Reading faded signature using enhanced light?

[drc]

Strictly as a collector, I prefer those autographs I can see with naked eyes under normal light.

[doug.goodman]

Does anybody have an Invisible Man autograph available for my Super Heros collection?

Doug

[yanksfan09]

Yeah, at some point when signatures are this faded, it starts to just become an old baseball.

It got me thinking: Do you think it may be better, when a ball or something else is this faded, to have it professionally restored/enhanced?

Maybe it could be authenticated first, then enhanced with full disclosure. I hate any altered signatures, but in cases like this I would think putting more ink on it would be the only way to save it in the long term. Just a bit more age or light exposure on an item like this and there will be absolutely nothing left.

I think if I owned the ball I would want to restore it so that it wouldn't die a slow death and fade into oblivion.....thoughts?

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

PSA and JSA own expensive machines (around $25K) called video spectral comparators. They're incredible at making faded signatures glow like Christmas lights using various filtrations. VSCs are also wonderfully adept at detecting painted-over signatures on so-called "single-signed" balls.

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by doug.goodman

Does anybody have an Invisible Man autograph available for my Super Heros collection?

Doug

FUNNY!!

[scmavl]

Originally Posted by drc

Strictly as a collector, I prefer those autographs I can see with naked eyes under normal light.

Agreed.

[HRBAKER]

This sort of reminds me of the ol' "If a tree falls in a forest, and.............." from college philosophy class. To each their own, but if I can't see it without a $25,000 machine it's as good as not there.

[kt4hx]

Thanks everyone for the responses. Lots of good info. I agree that if I had to buy a $25k machine to read them, I wouldn't want it. However, if a simple black or uv light will make some faint sigs identifiable, I'm good with that. I often look for those kind of balls because they are cheap, and I find the investigative part of it fun, because you never know what you might run across. Granted the value isn't there, but if I am not investing much, then I am good with it. With the cheap stuff, the fun is knowing the players held the ball to sign it, and that it might have been used in a game even. A simplistic view I know, but I find that fun collecting.

[Oldtix]

I would imagine that there is (or soon will be) a chemical that could be applied to the ball to restore the contrast so the signature was become easily visible. Has anyone experimented with this idea? Would that be considered acceptable since the signature isn't being altered?