The sports world is mourning the loss of one of the greatest to ever play baseball, as Willie Mays died Tuesday at the age of 93.
Aside from maybe Babe Ruth, it's hard to argue anyone can match the statistics of the "Say Hey Kid." Mays hit an incredible 40 home runs for 13 consecutive years, led the league in stolen bases for four seasons and covered more ground in the outfield than arguably anyone, securing 12 Gold Gloves for his fielding prowess.
“It’s the end of an era,” said vintage-card dealer Leighton Sheldon of Just Collect. “The ballplayers that our parents saw are now gone. It was Mickey (Mantle), Willie and Hank (Aaron). Willie was an icon of the game and in the hobby.”
When I started collecting tickets five years ago, the first baseball ticket I needed to secure was Mookie Wilson-Bill Buckner (Game 6 of the 1986 World Series). I'm a Mets fan and nothing would beat that. At No. 2? I needed Game 1 of the 1954 World Series. I wanted a stub from someone who was at the Polo Grounds that day to witness Mays' amazing basket catch for the New York Giants.
RELATED STORY:
When the autograph circuit started to heat up in the mid-1980s, and fans realized they'd have to pay money for the signatures of the greats, Mickey Mantle commanded the highest fee, and Mays was No. 2.
But Mays' autograph has not appreciated the same as Mantle's, and it has nothing to do with the Hall of Famer's legacy. His market is hurt by the amount of fake signatures that have surfaced over the last two decades.
Around 2003, as Mays' godson Barry Bonds was the darling of the autograph memorabilia world, Mays also unveiled a "Say Hey AUTHENTICATED" hologram.
"The original ones were good," eBay powerseller Rick Probstein said. "But then all these started coming out that were forgeries that had the hologram on it."
Jimmy Spence III, vice president of James Spence Authentication, said his company has verified some autographs with the hologram, but, over time, the holograms came to mean nothing. Most of the forgeries tend to be on photos of "The Catch" from the 1954 World Series.
"There might be 100,000 of these out there," Spence said.
Frank Reinstein is a Michigan-based CPA who runs the YouTube channel, Hall of Fame Autographs, and has been following Mays autographs for years. He says the holograms that originally came out were much smaller.
"The newer ones are larger and clearer," Reinstein advised on spotting the fake holograms.
Reinstein said the "Willie" part of Mays' signature, which looks like a "4" with a scribble, is easy to fake, but where he sees forgers going wrong is at the end.
"The good ones usually have what looks like an 'r' at the end instead of a 'p,'" Reinstein said, referring to what is supposed to be an 's" on the end of Mays.
As of noon ET on Wednesday, there were more than 100 items on eBay with the "Say Hey Hologram" that have not been dual-authenticated by any other autograph company.
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct.com and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectibles market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.