Are many of the 19th Century Baseballs being sold recently fakes?

[prewarsports]

I am not accusing any one person in general of anything but wanted to throw this out there for discussion. From about 1999-2010 I bet only maybe 4-5 Lemon Peel or Belt Style Baseballs from the 19th century would appear on ebay a year as they are VERY rare. Over the last year or two I have nopticed a disturbing trend where other memorabilia is drying up, but for some reason old 19th century Baseballs are coming out of the woodowork. I believe MANY of these are being made now with old materials. I believe people are taking old leather, and old string (each of which is easy to find on book bindings for the leather and old string is even easier to find or lots of other sources) and wrapping old baseballs in the material, artificially aging it and passing them off as real. So, while the materials themselves are old, the item is of a modern construction.

Once again, I am not singling any one person out, but the recent increase in these items on ebay has had me thinking this was going on for a few years and my gut tells me this is happening.

Anyone else had similar thoughts when searching on ebay seeing the 40-50 Lemon Peel or Belt Style Baseballs on ebay over the last 12 months? It is literally a 10X increase in these items over the years while other memorabilia is drying up by 10X.

Thoughts?

Rhys