Best Pen for Autos Test : Ruined a perfectly nice ROMLB...

[SportsCardMojo]

Now take that Staedler and Jet Stream and get a variety of Sharpie points (Fine, Very Fine, Ultra Fine) and practice on different card surfaces--Chrome, refractor, glossy fronts--like Fleer Ultra from the 90's, "Old School" fronts like Heritage, or anything else and see how they bleed, bubble, or smear.

Great pics and research. Very informative. Kinda like our own little slice of Mythbusters!

That was going to be my next test. I just need to find some junk cards to ruin. I did redeem a bunch of the MCG, but those are all Topps card. If someone wants to donate a junk cards from various eras, I'll be happy to run test on them and post results.

 

[vwnut13]

Now take that Staedler and Jet Stream and get a variety of Sharpie points (Fine, Very Fine, Ultra Fine) and practice on different card surfaces--Chrome, refractor, glossy fronts--like Fleer Ultra from the 90's, "Old School" fronts like Heritage, or anything else and see how they bleed, bubble, or smear.

Great pics and research. Very informative. Kinda like our own little slice of Mythbusters!

That was going to be my next test. I just need to find some junk cards to ruin. I did redeem a bunch of the MCG, but those are all Topps card. If someone wants to donate a junk cards from various eras, I'll be happy to run test on them and post results.

If only I had some nice new sharpies....

 

[Big Mac McGwire]

I been getting baseballs signed since I was 7.
I'm 28 now.

I rock with Bics.

Why?

Their ink stands the test of time.
Signed with a multi color Bic on september 11, 1990.

No fading 20 years later and it's on one of those synthetic vinyl balls. But the ink my friends looks the same as the day I got it.

It's the only company have I used since.

Some of the balls I got done have yellowed because of oily hands etc, but the ink has not
faded.

Signed 7 years ago in blue bic

Signed 2.5 weeks ago- blue Bic

Bic for me has stood the test of time.
I use the ones with the see through body.
Or one with the white body is fine also

Stay away for liquidy pens.
Hope this helps someone.

 

[Big Mac McGwire]

For photos and cards,

That is easy.

Blue Sharpie. The fine tips are good for cards that need to be signed in specific areas

Like these ...

For all other cards and photos, a brand new sharpie is the safest and best way to go

If you want a thick signature on a photo, press down hard and push down the tip

I wanted a thick auto in this auto and I prepped it by pressing down hard on a clean board
It came out perfect

 

[Big Mac McGwire]

I am the most picky, fussy person you will meet when it comes to getting Auto's 
I have learned by trial and error. If your going for Auto's at the stadium remember , the room for human error is insanely high combined with amount of time the player has to sign. And don't forget the moron, and there is always one that comes to the park with a dried out pen , dried out marker.

ALWAYS Bring a back up and make sure it works.
The cal Ripken arm test is a must. And if you see the person next you has a black , remind him black fades saught faster over time and give him your extra blue in the event the player runs with his pen for the rest of the crowd. 

BLUE all day and All Night


Helmets-
Deco paint

If you want silver on a photo,
Make sure it is Luster surface.

If your bringing a paint pen to get Auto's at the ballpark be careful. 
Paint will run if you do not handle the photo gently and give it time to dry

Paint pens on photos are BEST for sit down signings

This was done at sit down paid signing 

Jerseys can be tricky
Silver paint on numbers that have dark surfaces

Blue sharpie on light numbers or if you get the auto on the fabric (not on jersey) 


Bats- Blue sharpie

If bat is black like The maruccis Pujols uses
Then go with silver deco paint

Ticket stubs- blue sharpie

Hats - dark hats - silver paint 
Light hats - blue sharpie

 

[predatorkj]

I'd argue two things.

First, if you want a thick auto from a sharpie, do not sit there and press it down. You are better served taking a blank sheet of paper or an index card and holding the sharpie at a severe slant and then running it along the paper. Just like when you were in elementary school and you had a pencil where the tip was too fat, you'd sit there and run it across paper at an angle to sharpen the tip. Except with a sharpie, it seems to work opposite. Plus, you can still reuse that sucker for a long while to come. Especially if you are getting something like a photo signed. You press the tip down...not so much. I am one of those people who hates really thin signatures from a sharpie. I actually own a Dez Bryant mini with a thin sig because my friend didn't know how to prep his sharpie and Dez ended up running with it. But I have always been anal about it. I like stuff to come out really thick and really bold.

