The most valuable autograph in all of sports is not Babe Ruth or Michael Jordan. It also isn’t Lionel Messi, Tiger Woods or Wayne Gretzky.
Instead, it belongs to “Shoeless” Joe Jackson.
While Jackson’s career was certainly one filled with accolades — he hit an incredible .356 in his 13-season career — Ruth himself said he copied Jackson’s batting style and he was “the guy who made me a hitter” — it might seem, at first glance, like an oddity for his signature to hold such value.
Yet, a baseball, carrying only the faintest markings of Jackson’s autograph, as well as the signatures of four members of the 1938 Detroit Tigers (Elden Auker, Tommy Bridges, Rudy York, and Don Ross), could reach rarified air when it sells Saturday at Goldin. The ball certainly will fetch multiples of what a similar quality autographed ball of the likes of Babe Ruth would earn.
The reason is quite simple: Jackson was functionally illiterate.
With Jackson hardly receiving any form of formal education growing up in rural South Carolina, his wife, Katie, was responsible for most of his signatures, with experts believing there are less than a few dozen authentic examples in existence. No single-signed Jackson baseball has ever surfaced publicly.
The resulting scarcity, combined with the notoriety of his involvement with the Black Sox Scandal (he was recently reinstated along with Pete Rose), has driven prices for all signed Joe Jackson items through the roof.
In 2021, the only signed photograph of Jackson sold for a record $1.47 million. The same year, his signed 1949 driver’s license sold for $125,460.
Other Jackson-signed balls have sold previously, each featuring other names alongside his, including a Jackson and Buck Weaver signed ball from 1920, which sold for $240,000 in 2017.
A ball including Jackson, Cy Young and three other signatures — marketed as and based on aesthetics, likely is, the finest Jackson-signed ball in the world — sold for $171,479 in 2017.
The ball at Goldin sold for $75,611 in 2018 at Hunt and currently has a bid of $42,700, including buyer’s premium. The value and appeal of the ball is improved by the fact Jackson’s autograph sits alone on its own panel.
It is curious that Jackson is paired with members of the 1938 Tigers.
After all, Jackson was banned from the game in 1921 and was living in Greenville, South Carolina, where he would later open a liquor store and live largely in anonymity.
In one of the more famous and sad stories of Jackson’s post-career, Ty Cobb and sportswriter Grantland Rice were driving around the south following the Masters Tournament at Augusta when they drove through Greenville. Cobb asked a local where he could find Jackson and was pointed to a liquor store. As they entered the store, Jackson was behind the counter and showed no signs he recognized Cobb.
After Cobb purchased something from the store, he asked Jackson, “Don’t you know me, Joe?”
Jackson looked back at him and smiled: “Sure, I know you, Ty, but I wasn’t sure you wanted to know me. A lot of them don’t.”
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture.