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Folks--
Am getting back into the hobby (through my 5-year-old son) for the first time since around 1984. I have a ton (like 500+ HOF and 3000+ cards) of autographs from my days back then, of course none of which have Certificates of Authenticity -- that just wasn't done back then. Now, of course I'm not totally naive, and there are certainly a few scattered signatures that might not be real. But we did know back then that Joe DiMaggio's signature had to have the dot under it, etc., and that certain wives signed for their husbands, and so on. We knew that and discarded them, dejectedly. And who would bother faking a Joe Sambito, anyway?
My question is, I am looking to sell a decent amount of my collection, simply to create funds to buy new cards for my son (holy cow, packs are expensive now!). But I'm a little spooked as to the necessity of COA's. So many of my things are probably $2-$20 items, and COA's are simply unrealistically expensive, seems to me. Any advice? At what point (value of signature, presumably) is a COA necessary? Do people buy/trade things using their own eyes and knowledge anymore?
Thanks very much, folks. I appreciate the help.
--Alan Schwarz.

COA is a must in todays world of autograph collecting in my opinion. There are too many fakes out there so collectors are not willing to take the risk of buying something without the seal of approval.

COA from random dealer isnt worth jack.
High value autos (Mantle, Dimaggio, etc) are better off authenticated (PSA or JSA) depending on the item and condition. For the $2-20 stuff list them on eBay, or join a couple sites that have a BST board and post a list and prices and sell as many as you can there.
There is no blanket answer for a generic question like this. Your best bet would be check out completed auctions on eBay to get idea of what kind of $$$ you could expect.

I see you are more into the Baseball area of collecting. I actually enjoy buying IP auto cards of NBA Top 50 players, sending them in to JSA (My Preferred Authenticating Service and Most Economical) and reselling them on the Bay. What you need to do is:

1) Seperate the STARS/HOFers from the Joe Schomoes.

2) Seperate Common Joe Schomoes w/ alot of certified autos from the ones without few.

3) Use Completed listings or find someone w/ Terapeak to find the history of sales.

If authenticating is $20 (Dunno if there are any deals for larger submissions) per I would suggest you only get cards with resale value of $50+.

Cards with lower values you should do BIN w/ BO on the Bay or check to sell on forums.