Secondly, and this is a matter of extreme contention, but do not use a paint pen unless you have to. I have said it a million times. Using those things will eventually cause you some hassel. I've seen bats screwed up, footballs, mini helmets(both football and baseball), basketballs, jersey's, photos, cards, you name it. In fact there hasn't been an item that I have seen signed(you know...the different generic items you might see at an autograph signing) that hasn't been screwed up at one time or another. It doesn't happen all the time. I'll give you that. But you get the chance to get a major star athlete, there is no way in hell you want to take any chances you don't have to. And the items that got screwed up had nothing to do with the athlete or the person having the item signed. I'm talking about bubbling, the ink running, the pen "exploding" where it leaves a big nasty glob, and some extreme skipping. The skipping happens with no rhyme or reason. It can be left in the same position, in the same temperature, and it might work fine the first two times, skip the third, and be fine for the fourth and fifth.

I say stick to what works. They are coming out with all this new stuff and if you want to be a pioneer, that is fine. But I personally would rather be a collector with items that will last and I have a low probability of them screwing up during the signing. The only thing you would see me using a paint pen on is a basketball or a football. Other than that, given their track record and the stuff I have seen happen, there is just no good reason to use them on anything else where a sharpie will suffice. Same could be said of all these new fancy pens and ink and whatnot. I stick to bic because it works. Sharpie seems to work.

 

[hive17]

From both my time as an art student and in the military, it's Lumacolor, FTW.

They dry fast on anything, have the penetration and coverag and "on-demand" of a marker, but seem to last over time like Bic's awesome ink.

 

[Guest]

How much are the Staedler pens?

 

[SportsCardMojo]

How much are the Staedler pens?

I think they come in various packaging. The one I got was 10 markers in various colors for $10. They had a set of 4 markers (super fine tip) for $5. If you go to an art supply store, I think they sell the pens individually. But if that's too much trouble, just got to Office Depot or Staples and pick it up. It comes in a neat case. Make sure it's the permanant marker. They have lumocolor for over head projectors and a few other brands.

And to everyone else. Thanks for the comments and feedback. It's all very good information. And don't take this post the wrong way. It's not that I don't believe you guys when you say the Bic is tried and true. I just needed to see it with my own eyes. From the picture, you can see that the Bic looks really nice. It was hard for me to believe, but it does come out well. I'm also liking the Uniball Jetstream...so I may try to get some autos using both pens. Hope to take a trip up to Hagerstown before Harper gets promoted to Potomac.

 

[Greg Cleveland]

Big Mac--nice tips on paint pens. Here's a couple I did at Twinsfest, just to see how they would turn out...

Pretty fat point. I think a finer point would look better, but I wanted to see how the silver would look on the Wal-Mart Black Topps cards.

 

[tikitomoka]

Contrary to what bigmac said, don't use a brand new sharpie on anything. All that does is create streakiness like he got on his Harper SI photo.

 

[Guest]

Silver looks great on hats and photos, and just a normal black sharpie is nice for photos

 

[tikitomoka]

Black goes away faster than blue. Sharpie goes away faster than staedtler and paint pen.

 

[Viking4Alpha]

I'd argue two things.

First, if you want a thick auto from a sharpie, do not sit there and press it down. You are better served taking a blank sheet of paper or an index card and holding the sharpie at a severe slant and then running it along the paper. Just like when you were in elementary school and you had a pencil where the tip was too fat, you'd sit there and run it across paper at an angle to sharpen the tip. Except with a sharpie, it seems to work opposite. Plus, you can still reuse that sucker for a long while to come. Especially if you are getting something like a photo signed. You press the tip down...not so much. I am one of those people who hates really thin signatures from a sharpie. I actually own a Dez Bryant mini with a thin sig because my friend didn't know how to prep his sharpie and Dez ended up running with it. But I have always been anal about it. I like stuff to come out really thick and really bold.

Secondly, and this is a matter of extreme contention, but do not use a paint pen unless you have to. I have said it a million times. Using those things will eventually cause you some hassel. I've seen bats screwed up, footballs, mini helmets(both football and baseball), basketballs, jersey's, photos, cards, you name it. In fact there hasn't been an item that I have seen signed(you know...the different generic items you might see at an autograph signing) that hasn't been screwed up at one time or another. It doesn't happen all the time. I'll give you that. But you get the chance to get a major star athlete, there is no way in hell you want to take any chances you don't have to. And the items that got screwed up had nothing to do with the athlete or the person having the item signed. I'm talking about bubbling, the ink running, the pen "exploding" where it leaves a big nasty glob, and some extreme skipping. The skipping happens with no rhyme or reason. It can be left in the same position, in the same temperature, and it might work fine the first two times, skip the third, and be fine for the fourth and fifth.

