Harry S. Truman
Signed until 1972, so the supply is fixed — nothing new is being added to this market.
Recorded sales
| Date | What sold | Certified | Price | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-07-08 | Single-signed inscribed official American League (Cronin) baseball | JSA | $17,459 | auction result |
| 2017-02-25 | 1947 single-signed baseball | PSA/DNA and JSA Signature 9/10 | $10,200 | auction result |
| 2013-07-19 | Single-signed baseball | PSA/DNA Auto 8 / Ball 6 / Overall NM 7 | $10,025 | auction result |
| 2011-04-22 | 1972 single-signed baseball with letter | PSA/DNA and JSA Signature 9/10 | $9,859 | auction result |
| 2016-02-21 | 1946-52 single-signed baseball | PSA/DNA and JSA Signature 5/10 | $5,497 | auction result |
| 2025-08-24 | 1949 single-signed baseball inscribed to Mickey Harris | Beckett | $5,002 | auction result |
| 2006-02-21 | Signed and inscribed colour photograph | PSA/DNA | $3,884 | auction result |
| 2013-11-08 | 1957 single-signed baseball | PSA/DNA and JSA Signature 7/10 | $2,151 | auction result |
| 2006-02-20 | Signed photograph with typed letter signed as president | PSA/DNA | $598 | auction result |
By certification level
These are 9 results this index has recorded from Heritage Auctions between 2006 and 2026, not every sale that happened. They under-represent inexpensive items, which sell constantly and are reported rarely, and they exclude private sales this index has no record of. Read them as documented evidence rather than as a complete market.
About this signature
- Status
- Signed until 1972supply is fixed
- Note
- The president whose market is led by baseballs, not paper
- On this index
- 0 listedno sales recorded yet
What does a signed Harry Truman item cost?
It depends almost entirely on what he signed. Seven of the nine certified results recorded here are single-signed baseballs, and they sold for between about two thousand and seventeen and a half thousand dollars. A signed photograph sent with a typed letter from his presidency made $598, the same territory as Franklin Roosevelt's and Theodore Roosevelt's paper. Truman's paper is priced like a president's. His baseballs are priced like something else.
Why are his baseballs worth so much more than his letters?
Because two groups of collectors want them. Presidents have thrown out the first pitch of the baseball season since William Howard Taft in 1910, and a ball signed by a president appeals to baseball collectors as well as to collectors of presidents. A typed letter signed in the White House appeals mostly to the second group. On this page the baseballs sold for roughly four to thirty times the photograph and letter. None of the other presidents recorded here, from Washington on, has a market shaped like this.
Does it matter when he signed the ball?
Not in any simple way. A 1947 ball, signed while he was president and with a strong signature, made $10,200, against $5,497 for a weaker signature from his White House years and $2,151 for a ball from 1957, after he had left office. But the dearest ball of all, at $17,459, is an official American League ball carrying the name of Joe Cronin, who became league president only in 1959. So it was signed years after Truman left the White House, and it is also inscribed. On this evidence the strength of the signature and what is written with it matter more than the date alone.
Signatures are reproduced more often than most buyers realise, by outright forgery and also by machines and assistants signing on somebody’s behalf. Every item on this page has been examined by PSA/DNA, JSA, Beckett, SGC or CGC, and this index carries nothing else. That is a deliberate restriction, and the investigation that created the modern authentication industry is worth reading, along with what a certificate actually claims.