Good question. It’s not a Mitchell and Ness which usually leaves enough of a difference in the graphics to know it’s a repro. I think these were made to be passed off as real. As for repros to pass as “real”, yes they can fool the casual collector who wants a neat display for his favorite team, but I’d think that all of us here could tell by feel if not sight.

Of course it’s the casual collector who plays a significant role in determining value (or lack thereof) …

Yep... to have it in-hand would be tremendously helpful. Much tougher on a two dimensional screen. I couldn't initially see it on eBay, but hopefully would've noticed upon physical inspection.

The telltale signs you mentioned are undeniable, and I'm now with you, that the entire pennant is a convincing fake (made to deceive). In addition to the incorrect placement of "1955", the comma after "Alston" is too close to "Mgr."

These were not produced in large quantities like M &N. So who had the technology and the skills to pull this off, and why haven't we seen it with other teams' pennants? Hopefully we never will, as this is really criminal.

The seller is a good guy. I've bought many pennants from him and he seems to get quite rare ones too. The spine and tassels are obviously wrong, but I wouldn't have suspected anything off with the body, unless maybe I held it in hand.

That same graphic appears on a fairly highly coveted late 60's Lew Alcindor pennant. Used to sell for in excess of $200 but there was a recent find of 20 or so. Not sure if that had any impact on sale price. Whoever has them hasn't flooded the market with them so maybe not.

I see the 1955 Dodgers pennant is no longer available. Did it sell or was it pulled? :confused:

It was pulled within a couple of hours of when it was listed. I assumed it was for an off-eBay sale until I saw Greg's posting questioning its authenticity. So no way to know why it was pulled at this point.

Greg, are all these 1955 Brooklyn scroll pennants only made of cloth?

Rick

Rick, to the best of my knowledge they are all blue cloth. Never seen any different. The one that reads “World and National League Champs” is even harder to find. I can’t even find a picture of it. But it is glorious.

The ‘49 and ‘52 Dodger scroll pennants are felt and came in multi colors. Strangely, have never seen a ‘53 or ‘56 scroll pennant from either Bkln or NYY.

Thanks Greg, interesting info. I’m hoping to land a Brooklyn scroll pennant at some point. I do remember seeing a ‘55 with both nl and world champs on it, but it wasn’t in very good shape. Surprising that so few of them have ever surfaced given how momentous an event it was for Brooklyn.

Rick

This pennant has been sold as “genuine” for years. I have pointed this out to auction houses, eBay sellers, etc all to no avail. This pennant was made in the 80’s - 90’s, but I don’t have any details. The only thing that makes sense is a Mitchell & Ness from their earliest production. Mitchell & Ness made very high quality reproductions and sold them along with their jerseys in their catalogs. I used to have an account with them and would buy jerseys to get autographed. There are other pennants too (black 59 White Sox, etc) that get too passed off as authentic. They generally only reproduced very rare desirable pennants that most collectors could never find. You need to remember that the only place you could find pennants back in the day was at shows or antique shows. There were no auctions with photographs for the most part. We take for granted the 1000’s of pennants you scroll through on eBay every day. Anyways, this is a repro.

What years did Mitchell & Ness make pennants?