Help with a Mantle bat

[Mr. Zipper]

It has a few small traits that bothered me, but I was not certain either way. Presuming the consensus is correct and this is bad... it is certainly a relatively deceptive fake and a step above the normal junk we see.

[Lordstan]

This one is tough.
At my first glance I thought it looked good. After looking again and again, I just can't get that first "M" out of my head. I really don't like the big loop that goes beneath the baseline and never really flattens the way the bottom usually does. There are a couple other minor things that i would probably overlook as just variations if that M didn't bother me so much.

My final opinion is that it could be good, but there is enough that I don't like that I wouldn't buy it or recommend someone else buy it. A Mantle signed bat is not a rare item. Expensive...Yes. Rare or uncommon...No. [There are currently 54 Mantle signed bats listed on ebay{some of those are multi signed}]. If I was spending that much money or advising someone else on this purchase, I would wait until I found one that was perfect.

[shelly]

Originally Posted by Lordstan

This one is tough.
At my first glance I thought it looked good. After looking again and again, I just can't get that first "M" out of my head. I really don't like the big loop that goes beneath the baseline and never really flattens the way the bottom usually does. There are a couple other minor things that i would probably overlook as just variations if that M didn't bother me so much.

My final opinion is that it could be good, but there is enough that I don't like that I wouldn't buy it or recommend someone else buy it. A Mantle signed bat is not a rare item. Expensive...Yes. Rare or uncommon...No. [There are currently 54 Mantle signed bats listed on ebay{some of those are multi signed}]. If I was spending that much money or advising someone else on this purchase, I would wait until I found one that was perfect.

How many of the bats where big sticks ? You are correct that Mantle bats are common. How many bats on ebay do you see for a buy it now price of six hundred dollars that are authentic?
Forget the M look at the y and then look at the slant in tle.

[Real or fake?]

The Y definitely bothers me. I'm not sure what you mean by the slant on the "tle" though, looks pretty ordinary to me.

[Real or fake?]

I actually like the k and the m's. I think they're all very typical of an authentic mantle exemplar.

[Lordstan]

Shelly,
From a quick scan I saw 2 autos on Big Sticks. One single and one multi signed. Both over $1700.

From your answer, I'm wondering if you misunderstood my point. I stated that I would NOT buy this bat as there are too many others available that are much less suspect.

Andrew,
Sorry. I still don't like the first M.

[Real or fake?]

I agree that the first M is funky but I don't think it's so way out of the realm of normalcy. It's certainly not to the point where you see the M and you know immediately it's fake like many Mantle forgeries.
I really appreciate everyone's input and I love talking autographs. Thanks guys.