Old Mill Baseball Card Ad
 

I saw this on eBay today. Anyone else find it a bit odd that the ad, itself, is all printed, yet the "Baseball Ball Picture Cards" is hand written in what looks like sharpie? Likewise, the space to paste the card and boxes is hand-drawn, and how would one paste an open box under glass, anyway?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Orig...0AAOSwBt5ZGf9V

Call me skeptical.

The sharpie could be an issue but otherwise I think I have had some proof items that were incomplete and handwritten in. I saw it and honestly just thought it was a bit over priced. If real it is neat. I also think that in hand the paper could be analysed visually and would most likely answer authenticity questions.

Yikes, I just went back and looked closer. Not too fond of of those words handwritten the way they are.....I share your skepticism.

Let me start by saying that I know nothing about these ads --- and if that is Sharpie then yeah, no bueno. Now that that is out of the way, if that isn't Sharpie, it could be a design stage layout rather than the actual printed ad, box, whatever it was destined to be. The red looks hand painted, not all of the black text on "Cigarettes" is perfectly done as it would be if printed, and the writing/codes that are in the two blank boxes probably wouldn't be there on the print ad as it wouldn't mean anything to anyone. Plus, the writing in the right box suggests that the writing was there and then afterwards someone put the box where it was requested. The poorer letting on the base- -ball picture- -cards part might just be one of several hands that added to this. Or, I might be full of it and someone tried to jazz something up and I will end up thinking that maybe I shouldn't have gone on a wild speculation ride so early in the thread. :)

Yeah, looks like a real but generic ad that someone decided to alter to try and connect it to baseball cards.

Hi skeptical, how have you been? (You said to call you skeptical, Jon) :)

This item was in a Hunts Auction not too long ago and I also thought it looked funky, so I asked if those words were handwritten. Here's the response from Hunt who was able to see the piece up close....

Subject: RE: Question about Lot 11



Peter,



We took a closer look and the words are printed on in a different typeface. They are not hand written.



Thanks,



Amy Perri

Hunt Auctions

+1

Every single one of those letters, handwritten, is formed differently. That must have been some machine printing that out. :eek: . If those are not handwritten I would still be very surprised.

I agree with the posts above. I certainly think the ad piece, itself, is legit and period, but the tie-in to baseball has been added to enhance the piece.

Yes too, which is like a thousand things we have seen before. You take one and one (in this case a possible alteration) and get three. Seen it a ton of times....

the "blank boxes"
 

might be found on an early mock-up/print ad or proof for a variety of reasons. I've owned such an original item. The real problem are the 4 words and 4 hyphens which were obviously added to deceive as stated earlier.......

no guarantees whether written or implied