Nice replica......but....
 

What a cool looking ball and sigs. However, is this going to be a problem down the road?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1919-White-S...item20d79294bd




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I can see someone down the road trying to pass it off as real.It is a cool ball though.

This one could go from the buyer straight to a CC auction. Then the buyer there slips it into some small hickville auction and around and around and around it goes.

I usually am not a bi fan of replicas, however this thing looks awesome. Its a shame that it will probably be used as a fake down the road, and some poor guy/gal is going to probably buy it for a lot of money for it...think thousands of dollars.

That's how these things always work which is awful. Just shows that some people will do anything for some quick bucks. I do love the ball though.

Is this any different than the guy selling wrappers and gum? I'm just curious as to what is and isn't acceptable as it seems kinda wishy/washy

To me it's different. If someone buys this ball (singular) then they very well might be buying it to display. If someone buys a piece of gum or two, and a wrapper, it might be for display. If someone buys a whole bunch of old gum and wrappers, do you think it will all be for display?

That is exactly what will happen with it.

It really needs to be marked replica, even somewhere indiscreetly like between the stampings, etc. Unfortunately there are probably more people that would be interested in buying this to use for nefarious reasons (think flea market, Craigslist, small auction), than people who want is solely for display.

Not at all, I fully believe 99% of people bidding on the gum want to reseal packs. This just seems like such a well done replica that the same thing would happen. It's great the seller makes it more than clear this is a replica but what about the next guy? Or the guy after that? And while I have absolutely zero authentication skills, it looks better (at least to me) than a lot of the junk being sold as real.

Anyways I suppose in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter all that much to me personally but I think it's an interesting topic to think about.




And one last sidenote. What would the value be placed on this ball if it was real? Something astronomical I imagine.

Yes, and the creators of these objects (and 'replica' cards, etc.) are well aware of the object's future.

I realized a long time ago that in this hobby you can't protect the idiots, and time spent in such endeavors could be used doing things that are more fun and less frustrating. We can; however, educate people in our own forum. At least the people who visit here are making an effort to collect 'smart' and if they make mistakes, it's not for lack of resources. I can't remember too many times where a regular poster here showed an item like this that he had bought thinking he had the real thing.

Scott <=== not a flea market policeman

There are always dozens of replica autographed balls listed on ebay at any given time. Similar balls have been listed before...

wow...thanks for the info!!

+1

While I hope every fraudster gets caught, this one's almost like a t206 Wagner as far as I'm concerned, such that I have no sympathy for any buyer unless he conducted a thorough investigation and was elaborately set up through a series of ruses suitable to make "The Sting" look like a smash and dash. I mean c'mon, a ball with only 8 signatures, each just happening to be one of the Black Sox? Not a team ball mind you, but a ball that each of the banned players signed why, because they were so proud to be remembered as a group?
Possible-sure, suspicious, gee I don't know.:rolleyes:

Those replicas have been around for years. A few of us actually convinced one Ebay seller to imprint something on the ball to declare it a "Reproduction."

IDK, I guess I'm missing something...I mean, similar balls have been listed before, so I'm not quite sure why this particular one should be treated any differently...It's clearly being marketed as a replica, and IMHO looks like a replica, so I guess I don't see what the issue is...

IMO, I really do enjoy the replicas. I think they are pretty neat, if done well. Not being a signed ball, photo or cut collector, I would love to pick up some high quality replicas for display pieces and a great talking piece.

I can see this easily becoming a problem to the unknowledgable collector, but to anyone who views this in person should easily be able to tell, I hope...

One of the issues is that when it possibly hits a CC auction it will be marketed to someone who either is too dumb to know better or to someone who thinks he can sell it to a sucker who is too dumb to know better.

Richard, agreed, but Caveat Emptor still prevails, IMHO