Why You Should Never Use a Silver Sharpie — Except for This One Time

Silver Sharpies seem like they should be perfect for autographs, but they are one of the most frustrating pens in the memorabilia world.

In this episode of The Powers Sports Memorabilia Show, Matt explains why silver Sharpies usually aren't the best choice and what you should use instead.

We go through sports cards, footballs, helmets, photos, bats, boxing gloves, hockey pucks, Funko Pops, and more.

Some items can handle a silver Sharpie just fine, while others are much better suited for a silver paint pen.

But there is one surprising item where a silver Sharpie may actually be the best pen you can use.

Matt also explains why testing your pen before an autograph signing is so important and shares lessons learned from years of professional signings.

If you're sending an item to an autograph signing, this episode could help you avoid choosing the wrong pen.

https://powerssportsmemorabilia.com/

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All right, welcome back to another episode of the Power Sports Immobilia Show. I'm your host, Matt Powers. Thank you again for joining me. Don't forget to visit the website powersportsmobilia.com. I'll skip us a follow over there on Instagram at Powers Autographs. Well, Silver Sharpie is a tough topic in this industry. Blue and black Sharpies are one of the heroes of this industry, and then for some reason, Silver Sharpie, especially recently, is just a dud. It's not a great pen. There are so many better choices out there. However, there are a few occasions when you can use a silver sharpie if you choose to. Now, as I just said, there are way better choices than that. So you should never have to use a silver sharpie unless under one circumstance. There is one circumstance in which you should use it, and I'll talk about that today. So I thought it would be kind of fun just to kind of run through some items and tell you why you shouldn't use a silver sharpie because you've got better options out there, and then we'll talk about the one item that you should use a silver sharpie on, which is surprising, right? There is actually an item out there where it actually works out really, really well. So let's talk about cards. Glossy cards, Prism, Tops Chrome, never use a silver sharpie. It's a dead pen. It's just not going to look great. Silver paint pen is a much better choice. Uh, deco is a great choice there for that option if you are choosing that color. Tickets. Now, if it's a super glossy ticket, I would stick with the paint pens. However, if it's a cardboard one and you're gung-ho about using a sharpie, a silver sharpie can be fine. Okay, again, I'm prefacing with all this like that it's a it's a functionally working silver sharpie that you've tested it, that it's a fresh one, hasn't been sitting out for two years, uh, and it's ready to go. Okay, so I I'm prefacing them by saying that this is a actual working sharpie. So going back to the tickets, yeah, I've seen silver sharpies work just fine on a cardboard ticket. If it's a little glossier, I I kind of like to use a paint pen. But again, it's not a terrible choice. We've seen a lot of people make worse choices. So if you're gung-ho about a silver sharpie on a ticket, you can. It's just a paint pen is just a much better choice, okay? Let's talk about footballs. Footballs, you're never going to use a silver sharpie unless, unless you have like a one of those uh logo balls, and it's that synthetic leather that the paint pens don't dry on, and it's a darker background. Okay, I've seen people use it on the white background, and you can believe it or not, you can see the autograph. They want it in silver. I don't know why. I think it's usually because they have other autographs in silver already. But on those white panel footballs and basketballs, you obviously gonna use probably a black pen, and we've talked about that before, the N50, okay? So, again, footballs, we use the broad paint pens for the most part, unless you're trying to get a whole bunch of autographs on there, and then we use the fine one. But again, authentic NFL football, you're using paint pens, you're not gonna ever ever get anywhere near a sharpie. Let's move on to mini helmets and full-size helmets. Believe it or not, if you get a silver sharpie that's flowing, that is functionally working, which is can be a challenge sometimes, they actually don't look bad on the helmets and the uh mini helmets. They look just fine. So, again, a paint pen is a better choice, but uh I've seen, believe it or not, I've actually seen silver deco paint pens kind of spider out a little bit when they after out if they get signed. So it's not gonna happen with a sharpie. So if you do want a silver sharpie in there and it's working, it's it's not a terrible choice. Again, there are just better choices out there, but it it doesn't, it's not terrible for you on that particular item. Um you can do that on uh baseball helmets too as well. Again, it's not the greatest looking pen, but it works. Okay, so if you're in a pinch and that's all you've got, it'll be just fine for you. Photos aren't aren't bad either. Again, if you get a um and going back to, I think uh like if I'm not