autographed baseballs - selling opinions

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Posted By: Joe D.

I have 30 autographed baseballs that I intend to sell (all signed in my presence years ago).

The catch 22 is I am not sure if some of them would make sense (financially) to get authenticated, yet I assume they won't sell without authentication.

Have 2 of: Hank Aaron, Duke Snider, Pete Rose, Eddie Mathews, Harmon Killebrew, Willie Mays, Willie McCovery, Ernie Banks, Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt, and Frank Robinson.

And 1 of: Stan Musual, Monte Irvin, Ralph Branca, Tony Perez, Tommy Agee, Ralph Kiner, Jerry Koosman, and Duke Snider on an American League ball.


Any opinions on the best way to proceed? And which I should / or should not bother authenticating.

Any advice appreciated. Sorry if this does not belong on the general board - just delete.


Thanks,
Joe

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Posted By: T206Collector

I think you will find that the cost of authenticating most of the balls would outweight the value gained by selling them on ebay or elsewhere. Most of the balls you identified are not going to be particularly rare or valuable. I would start by checking on ebay the sales prices of your players single signed on baseballs. I suspect you will find that the grading fees would erode any value you might get on the open market. This is especially true for the non-HOFers and frequent signers.

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Posted By: leon

You are a major contributor to the board and this OT isn't even that far off....I hope you will get some good advice. My guess is that you will have to get them authenticated due to the fraud in the market.....but I really have no clue otherwise. Good luck...

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Posted By: joe

Joe, the best way to handle a sale of the balls would be to consign to an auction house. They will have the balls authenticated and you won't have to pay for the service. Mastro, Lelands's, REA or any other would be fine.

Joe M.

Ty Cobb, Spikes flying!

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Posted By: Rhys

I deal quite extensively in autographs and my advice to you would be to not authenticate them. I do not see a single ball on your list that will be worth the time and effort. I would simply state that you Guarantee the ball to pass any grading companies authentication service in your ebay auction and let them ride. The difference between authenticating them and not authenticating them "could" be worth it on Mays and Eddie Matthews, and even there we are talking about a small amount, but your chances of the other ones selling for more than the amount of the fee involved is almost zero. That also does not factor in your time in waiting, and shipping charges (unless you drop them off at a show). The only way it might be worth it is if these balls are Dead Mint and you could have PSA grade them. In that case a Mays graded a 9.5 might bring $150.

If you gave the entire lot to an Auction house, they would run them as a lot and authenticate them for you. The lot would probably sell for less than ebay though because there would be 20+ in one group.

You can do whatever you feel comfortable with, but from a purely monetary standpoint, its not going to be worth it to authenticate these.

Rhys

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Posted By: Mike

Of all of those balls, only Mays and Aaron would sell for over $100 with solid authentication. Most of the others would sell on eBay for between $20-$50 even with authentication. Plus, that's on balls that are brand new and clean centered on the sweet spot. IE: Professionally signed. Are yours that nice? If so, I'd authenticate the Aaron and Mays, and maybe Musial, and try to move some of the others in the buy/sell area here. Contact me as I might be interested in a couple that I don't have (since I trust ya and don't really care about authentication for my personal collection).

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Posted By: Mike

I recently acquired an auto'd ball by the 56 Yankees. The Mantle and the Stengel, are forged. As far as I can determine, the entire remainder of the team is on there, and legit. Although who knows about a couple of the lessor players. The signatures are about a 6 or 7. Very nice. It is not an American league ball. I know who, and where it came from. So provenance is not an issue. What the heck do I do with it? I really don't want to spend 150.00 getiing it authenticated, as I already know the results. I have paid nothing yet, because the owner doesn't care what I give him for it. He is a lawyer who inherited it from his dad. Anyway.....what the heck do I do with it? I am not concerned about the price, but any thoughts? I think I may offer him like $50.00. The Larsen looks good.

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Posted By: Joe D.

I fear selling them on eBay without authentication.... because the trust has to go both ways.

What would stop a buyer from buying my good ball and looking to return some other bad ball?


The auction house idea sounds best to me so far. I didn't even think along those lines, but it makes sense that it might be the best option.

Thanks.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

If they are all authentic and you got them all in person, you can consign them through Scott Gaynor and get fair market dollar, as he's a trusted dealer in autographs. If you want to include your letter, even notarized, that the sigs were obtained in your presence at a show or whateve, that would be good.

I've bought autographs without LOAs before, and it all depends on who you buy from. If the seller is well known and respected in the autograph hobby, there's no issue. If you print out the eBay auction page and save the packaging, no one will doubt you bought the Walter Payton signed football from Mike Gutierrez, Jim Stinson, Dan Knoll or whomoever.

