Thoughts on Ruth and Gehrig signed bat

[tjh]

Hi All.

I would love to hear your thoughts on these signatures.. This is a circa 1930s 18" baseball bat "stamped" by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. It came from a large baseball collection at an estate sale. After doing some reading regarding stamped autographs, I'm not sure these are stamps. Is there any way to date ink? Would a black light work? Any thoughts if this might be ghost signed? Authentic? Thanks for your help!

[RichardSimon]

Easy call here.
IMO they do not appear to be stamped or ghost signed.
They appear to possibly have come from a famed auction house that we regularly refer to as Roaches Corner, or a similar type of auction.
Very poor quality forgeries.

[keithsky]

Oh the imfamous it came from an estate sale item. I agree with Richard about Roach Corner. I think I have seen this bat a few times in some auctions.

[mr2686]

At least they spelled the name right. LOL
On a similar topic, does anyone know how common (or uncommon) it was for people to get bats signed back in Ruth's time? Seems like it wouldn't have been anyone's first choice, and I doubt people were carrying bats around town or to ball games just in case they could get an autograph. Any thoughts?

[Klrdds]

There are a few bats out there in the market that look like this and are blatant forgeries. The only use for this bat is to buy it and get it out of the market and use it in your fireplace this winter for kindling.

[Klrdds]

As Ruth revolutionized the "autograph " market and world by signing baseballs and making them collectibles, at the time not very valuable but in the sense that people wanted them , he did as well with photos , to a large degree; and with bats to a degree. People did not collect signed bats back then of Ruth or for that matter any player, baseballs were what people wanted. Ruth signed bats as far as I could learn years ago were a "premium " in the sense that he did not mass sign them and were usually given away to close friends, relatives , teammates , business associates, sick people, and lastly as prizes in contests ( although baseballs were the usual contest winning prize ). I do not specifically know how tightly Ruth guarded his game used bats but most of the autographed bats I have seen are store model bats.
He signed bats in far fewer quantities than anything except perhaps for the elusive Ruth signed jersey. In fact I heard years ago when I was looking to buy a Ruth signed bat for my collection that there maybe were less than a couple of hundred authentic Ruth signed bats out there in the market.
I would like to hear from anyone if they have an updated estimate on the number of Ruth signed bats in the market or in collections.

[tjh]

Thank you for your thoughts. It was actually at an estate sale from a large baseball collection as I was part of the auction but I was under no pretence that the bat was actually signed. Good to hear your thoughts thanks!