I say stick to what works. They are coming out with all this new stuff and if you want to be a pioneer, that is fine. But I personally would rather be a collector with items that will last and I have a low probability of them screwing up during the signing. The only thing you would see me using a paint pen on is a basketball or a football. Other than that, given their track record and the stuff I have seen happen, there is just no good reason to use them on anything else where a sharpie will suffice. Same could be said of all these new fancy pens and ink and whatnot. I stick to bic because it works. Sharpie seems to work.

Why do you always have to write a thesis for every post you make?

 

[Viking4Alpha]

The cal Ripken arm test is a must.

Hey Don, what is that?

Great posts btw. AWESOME collection.

 

[chiefer77]

Very nice thead! It got me thinking about how my auto'd baseballs are holding up. So I got the out and took some pictures as well. They are pretty much all signed with ball point pens. Howard Johnson, Tom Glavine and David Justice are probably 20 years old. There are a a couple on game used balls that I caught at games. There are a few that I bought to be autographed and one Jim Deshaies that is on a little league ball that is over 20 years old. The ones with multiple sigs are covered on all sides with and they are all in the same condition as the ones seen in the picture. They are anywhere from 7 to 10 years old. None of the balls pictured are less then 7 years old.

Deshaies

20 sigs on this ball

Game used ball that I caught with Tony Larussa and Jose Jimenez

13 sigs on this ball

Howard Johnson, I got when I was 14, I'm now 34

Self explanitory

David Justice that I got at the same time as the Johnson

10 sigs on this one, bought this ball for autos

another game used ball. Vladi is on this one from his rookie year in Montreal

 

[SportsCardMojo]

Very nice thead! It got me thinking about how my auto'd baseballs are holding up. So I got the out and took some pictures as well. They are pretty much all signed with ball point pens. Howard Johnson, Tom Glavine and David Justice are probably 20 years old. There are a a couple on game used balls that I caught at games. There are a few that I bought to be autographed and one Jim Deshaies that is on a little league ball that is over 20 years old. The ones with multiple sigs are covered on all sides with and they are all in the same condition as the ones seen in the picture. They are anywhere from 7 to 10 years old. None of the balls pictured are less then 7 years old.

Deshaies

20 sigs on this ball

Game used ball that I caught with Tony Larussa and Jose Jimenez

13 sigs on this ball

Howard Johnson, I got when I was 14, I'm now 34

Self explanitory

David Justice that I got at the same time as the Johnson

10 sigs on this one, bought this ball for autos

another game used ball. Vladi is on this one from his rookie year in Montreal

AWESOME! They look fantastic! Just a regular Bic? Or do you even remember...I'm sure it's been a while.

 

[chiefer77]

I just used a regular big pen like you would use to do your homework in high school, lol. Back then, I never thought about the differences between the kinds of pens that would be best for a ball. The balls that I had signed at games, I wanted to bring a pen that I could toss when I was done with it because we usually go out to the bars after the games and I didn't want to carry it around with me. I know that the ball with Vlads auto has several different pens because many of the sigs were in the tunnel at olympic stadium and the players would just keep signing with whatever pen was in their hand. All the others are the same ink.

Oh and by "bars", I really mean strip joints. LOL

 

[Big Mac McGwire]

Contrary to what bigmac said, don't use a brand new sharpie on anything. All that does is create streakiness like he got on his Harper SI photo.

Where are the streaks???

ALL USED WITH SHARPIE.

The Harper SI was signed on an Slant. Hence the "streak" that **** mentioned. The Auto's above were all signed at public signings during spring traning where players were sitting down. Except for the Harper 11x14 which was signed with a sharpie i pressed the tip down prior to him signing. I did not do that with the Sharpie he used to sign the si.

here is harper signing the si. The H is not terrible. Yea it came out thin, But it was also signed on a slant as you can see from the picture. It was also signed on not exactly a solid foundation.

 

[Big Mac McGwire]

The cal Ripken arm test is a must.

Hey Don, what is that?

Great posts btw. AWESOME collection.

Cal Ripken would always test Pens out on his palm or Arm before he used it to sign a autograph.