Fading ink, feels bad man

[Runscott]

True about all of those things but starting off with the best ball possible improves your odds.

I also have a ball that I had two different teams sign, randomly on either panel but with two different pens, back in the early '70s. One team is minty fresh and the other faded quickly to a barely acceptable level then stopped.

Good pen + good ball = good results

[Case12]

I am resurrecting this thread with a slightly different question. I notice online that blue bleeding signature balls OMLB are showing up all over the place. JSA, PSA, Beckett signings. Sometimes dozens from the same signings. And the asking price are still mid to high. (If you want an example, see Willie McCovey on eBay). But, frankly, aren't these balls really worthless?

[packs]

The balls I saw when I searched were all unofficial made in China baseballs.

[Case12]

I checked a few other players. You are right. I will see if there are any that are OMLB. Either way, they probably keep getting worse? They are mostly worthless when faded, right? So why even try to sell them?

[Case12]

These are all OMLB and JSA.

[OldOriole]

Case, the problem on the balls you posted is not the ball, it's the type of pen that was used. Some pens lend themselves to bleeding into the medium on which they're signed.

[Yastrzemski Sports]

Originally Posted by OldOriole

Case, the problem on the balls you posted is not the ball, it's the type of pen that was used. Some pens lend themselves to bleeding into the medium on which they're signed.

Absolutely. They should be a blue ball point pen. They’re all sharpie.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by OldOriole

Case, the problem on the balls you posted is not the ball, it's the type of pen that was used. Some pens lend themselves to bleeding into the medium on which they're signed.

Unfortunately it sometimes takes a while to discover that you used a bad pen. I had a cheap ball signed in 1972 and a high quality signed in 1973 using two different pens. All signatures on one panel of the '72 ball faded to nothing. All the ones on the other panel still look perfect. On the 1973 ball, the signatures I got the Phillies autographs with are perfect, the ones I got the Giants with a month later are all bleeding - 'bleeding' is different from 'fading'.

Lots of variables, but always use an OMLB baseball, and even then the wrong pen can result in bleeding. I don't know how the ink in my ball-point pens differed - I would guess one was higher water content?