As far as team signed balls, there will often be clubhouse signatures of star players. Obviously the ball will be worth a lot less, but will still have value if most of the signatures are real. Team balls are actually easier to get a handle authenticity wise over single signed star balls, as the collector can look at the lesser player signatures as see if they look good. See how the common player sigs match up with known real examples. If the common players look good, that's a sign of authenticity. Someone forging an entire team is going to put the effort and skill in the Mantles and Ted Williams sigs, not the two year wonders and guys who batted .233. It's one thing to forge well a Mickey Mantle, it's another to simultaniously forge well 20 different common signatures. Newbies think they should put all their authenticity attention looking at the Mantle sig, when they should also be checking Lou Skizas and Charlie Silvera. The newbie would respond, "But no forger specializes in Lou Skizas and Charlie Silvera." And I would say, "That's my point."

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Posted By: DJ

Take for instance Hank Aaron single signed baseball. Balls that DO NOT have Loa's from PSA/DNA or JSA have been bringing on average $60-70.

Balls with PSA/DNA or JSA, have brought between $110-120. Of course to have one of these authenticating firms authenticate your item, the cost would basically be the difference.

A Duke Snider without an LOA from PSA/DNA or JSA brings about $20, while ones with an LOA from PSA/DNA brings a tad more than twice that.

If you send it to Gaynor, I think you will still have to pay authenticating charges if they use PSA/LOA or JSA and they would probably lot up some of the lesser premium balls. You can't use a big auction house because they usually have a strict dollar minimum that they need in their catalog.

I think with rather common items (that do have value), you are better off throwing them on eBay and perhaps using the PSA/DNA review feature (it costs like $8) to review each piece to pass along the buyer confidence.

What would stop a buyer from buying my good ball and looking to return some other bad ball?--you ask

Ebay for the most part is good and as long as you have scans of the items that you sold, I can't really see an issue with this and this may just be a bit of paranoia on your part.

As far as the gentlemen with the team signed baseball, it's not really a forgery if it's clubhouse, depsite the fact that the person who signed the ball wasn't the person whose name appears on the ball. There is still some value to this ball. Probably around $300-350 depending on condition and what the % of clubbies made up the ball.

DJ

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Posted By: Mike

Yes they are probably club house sig's. I tend to shy aways from sig's I don't get myself, and since I was born 10 years after WW, it is rather hard to acquire pre war sigs in person. Still, I do wish Mick and casey had really signed. I will probably pay 50.00 for it. and just hang on to it.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

An authentic 1956 Yankees team signed ball with Mantle and Stengel clubhouse signatures is worth more than $50-- espcially if it has other stars like Berra and Whitey Ford.

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Posted By: T206Collector

Keep in mind that if you have 10 signed balls you'd like to sell at the same time, and JSA will only authenticate 8 of them, then even though you know all 10 are real, only 8 will come with the JSA cert making the other 2 suspect to buyers. Whereas, if you go with 10 without certs, they all have the same level of reliability.

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Posted By: Mike

Thanks David...I know it's worth more than 50.00. But I think he'll sell it for that. It's been in the same family since day 1. Very clean sig's. The B on the Berra is a bit worn, due to the holder they had it in. Otherwise it's nice. Nice white ball. If it weren't for the fact that I know this family, I'd pass. It came from an attorney, who got it from his father, a policman. Whom I've known forever. Thanks to all for the input.

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Posted By: Dylan

Its nice to see authentication, but if you have lots of fb, and offer a guarantee to pass authentication, i think that most bidders wouldn't be turned off to it. Plus i know that mid and low grade autos arent valued enough to send off to psa or spence and i dont expect these to have this authentication. Now if its a deceased HOF, thats a different story... but otherwise i wouldnt have a problem purchasing given fb and guarantee.

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Posted By: fkw

If I owned them....
I would sell them raw and give a personal guarantee.
But Id also put a link to PSA/DNA's Quick Opinion within your auction description. So bidders can get an opinion on it if they want for just $7.49. That way its no extra $$ out of your pocket, yet the bidder can get an experts opinion if they choose.

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

$100 for the Yankees ball. Gotta always pay lawyers in increments of $100. Lawyers love steel engraved portraits of the namesake of the community in which I live, Franklin, Ky. Why did the lawyer cross the road? To get the $100 bill on the other side.

Someday someone will tell him the ball is worth a couple of hundred, and he'll remember you bought that ball for $50. With Ford and Berra on there, and the others, $100 is a good deal. The lawyer may well want to sell something else one day, and wouldn't you want him to turn again to you first? Do the right thing, a C Note.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

If you were to sell on your own, you could get a PSA/DNA Quick opinion for a few of the better ball, Mays in particular. Then when selling the whole colleciton as singles, you can say you got all the sigs in person, and that the Mays and Aaron from this collection already were approved by PSA/DNA. With the positive association and knowledge that you have already sold autographs approved by PSA/DNA, people will have more confidence. This is especially true if you have strong feedback and guarantee authenticity.

Even if one is an avid seller, there's nothing wrong with consigning lots that are outside of your normal area. One can sell cards on his own on eBay, and consign authentic Political autographs to someone who you think will get a better price and have an easier time selling. One reason to consign the Political autographs is because that seller specializes in the area and has built up an audience of political bidders.