Shoeless Joe Jackson, who was banned from baseball after assisting in the throwing of the 1919 World Series, seldom signed autographs, owing to his illiteracy. According to the Associated Press, most baseball-autograph specialists believe there are no more than 100 Jackson autographs. Even though this number is relatively small, it represents a huge increase from just a few years ago when nobody seemed to know much about him at all. In fact, until fairly recently, there were only two known examples of Jackson signing an autograph. One was owned by sports historian John Thorn and the other by filmmaker Ron Taylor. In 2004, they bought them both for $40,000 each. They are now worth millions of dollars. Thorn told AP that he believed Jackson signed between 20 and 25 pieces of mail-order business during his career. He said these items sold for as much as $5,000 apiece back then. Today, they would be worth far more than that. Jackson's brother Fred once claimed to have been present when their father made Shoeless Joe sign a contract before he agreed to retire from baseball. If this claim is true, then it can be assumed that Joe had some form of literacy since you need to agree with someone before you can make them sign something.