Authentic or Not ?

[insidethewrapper]

Any opinions on these items that are going up for sale at a local auction ?

http://www.estatesales.net/estate-sales/228204.aspx

[travrosty]

they use 600% magnification to authenticate their autographs, so who can argue with that?

[Scott Garner]

Any opinions on these items that are going up for sale at a local auction ?

http://www.estatesales.net/estate-sales/228204.aspx

There was recently another thread on Colossal Auctions. It would seem that the sheer number of extremely rare autographs should make you very cautious. Read the other thread for more details..... ;)

[thecatspajamas]

Geez, you mean they have a LIVE auction where you can view the items in person and (presumably) come face-to-face with the CA personnel to ask questions? That's pretty ballsy given all the stuff dredged up in the other thread:

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=142986

I thought they just hid behind their computers and lousy photos like Coach's Corner. Anyone local want to give a report from the auction?

[RichardSimon]

I await with interest the prices realized list.

[Runscott]

If I were an autograph forger, I would buy an old ball in barely beat-up shape, sign with a vintage pen that had less tendency to have the ink age (the old fountain pen signatures usually actually look old, so you can't use those), THEN I would finish aging the ball and the signatures - it would look like a kid played with it some, or let it get beat up a bit among his other things.

I guess what must have happened with these was that the balls were heavily game-used when they were submitted to the players for autographs, then the players signed their names very carefully, then the kid saved the balls from further abuse. I hate it when I go to get signatures and I plan on keeping them forever, perfectly protected, and all I have to get signed is beat-up dirty balls. At least the kid had a really nice pen with non-fading ink for them to sign with.

[sycks22]

It's cool how they have about 20 Ruth autos. It's also nice how Gehrig / Ruth's pen pressure is identical with the same pen.

[D. Bergin]

The Babe Ruth & Bobby Jones signed Golf Ball made me laugh.............just a little bit.

[RichardSimon]

As Mr Barnum would say today,,, there is one born every minute.

[Runscott]

As Mr Barnum would say today,,, there is one born every minute.

I have to thank you guys for providing the humor today - while I don't collect autographs for reasons illustrated perfectly by the auctions in this thread, it's a helluva lot of fun to laugh at this stuff. The sad thing is that some rich lawyer is taking it seriously and will have these balls sitting proudly on his mantel (or is it Mantle?) for admiring guests to gawk at while drinking $200 bottles of wine.

I think Pickles would like them.

[RichardSimon]

No prices realized list yet.
But this is on the website:
"Thanks to everyone who came to our auction on Sunday.
It was a wonderful turn out and a great success. Some who attended walked away with spectacular bargains."

Note their use of the less popular variety of the word turnout,,,
Would love to know what spectacular bargains were obtained.

They also announced another auction in December with more of the same.

[Mr. Zipper]

They also announced another auction in December with more of the same.

Keeping my fingers crossed they will offer the Pope John Paul II / Mother Teresa dual signed ball I've been searching for.

:D