Frank "Shag" Shaughnessy Auto Question

[quinnsryche]

Hi. I am looking to sell this ball and was wondering if anyone could give me a ballpark value? I will post it in the B/S/T as soon as I can figure out what it is actually worth.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[packs]

Are you sure that's a signature and not a stamp? I know he was the President of the International League for a time and it could potentially be a stamp that appeared on the baseballs issued during his time as President.

[GrayGhost]

Thats a good point. I sold a ball recently that had Allie Reynolds "printed signature" on it as a league president.

FWIW. there was a 3x5 that sold on flea bay for 79.99. doesn't totally look like yours either.

[perezfan]

Agree- Stamped

[quinnsryche]

I don't know. It seems like a weird place for a stamped sig to be. Plus, after looking at the autograph under a magnifying glass, the Y at the end actually goes on top of one of the stitches. If it was stamped, it would have had to been done after the ball was complete. Was that a common practice or would it have been printed on when the ball was being made?
I have no expertise in this area and would welcome any and all opinions.
Thanks!

[packs]

From what I know about vintage balls, the President's signature is most often stamped on a side panel.

[Big Dave]

Stamped.

[quinnsryche]

ok, stamped it is. Thanks guys, I knew y'all would be the guys to come to.

[thecatspajamas]

Yes, for the balls that are "side-stamped", the stamp was typically applied in the president's office for the balls after they were delivered from the factory. There are some which have the signature incorporated into the sweetspot logo stamping (as in the example below) which were produced that way at the factory. You can often use the league president's side-stamping to narrow the date of production considerably, but Shaughnessy was IL president for a loooong time (1937-1960), so there's a pretty big spread of ball manufacturing dates and styles in there. FWIW, I think the example I show is more recent than yours, but I haven't studied in depth enough to put a specific date range to yours.

Perhaps you can coax a more specific answer out of Brandon if you ask nicely, but definitely not a "hand-signed" ball.

[Bpm0014]

Shaughnessy's signature in real life is almost illegible (when compared to most pre-war players). Thats either a stamp or definitely not real.