Fading Autograph Question

[mrmopar]

That is scary to think, but I believe it can happen to paper items too. I do not collect baseballs, but have a couple dozen I have picked up for one reason for another. I will go to my death still complaining about the certain UD Sweet Spot balls that faded. Aside from several Garvey cards that have faded almost to nothing, I am victim of a Mike Marshall glove card /25 that is bleeding/fading into nothing. Had I known or had the slightest clue, I would have paid extra for the baseball versions. They seem to have survived. The gloves, at least mine, are not!

[mcgwirecom]

It can definitely be the ink too. I had a Perfect Game ball signed by 18 pitchers. Only one player faded a lot over a few years and of course it had to be Koufax which cost me $400. The rest held up much better.

[Klrdds]

Looking closer at your photo I see fading and / or spotting on all the baseballs except Mathews , Glavine and Uecker . Also they show different types of ink size and quality . I’d move that display to a better place , and not worry about the curtain issue unless this is where you wish the display to be . It’s a nice display that I have seen many times being near Atlanta with various Braves players ,and replacing the faded baseballs wouldn’t be difficult or expensive if you wanted .

[CamaroDMD]

Originally Posted by Klrdds

Looking closer at your photo I see fading and / or spotting on all the baseballs except Mathews , Glavine and Uecker . Also they show different types of ink size and quality . I’d move that display to a better place , and not worry about the curtain issue unless this is where you wish the display to be . It’s a nice display that I have seen many times being near Atlanta with various Braves players ,and replacing the faded baseballs wouldn’t be difficult or expensive if you wanted .

Unfortunately, I have very limited space to display this so I'm sorta stuck where it is. It's display it here or nowhere. If the belief is that the proximity to the window is a significant part of this issue, than black-out curtains would seem to be the best fix.

As for the balls themselves, the two photos posted were taken using different cameras, lighting conditions, and angles. Looking at them in hand, I can tell you that the Chipper, Justice, and Spahn (especially Spahn) were always lighter on the ball and using a different kind of ink. To my eye, if these have changed over time it's been minimal. The Cox was always weak at the top of the signature but it may have weakened slightly further. The Andruw Jones, Mathews, Aaron, and Glavine look to be exactly as they were the day I purchased them. The Hank Aaron ball has always had a light brown spotting to it. The first photo masked it pretty well but it has always been there and looks unchanged.

The Uecker was not in the frame during the original photo but was added a short time later. Has probably been there for 4+ years. It was a TTM auto using the exact same type of ball and pen as the Murphy and Niekro. My intention was always to round out this set with a Greg Maddux ball (in Uecker's place) but it just hasn't happened yet. My intention for now is to actually get a bigger frame of the same type and do a more diverse collection of balls. So, I want to make sure they are protected.

[CamaroDMD]

Just as an experiment. I decided to see how much exterior light was coming into the room from the window. So, I turned off the light in the room, closed the door and shut off the computer screen...this was the result.

This photo was taken at 7am today. This is a southern facing window so the sun is to the NE and never passes directly in front of this window. Despite this, I think this is probably more light than is ideal. Again, the case claims to filter out UV light but doesn't quantify that in any way. So, I don't know how much faith to put in that.

I feel like black-out curtains might be a good idea.

[PhilNap]

Buy some of these (or similar product):

https://www.amazon.com/Trasfit-Chang...55136017&psc=1

Put them in the case under the glass and take it out in the sun to see if they react.

It will give you an idea you how effective the UV blocking glass is.

[CamaroDMD]

The more I chat with different people...the more I am beginning to learn that baseballs in general can be finicky. Some will fade without any apparent reason. I have a ball for instance that was signed 6 years ago. The player wrote a bunch of stats all over the ball on all sides and signed it. It was been in a UV cube on a shelf and the writing has faded on all sides equally...not just what was exposed to light.

But, that being said, I do think UV light is part of my issue here. I took out all the balls from the frame and photographed them individually (to document the collection) and two balls that I had signed had an interesting pattern. I have noticed that the balls that I had signed have tended to fade a bit in general. But, the Dale Murphy ball is much stronger on the left side of the ball and the Phil Niekro is much stronger on the right side...the fading is less in these areas. See below:





After I noticed this, I put the balls back in the case the same way they were and I looked at the case standing in front of the window. The darker areas of those signatures were covered by the frame. I took a photo (bare in mind, the balls were put back in the frame so they might be slightly rotated differently but they are all in the same place):

The Murphy is top row left and the Niekro is the second row from top far right.



So, I think there is a double issue here. I think UV exposure is playing a role but I also think some of the balls had bad ink/ball condition.

I think curtains are a good move to at least remove the UV issue. Any thoughts?