The more I chat with different people...the more I am beginning to learn that baseballs in general can be finicky. Some will fade without any apparent reason. I have a ball for instance that was signed 6 years ago. The player wrote a bunch of stats all over the ball on all sides and signed it. It was been in a UV cube on a shelf and the writing has faded on all sides equally...not just what was exposed to light.
But, that being said, I do think UV light is part of my issue here. I took out all the balls from the frame and photographed them individually (to document the collection) and two balls that I had signed had an interesting pattern. I have noticed that the balls that I had signed have tended to fade a bit in general. But, the Dale Murphy ball is much stronger on the left side of the ball and the Phil Niekro is much stronger on the right side...the fading is less in these areas. See below:
After I noticed this, I put the balls back in the case the same way they were and I looked at the case standing in front of the window. The darker areas of those signatures were covered by the frame. I took a photo (bare in mind, the balls were put back in the frame so they might be slightly rotated differently but they are all in the same place):
The Murphy is top row left and the Niekro is the second row from top far right.
So, I think there is a double issue here. I think UV exposure is playing a role but I also think some of the balls had bad ink/ball condition.
I think curtains are a good move to at least remove the UV issue. Any thoughts?