Autograph Authentication Report
2025 Topps T.S. 30 Yrs & Bey.: You.Are.A.Toy.Story…Auto. - T. Hale - Woody's Cowboy Hat Shimmer (91/99) · #YRT-THL
Findings
Signature comparison
This card. The signature as cropped from the slab photo (front).
Below, the known examples Crown compared it with. Examples with stronger proof (signed in front of staff, or certified by an independent authenticator) carry the most weight.
Feature by feature
| Feature | This card | Known examples | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall form and proportions | Wide, low, horizontally stretched 'Tony Hale' that fills a short, wide signing window. It is noticeably flatter than the references. | R1/R2 are taller and more compact. The T, the H uprights and the 'le' rise well above the small 'ony'. R3/R4 are similar but with a bigger vertical sweep. | Natural variation |
| Slant and baseline | Mild leftward tilt on the uprights. The baseline runs roughly level to slightly rising. | R1-R4 range from leftward to slightly rightward uprights, with a slightly rising baseline. | Match |
| Letter construction – T | A long crossbar starting with a small left hook, and a separate downstroke stem dropping below the baseline. | R1/R2/R4/R5/R6 all have a long T crossbar with a stem running below the line. In the references the crossbar more often rises at an angle from lower left. | Natural variation |
| Letter construction – 'ony' | Small 'o' and 'n' run together, with a 'y' whose descender drops well below the baseline. | R1/R2/R4 show a compressed 'ony' with a looped or descending 'y' that drops below the line. | Match |
| Letter construction – 'Hale' | Two uprights with a crossing stroke, then a small 'a' and 'l', ending in a looped 'e'. | R1/R2: tall paired H uprights, then reduced 'le' ending in a loop. R4/R6: a similar terminal loop. Ours is more legible and less reduced. | Natural variation |
| Connecting strokes | 'ony' is connected, there is a lift before the H, and 'ale' is connected into the final loop. | R1/R2 show the same grouping: T, then 'ony', then H, then a connected 'le'. | Match |
| Starting and ending strokes | The T crossbar opens with a small hook. The signature finishes on a rounded 'e' loop that tapers off. | R1/R2/R4 end on a similar rounded terminal loop. The starts are a sweeping crossbar entry. | Match |
| Line quality and speed | Strokes look fluid, with natural curvature and no visible tremor or patching at this resolution. It is somewhat more deliberate than the fast references. | R1-R6 are fast and fluent. R7/R8 are very rapid abbreviated forms. | Natural variation |
| Pen pressure pattern | Blue marker-type ink with some thickness variation; ends look reasonably tapered. | R1/R2 use blue marker with fairly even width. R3-R6 use black marker. | Natural variation |
| Spacing | An evenly spread first and last name across the window. | R1/R2 have a similar gap between 'Tony' and 'Hale', in a more vertical arrangement. | Natural variation |
| Flourishes and underlines | None. | None in R1/R2. R3-R6 add 'Hi!' or a smiley, which is common at personal and convention signings. R7/R8 have no flourishes. | Match |
| Placement and size | Centered in the card's designated autograph window, sized to fit it. | Open surfaces with no size constraint. | Not assessable |
Measurements
Software traced the ink and measured it against the known examples. The shaded band is the signer's normal range across those examples; the gold marker is this card.
| Feature | This card | Known examples | Normal range | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slant of upright strokes | -11.2° | -16.8–11.9° | In range | |
| Height to width | 0.408 | 0.588–0.751 | Outside range | |
| Ink travel per unit width | 3.46× | 3.76–4.67× | In range | |
| Stroke thickness variation | 0.439 | 0.299–0.47 | In range | |
| Closed loops | 4 | 4.0–5.0 | In range | |
| Separate strokes | 4 | 3.0–7.0 | In range |
The code measured six features against Hale's four measurable reference signatures. Five fall within his normal range: - the tilt of the upright strokes; - how much ink is used across the signature's width; - stroke thickness variation; - the number of closed loops; - the number of separate pen strokes. One feature stands out: the signature is much flatter relative to its width than his references, about 3 normal spreads away. That is most likely explained by the card's short, wide autograph box, which forces a stretched-out signature, rather than by a different hand. Overall the numbers mildly support authenticity, and nothing in them argues against it. The one outlier is a reason for a closer look, not evidence of a problem.
Examiner notes
Ours is on a 2025 Topps Toy Story 30 Years & Beyond 'You. Are. A. Toy. Story...' autograph card (91/99 Woody's Cowboy Hat Shimmer), so it was signed for Topps around 2024-2025. The references are undated. R1/R2 (Beckett-slabbed index card) and R3 (PSA/DNA 8x10) look like modern-era signatures, probably the 2010s-2020s. R5-R8 are convention-style photo signings with smileys or abbreviated forms. None is clearly far older than ours, so era drift should be small. The bigger factors are surface and context: a narrow manufacturer signing window versus open index cards and photos.
How Crown authenticates autographs: the signature is compared with known examples gathered from Crown's own authenticated cards, independent authenticators and public listings, measured by software, examined by an AI forensic model, and signed off by Crown Grading staff. The decision above is Crown's.
