If I were an autograph forger, I would buy an old ball in barely beat-up shape, sign with a vintage pen that had less tendency to have the ink age (the old fountain pen signatures usually actually look old, so you can't use those), THEN I would finish aging the ball and the signatures - it would look like a kid played with it some, or let it get beat up a bit among his other things.
I guess what must have happened with these was that the balls were heavily game-used when they were submitted to the players for autographs, then the players signed their names very carefully, then the kid saved the balls from further abuse. I hate it when I go to get signatures and I plan on keeping them forever, perfectly protected, and all I have to get signed is beat-up dirty balls. At least the kid had a really nice pen with non-fading ink for them to sign with.
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