mistaken, when we were at Stephan Curry, uh there were some uh photos there from Highland Mint. And we don't purchase from Highland Mint at all as far as license photos, but uh someone was saying there that the paint pens, for whatever reason, like they just bleed really bad on there. So so they have to use like a sharpie on them, which is kind of weird. It's just the way that they print them. So they were getting these signed in silver, and they were going to use a silver sharpie on them, which they actually didn't turn out that bad, but they were kind of forced to do that because of the style that they print these in. Again, that's just what I heard. I don't have any experience with it, but so you can use it on photos. I remember we used to have this pen, it was called uh it's from U-line, it was a silver U-line, and it was like a step up from the sharpie. This thing was bold, and it was it was an awesome, awesome pen. I I wish it, I wish we still used it. But the problem with that pen was it just never dried. It was the most fantastic pen ever. It was like it was sent from heaven to help all of us trying to figure out silver, and it looked great. It was awesome. We used it on a couple photos and let it dry, sat it out for hours or so, put them back in the top loader. When we got back from the signing, the autograph was like imprinted onto the top loader. And we're like, what the heck? The basically the pen never dries, so you can't use it on anything. But silver U-line, that's the pen. It oh, I wish we still had it. But anyway, going back to the topic. Silver paint pens are fine on silver sharpies, they are fine on the photos. Again, a paint pen is just a better option, but if you get a silver that's working, it's gonna work just fine for you on those. Uh, Funko's, you're gonna mainly use paint pens on those because the autograph's gonna pop a lot better, so you're never gonna use a silver sharpie on those. McFarlands, the same thing, you'll never use it on that. You could use it on bats, you know. Again, baseball bats are just fine for a silver sharpie. Again, assuming it's a functioning silver sharpie. I keep repeating that because you book I don't know what they did, but the recent silver sharpies are just not great. So make sure you've got one that actually works. It's good for like a couple autographs, and then I don't know what happens, they just die. So um, again, you can use it on the bats. Uh, obviously, you wouldn't ever use it on baseballs. They have the black balls there, but you would never use a silver sharpie on those. We typically use the gold paint pens, or if somebody wants uh silver on there, we'll use the silver paint pens. So you'll never use it on any of those items. Uh, baseball gloves, again, leather-based stuff. You probably don't want to use that. You'll use a paint pen. Um, so again, not going to be something you're gonna use a lot there. There are a bunch of other items that we can probably get to. You can use it on boxing gloves. Yeah, the black boxing gloves works just fine. You could do it on the red ones if you like to, but it works just fine. It's it's it's it's not terrible. So it's a good choice on on some of those if you're looking for something to dry really, really quickly. Um, pucks, I wouldn't use it on pucks because number one, a paint pen's gonna be better. Number two, you're probably looking for a a uh uh thinner pen, which usually what we do because they got the logo right in the middle of the puck, and generally want the athlete to sign in that black open spot. So we usually use the extra fine paint pens on those. So um I'm sure there's a bunch of other items that I'm probably missing here, but those are kind of like the main main items that we see. But going into the item that you can use it on, and definitely I would suggest using on are those Nike game jerseys, those screen printed jerseys. Paint pens don't drive very well on those, and we've done uh silver on like uh Lakers, like the the screen printed numbers on there, so they have purple numbers, I believe, on those ones that we've done. And the silver looks great, it's really shocking. It is probably the best, one of the best silvers I've seen on those screen printed numbers. So if you get one of those plastic numbers from Nike, uh again, super cheap jersey, the silver sharpie is the only way to go. It dries really quickly, it lasts, and it looks really, really sharp. So that would be the only item that I would tell you with an honest face to use a silver sharpie because that's your best choice. And on those Nike game screen printed jerseys. So hopefully this helps with the uh the silver sharpie uh thing. Again, I don't have the science degree or the knowledge or the smartness in me to tell you why a silver sharpie doesn't work like the blues and the blacks do. I don't know. I don't have any information outside of that. Maybe we can get a Sharpie expert on here to tell us why, but that's just how it is. That's just my experience. So, silver, if we can, we always use a deco silver pay pen. So, guys, got any questions? Let us know. Don't forget to visit the website, powersports.com. Also give us a follow up there on Instagram at powers autographs, and I will see you on the next episode.