1958 Team Signed Braves Baseball
 

I purchased this ball many years ago on eBay as part of a larger lot of baseball cards/memorabilia. I'm not a ball collector, but I am a Giants/Braves collector. It has been stored in a box with a couple other signed balls in a dark room. I'd like to get it authenticated, but know nothing about submitting balls for auth. I believe it's team signed 1958 ball with a Henry Aaron signature. The Aaron signature is one of the more faded signatures. The ball has no MLB or other branding. I don't presume to know balls or signatures and usually actively stay away from that kind of stuff, for that reason. So given the condition, unknown provenance, and possible scarcity, would you have it graded? If so, what TPG would you send it to for grading? As a card collector, I'm only aware of PSA & SGC. Lastly, how do you display a signed ball given the problems with exposer to light, etc.? Any insight welcome. Thank you.

Jerry, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that is a facsimile stamped ball.

The signatures are not genuine. Sorry :(

OK, How can you tell?

obcbeatle, take a look at Bob Rusch's signature the bottom right signature of the bottom photo. Do you see how the stampings press around the stitches of the ball. A pen would not do that. Most of the signatures have the same darkness as the others. Most team balls do not have that as not all players use the same pen pressure when writing. You can also see especially in Johnny Logan's signature. The loop in the J is a dead giveaway that this is a stamped ball.

There is also an identical ball currently on EBay.

They made a lot of these!

Thank you. Well, I guess it is good thing that I don't collect balls/signatures. I'll stick to cards/photos :) Seriously, thank you for the info. Saves me the time/effort/cost of sending to a TPG!

Surprisingly, there are people who buy these still.

Throw it on Ebay, see what happens

Red did not sign as al past 1951ish. Unless he was specifically asked to. Just a fun tidbit.

So many people get screwed on these. Players were paid one cent every time their signature was stamped on a ball.

Older balls like this do have some very minor collectibility to fans but many, many people are fooled into believing that these are actually signed balls.

I answer sports memorabilia questions on a particular website and get one to two of these per month where people swear that their “uncle attended a Dodgers/Braves/Yankees game or something and got the ball through an usher/bat boy/media person.

I'll likely keep the ball for my Braves/Giants collection. It was part of a larger lot of vintage cards (54T's, I think) and some old magazines. Granted, I always thought the ball was not a facsimile ball, so I may have payed a premium for the lot. But over the course of my 40+ years of collecting, I've had some good deals, and some bad ones. Part of being a collector. It's all about education when you choose to venture beyond your comfort zone :) Thanks again for the replies!

Simply because it has not yet been mentioned...

A major tell-tale sign is the fact that the signatures do not overlap at all. They never do on these stamped balls. It would be very rare to find this trait on an actual signed ball.