don’t touch signature

It is important that when handling your autographs you do not touch the signature itself. Oils from your skin can break down and damage many surfaces/inks and can cause your signature to fade or smudge. This is especially important with baseballs where it is not only important not to touch the signature, but also not to touch the leather of the ball before signing it. Having oils on the ball before it is signed can also cause it to fade or stain. Our best advice is to always handle items close to the edges and away from the signature, or on baseballs, always handle by the cords. If you want to go a step further, you can even get plastic gloves to handle your items.

Toploaders and plastic bags

It’s common sense that it’s important not to have an item out in the open where it can get damaged. Be sure to use top loaders for photos and plastic bags for other items to prevent excessive handling. We use simple sandwich bags to store all of our baseballs, larger ziploc bags to store t-shirts and large items, and plastic top loaders for photos. These items keep you from handling them more than necessary, the goal is to get an item out in the open only long enough to be signed for to reduce the risk of damage or contamination.

*NOTE: Most top-loading printers contain PVC, a plastic product that can damage a signature over time. Top loaders are great for short-term storage, but they are not a secure long-term archiving solution. I have had photos in top chargers for 5-10 years without any major issues, but over an extremely long time (especially if adjusting for temp or humidity) they can damage the sharpie signature on items. Polyester photo sleeves are a great alternative for long-term storage (or for professionally framing your photos).

let it dry

Don’t forget to let an item dry before placing it in any type of storage where the signature touches a surface. Many collectors forget this and smear autographs by touching them or placing them in toploaders or bags right after they’ve been signed. A good tip here is to blow on the signature for a few minutes after you’ve signed it until it’s completely dry. Paint pens are especially bad for this, as paint takes much longer to dry than marker (we typically let our paint-signed items air dry for 5-10 minutes after they’ve been signed, for the marker should be blown between 60 and 90 seconds on the signature). work). There is nothing more frustrating than getting a great article signed and then destroying the signature by smearing it.

Avoid ultraviolet light

This is one of the most important tips and is often ignored by many. UV light can break down ink in ballpoint pens and markers. Over time, any signature exposed to ultraviolet light from the sun or fluorescent light bulbs will fade to nothing. Depending on the condition of the item and the ink, this can take as little as a couple of years. There are a couple of things that collectors usually do to fix this problem. First, you can store all your items in a dark room or some type of boxed storage where they won’t get direct UV light. However, most of us like to display our collections. If you want to display your items, store them in some sort of UV-protected storage. For baseballs and bats, you can use UV protected ball holders and buckets. For photos you can use top loaders or sleeves as long as they are UV protected or better yet have items professionally framed in direct light using UV plastic instead of regular glass. You can also buy non-UV protected mounts (like ball boxes) and then replace the glass/plastic with a UV plexiglass like Lexan.