In a move that is surely to be controversial in the Mustang & Shelby enthusiast community, the Carroll Shelby Foundation will be offering, for a price, mechanically generated signatures of the man himself as they had when he was alive.
The Carroll Shelby Foundation today announces that it will offer the exclusive Carroll Shelby “Commemorative Signature” Program. The program is well dressed in the charitable pursuit of continuing support for the Carroll Shelby Foundation.
“The commemorative signature program is a way to remember and continue Carroll’s good work,” said Jenni Shreeves, executive director of the Carroll Shelby Foundation. “We hope people join us in the fight to help children at home and around the world receive the medical treatment and transplants they so desperately deserve, as well as the education they need. It’s now our responsibility to make sure Carroll’s dream continues to grow year after year, and with the new signature program, we will do just that.”
According to the Foundation, enthusiasts will have the option to receive a commemorative signature on an assortment of items including signed art, sculptures, die-cast models, books and more. The commemorative signature which is digitally created by “state-of-the-art technology” can be put on just about anything starting for about $75.00.
While this will allow people to support the Carroll Shelby Foundation, it will surely raise the ire of people who went to great lengths to have Carroll Shelby himself sign their cars or items in the hopes of it truly meaning something.
To some, offering this signature after Carroll’s passing only cheapens his legacy as well as the value of his actual signature. And in some ways this may make setting the value for some items difficult now, not being able to know if the signature was by Carroll Shelby or a machine.
Most who knew Carroll Shelby will agree however that he never cared much for people’s opinions on how he went about raising money for his charities, or things like the value of his signature. This move is likely one he signed off on well before the machine started reproducing his autograph.
