Dug these balls out of the closet last week.
 

Looking for opinions on quality and value, I've had them in my closet for the past 25 years.

The little story I have so far is that my great-grandfather was a businessman in the Toledo area and was quite involved with the Mudhens organization and baseball in general.

The well worn ball supposedly has a bunch of the Mudhens signatures on it, but his grandsons (my father and uncles) actually used the ball quite a bit, hence the wear and tear. I imagine my sentimental value would be more than its monetary value.

The Babe Ruth and Walter Johnson ball is a bit more of a mystery, I don't have a story on that. Going to my cousin's wedding in a couple of weeks and I'll ask my grandmother if she knows more about its origin.

Does a story matter much? Can't think it does unless there is proof somewhere. (association, ownership, name in print, etc)

I took them to a couple of dealers in the local area and they wouldn't even entertain making an offer to me of a non-PSA/JSA authenticated ball. Not sure if its worth the extra money to authenticate both signatures or just Ruth's.

There is a bit of a family sentimentality attached to them, but not enough that I wouldn't sell.

Thank you for any opinions.

Mike

Boy, I wish I had a closet to dig those out of.

I don't think having a genuine story about the origin of a ball could hurt, as I'd sure love to know the backstory on my Ruth ball. Would I have paid a bit more for it with a story, probably not. But I may have paid a tiny bit more if I knew the history.

No thoughts on authenticity or value but cool pieces and best of luck.

Nice to have a closet like that!

If you try to do a private sale to knowledgeable collectors of autographs (i.e. not a local shop owner or random dealer at a show) you likely would not need an LOA as the knowledgeable collector can tell if it is real or not.
Looks good to me by the way.

Value is a bit tough due to lack of exemplars of dual signed Ruth/Johnson balls. Due to the fading of both signatures my best guess would be a value of $2,000-3,000.

If you send it to an auction house they can get the LOA for you much cheaper than you can on your own. If you decide to take it to the local shop or a random dealer at a show to sell, then yes, they will want an alphabet soup LOA.

Tom C

The Ruth Johnson ball. Are they the only 2 signatures on there? Or are there others?

Yes, tell me more about this magic closet of yours :)

Ruth Johnson ball
 

Thank you for the posts and PMs.

Ruth and Johnson are the only two signatures on the ball.

Probably will give it to Heritage after their current crop settles on Oct 25th. (there are two Ruth balls, don't want to be a third)

As far as my magic closet, doubt there is anything in there. Probably some 89 upper deck and I remember liking some black and white set with a brown border that I purchased a bunch of.

Mike