Family Heirloom Or Not?

[Forgebuster]

I have a Ruth ball that has been in my family forever. My father in law gave it to me in 1982 and we never knew the authenticity of it other than it was for sure not one of the Sinclair Oil secretarial signatures. About a year and a half ago I took it to get authenticated by one of the top two authenticators in the business who will remain unnamed. Although their synopsis albeit wasn't unfavorable I have since read horror stories even about the top two on authentication foo bars that I am at a loss as to who I would trust to evaluate it. I am not willing to mail it anywhere for obvious reasons. (I traveled 500 miles with it in hand last time.) Does anyone have any suggestions as to who may be a good resource on Ruth's that I could approach about this. I would be willing to send them photos and then later arrange a meeting if deemed credible. Please advise if any of you big time collectors have any on this. Thanks!

[jhs5120]

Originally Posted by Forgebuster

I have a Ruth ball that has been in my family forever. My father in law gave it to me in 1982 and we never knew the authenticity of it other than it was for sure not one of the Sinclair Oil secretarial signatures. About a year and a half ago I took it to get authenticated by one of the top two authenticators in the business who will remain unnamed. Although their synopsis albeit wasn't unfavorable I have since read horror stories even about the top two on authentication foo bars that I am at a loss as to who I would trust to evaluate it. I am not willing to mail it anywhere for obvious reasons. (I traveled 500 miles with it in hand last time.) Does anyone have any suggestions as to who may be a good resource on Ruth's that I could approach about this. I would be willing to send them photos and then later arrange a meeting if deemed credible. Please advise if any of you big time collectors have any on this. Thanks!

Hello!

You have a couple options. If you're just interested in knowing the authenticity, please post a photo and some experts here will be happy to help. If you are looking to sell the ball, I would suggest PSA/DNA or JSA. There are some horror stories (few and far between), but no one will deny the value their word brings in an auction.

Jason

[Forgebuster]

I will never sell the ball. My son in law is a pro photographer and I think he took some really good pics of it a year or so ago. I will post it on here if I can get them from him. My pics won't do it justice! Of the companies you mentioned it was one of those I took it to. I am fairly confident this ball is genuine due to its history of when my father in law got it-long before the master forgers were mass producing vintage stuff I can only assume. The only COA it has is the LOA from the company I took it to of course. Thanks again I will try to post those pics soon.

[johnmh71]

I don't understand what you are looking for. You state that you want to know the authenticity, but you won't submit it to anyone or post a photo so that some of the members on here with many years of experience can render an opinion. Are we supposed to ok it based on your story? It doesn't work that way.

[nebboy]

We also have a Sinclair Oil secretarial signature ball in our family. I also did the research to see if any of these ball were ever really by Ruth. Short story is that history of these balls are wide known. No matter how good the family back story is about it being a true Ruth signature, getting a company like JSA to auth a Sinclair Ruth is not likely going happen. I've tracked the sell of them over the years and the sell for around $200-300 range. Our ball also will never leave famiy, it's still fun to own even if ghost signed.

[Forgebuster]

No John I just couldn't get the pic from my son in law. He is a procrastinator. I am going to post it here in a few for some opinions.

[Forgebuster]

I can't seem to get the photo to upload for some reason. It is in a jpeg file. Maybe too large? Any advice?