Is It Or Isn't It?

My wife's great nephew was visiting us last week and, as he surveyed my office full of Japanese baseball cards, was impressed that I had an autographed Shohei Ohtani baseball card.  He said something like "Dude, you know that's worth, like, $2000!"  I had to explain to him that it probably wasn't worth that much, since it wasn't an "authentic" autograph but something my friend Dani had gotten signed for me in Peoria, Arizona, when the Fighters were training there in 2017.  I mean, I trust that Dani actually got him to sign it but anyone I sold it to would be trusting that I was telling the truth about it and that Dani was telling the truth about it and anyone they sold it too would be....well, you get the idea.  And given recent events, it's probably getting harder to know who to trust out there.  So, no, it's unlikely that I could get $2000 for it (not that I'm looking to move it anyway).

With all that in mind, I want to talk about something I just picked up off of Ebay.  It's a card of Shigeo Nagashima (#G78) from the 2001 BBM Giants set and it looks like it might be autographed:

I'm pretty sure this isn't a "facsimile signature" parallel version from BBM as I think it would have been unlikely that they would have obscured their logo and it really looks like it was signed with Sharpie.  The question is - did Nagashima sign it?

The answer is, unfortunately, I don't know.  If he did sign it, it was before his stroke in 2004 as he lost use of his right hand and was signing with his left hand which made for a very distinctive autograph.  The seller on Ebay was selling a couple of what appeared to be signed cards, all from before 2004 so it's plausible that he got Nagashima to sign them in the early 00's.  Or he got them from someone who got them signed.  I guess I'm placing some trust in the seller.  

I didn't pay much for this card - with shipping, it was $22-ish - so it's a relatively cheap fantasy that I now have a Shigeo Nagashima autograph.  Which is probably why I've resisted asking the seller for more details.