Spalding Base Ball Sign
 

Anyone with this Spalding glass Base Ball Sign on ebay?? I was the underbidder the seller wouldn't allow winner to pick up in person. :confused: I hope if someone won it from the board it arrives in one piece! I can imagine how fragile it must be.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/130634929847...84.m1436.l2649

Do you think it was real? I was a little skeptical of the piece.

The first thing I'd do is have the paint tested for lead. No lead..no real. :D

The biggest problem I had with the entire deal was the seller wouldn't allow the buyer to pick up in person. That was a red flag. Now on such a fragile piece wouldn't it be easier on the seller to not have to ship?? In addition to not having to deal with an insurance claim when it gets broken from the UPS man throwing it down on the porch? Now I can understand not wanting to meet a buyer at your house but why not a public place such as a gas station or any public place. That in a way makes me leary of the piece because if one saw it in person maybe you could tell it was no good. I don't know:confused:

Doesn't it appear that the S in Spalding starts much lower on the piece of glass and where the g ends? I guess that doesn't make it a fake but does appear a bit "sloppy"

I agree, but man... you just never know. I have had some of my best buys EVER on ebay when taking a chance(no one else did). There are a lot of quirky people out there. If it is real, it sure is a cool piece. $500 is an expensive lotto ticket though...:eek:

An easy test for lead is probably the best way to tell if this is a fake. I think you can buy lead testing kits for about $10 at a hardware store.

If the buyer is on the board I would love to know the results of a lead test. Yeah it will make a neat piece if it arrives in a single piece.

Ive seen similar Painted signs for tickets and stuff on ebay. I'd be extremely leery of this being original also.

Paypal may be the reason for this. The seller loses all "seller protection" if the item is not shipped and does not have verifiable record of delivery. For instance, the buyer could pay via Paypal, pick it up, and then file a complaint that "he didn't get it." With no record of delivery, the seller is screwed.

However, if the buyer was paying cash on the spot, that would be a different story...

Overall the type layout on the sign doesn't look right to me. I recreate advertising graphics for movies and television shows and spend many hours trying to get things like this to look as accurate to the time period as possible. The Spalding in the center looks well done but the other copy especially the "E. 17th" looks poorly executed especially the spacing in between the letters of "SPORTING GOODS" and BASE BALLS". And thinking about it, why would someone have the street name on their window instead of the building number? Something isn't right. I would have had to have rock-solid photographic evidence that this was a real sign before I bid on it, otherwise I'm putting it down to someone who salvaged a bunch of old transom windows and went to town with the model paint in the basement.

Aside from authenticity concerns... isn't it kind of ugly? I don't see much that's attractive about this one. Looks just like poorly executed junk to me.

Mark -
Good post!
We do share the same opinions when it comes to - honesty and quality.
Jerry

thumbs down