In the late 1980s, enterprising autograph peddlers found a smart way to upcharge for Richard Nixon signatures.
They printed the text of Nixon’s infamous resignation on the signed item, making it look like Nixon had signed his resignation.
This practice also served as a workaround at times for Joe DiMaggio, who famously wouldn’t sign anything with his ex-wife Marilyn Monroe on it.
In recent years, as printing technology has gotten better, the market has seen more examples of this work.
Take a Barack Obama signature on a piece of paper that’s worth maybe $175, print his birth certificate on it, and you have an Obama-signed birth certificate, which could sell for $800.
A 3x5 card signed by Martin Luther King Jr. usually goes for $5,000, but ones that have layered over his “I Have A Dream” pictures have sold for $15,000.
Longtime collector and seller John Reznikoff has sold these items, including an MLK example from 2022, in his University Archives sales.
On Wednesday, one of these items, an 8x10 piece of paper that was signed by John F. Kennedy that then had his famous “Go To The Moon” speech layered over it, sold in a University Archives auction for a price of $15,000.
Reznikoff said the paper that was signed on the bottom by Kennedy was probably worth around $4,000 alone since it came from the collection of Apollo 1 astronaut Gus Grissom, but the rest of the upside is due to the creativity of the consigner.
The autograph was sent to Grissom to commemorate the four-cent Project Mercury U.S. postage stamp, which was issued Feb. 20, 1962, immediately after John Glenn orbited the earth.
Kennedy gave his famous “Moon” speech in Sept. 1962 at Rice University. Grissom died in the Apollo 1 accident in Jan. 1967.
“I have to give the person who thought of this a lot of credit,” Reznikoff said. “It’s a really wonderful collectible.”
Not everyone is a fan.
"I can appreciate the fact that you want to contexualizate the autograph," said longtime collector Simeon Lipman. "The problem is there's a lot of room for confusion."
Reznikoff said that it’s very important, especially with these items, that the bidder knows what they are getting.
“Undoubtedly, the printing on this item was done at some point after it was signed, making it an incredibly impressive authentically signed souvenir of one of Kennedy's most iconic speeches,” Reznikoff wrote in the description.
Lipman said what worries him is that, while this buyer might know what they are getting, the next buyer might not.
"I'm not sure there's a lot of resale value if you correctly describe what it is," Lipman said.
While printing on a signature could result in gain, it could also result in spoil.
Said Reznikoff: “I’ve heard of a couple times where it hasn’t worked out."
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct.com and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectible market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.