I took a few days to decide whether I wanted to pose this question here, but here goes. I recently won a football at auction that I had been looking for for quite some time, a nice clean Ray Nitschke silver paint pen signed football at a decent price. The ball arrived and was as nice as I had hoped, only it wouldn't hold air. I decide to send off to a company to have a new bladder installed. I had used this company before and was very happy with the job he had done. This time though the ball came back much darker and the autograph was a dull gray and ink was missing (see pictures below). I emailed him about it and he stated that when he does a bladder replacement he also "conditions" the leather which I assume is what damaged the autograph. He stated it hasn't happened to him in the 20 years he has been restoring balls which I have no reason to doubt. This process wasn't noticeable on the first ball I had him replace the bladder on as it already had a much darker patina. I also went back a reread all the email exchanges we had and at no time did he state he was also "conditioning" the balls.
So my question is, where do I go from here? I spent the last week with the ball on the shelf trying to decide whether I can be happy with it as it sits now and I've decided I can't. Every time I look at it I get the same feeling I got when I broke a rare Kail statue a few years back. So far the company I sent it to hasn't offered any compensation, nor have I asked for any. I'd prefer the ball be replaced but the comparable ones that are out there carry a price tag a lot higher than I paid. If I'm being overly picky feel free to call me out. Otherwise I could use some suggestions. I haven't looked over my CIS policy yet either so I don't know if filing a claim would be an option.
