[JimStinson]

One of the reasons for these wierd autographs on e-bay and elsewhere MIGHT be because the person genuinely believes they are good. I have had countless episodes of meeting with people who show be the Babe Ruth (or others) and tell me they have been in the family for decades and now want to sell them. Some of the autographs are not even close , so when I break the bad news the first words out of their mouths are

1) I don't know what I'm talking about , Uncle Charlie got it himself and its been in the family for years
2) They will sell it on e-bay themselves

Some of the stories are unexplainable , I met with an elderly man once over a decade ago who came to see me with his daughter, he was on a respirator and in a wheel chair and in his 90's , before he showed me the ball he spent 30 minutes telling me about how he got the autograph, shaking the Babe's hand watching him sign it etc. I was absolutely certain before even looking at it that it was real. When he finally handed it to me I could see instantly that it was signed by Mrs Babe Ruth. I politely declined to buy the ball and he then told me the name of a well known former autograph dealer who now works for an auction company that offered him $8,000 for it. Don;t know if that was true or not but thats what he said. Then he wanted to know WHY I didn;t want to buy it and after going around and around I finally told him.

If he could have got out of his wheelchair to hit me he would have , be became furious and said HE WATCHED BABE RUTH SIGN THE BALL and told me I was calling him a liar. It was quite a scene and for a minute there I thought the daughter might take a poke at me, I tried to be as diplomatic as I could be so my point is that some of these folks actually believe what they have is genuine and despite anything anyone can tell them what they have is the real deal.