Apollo 13's Jack Swigert

John Leonard "Jack" Swigert, Jr. died way too young 33 years ago today. It was only 12 years after his heroic return on Apollo 13 and seven weeks after he had been elected to Colorado's new 6th congressional district.

Jack Swigert signed photo to Claudia Thames of the John M. King company.

While Swigert wasn't an especially difficult signer, his autograph is exceedingly uncommon on his NASA white space suit portrait. It seems that -- at best -- two or three come to market in any given year. In my estimation, Swigert space suit pose is just as rare if not rarer than James Irwin and John Young signed white space suit portraits.

Jack Swigert's signature can typically be obtained on postal covers, programs and the like for $300 - $400. His NASA business suit pose signed fetches around $600 - $700, and one can expect to pay $1,000 and up for a signed white space suit pose... likely much more for an unpersonalized example.

Due to his untimely death in 1982 -- before widespread commercial signings -- demand outweighs supply and forgeries abound. Be especially wary of Apollo 13 items that started with a bad Swigert, and an unwitting collector added authentic Lovell and Haise signatures.