic, you mentioned before about autopen, and I've seen this in sellers' listings before, especially a lot when it comes to astronauts for some reason, but is there a way of distinguishing an autopen from a hand-signed signature?I was looking up the history of autopens, and apparently they've been around since the time of Thomas Jefferson, who actually used one!