Autograph opinion - what do I do next?

[Duluth Eskimo]

I sent some balls to a guy to re-bladder and I "feel" like one ball was damaged a little too. Why in the hell would you "condition" the leather on a signed ball. Just don't inflate to max inflation if you're worried about the condition of the material, just be careful. I'm curious who you used, send me a PM if you want to discuss.

[perezfan]

My thoughts....

1. He definitely should have consulted with you and asked if you wanted the "re-conditioning". I have used a company called Hammer Sports Relics for replacement bladders.... probably on 3-4 occasions. Steve covered two things very clearly...

A. If the original lacing snaps, he would have to use replacement laces to seal it back up (fortunately this never happened).

B. He asked if I wanted the footballs to be conditioned. I said yes to all, except for an autographed Ball from the 1950s. I did not want any liquid or other substance touching the autos.

2. If your person never even asked you about the reconditioning, he should be held responsible for the negative result. This process should not be done automatically... especially on a signed ball. It's almost akin to shellacking a baseball (but not quite as drastic, I suppose). Regardless, I would negotiate a solution with him, if you are not satisfied.

3. The lighting looks a bit different in the two pics you provided. Looks like maybe flash was used for the first pic, and no flash on the other. So it's tough to determine the actual difference. I think the ball still looks nice, despite the conditioning. But if you are not happy, I would seek some form of compensation.

Bottom line.... he should have asked exactly what you wanted done, and made it clear what his process was. Perhaps you did use Hammer Sports Relics, as you'd mentioned that this guy had a presence on eBay. If that's the case, I don't know why he'd fail to ask you about the conditioning aspect, and seems he is culpable as a result. The level of compensation you seek is up to you.

Hope this helps.

[effe]

Originally Posted by Duluth Eskimo

I sent some balls to a guy to re-bladder and I "feel" like one ball was damaged a little too. Why in the hell would you "condition" the leather on a signed ball. Just don't inflate to max inflation if you're worried about the condition of the material, just be careful. I'm curious who you used, send me a PM if you want to discuss.

PM sent

[effe]

So I made the decision to reach out to this individual to see if we could work out some mutually agreeable compensation for the damage his "conditioning" did to the autograph. This was on June 22nd. After a week of no receiving response I tried again, still nothing. In the mean time I noticed he had listed auctions on Ebay so I assumed he must be reading the emails I've sent. I sent one final email on the 3rd which also has went unanswered.

At this point I see no reason to continue withholding this individual's name, it is Steve Hill of North Canton, OH, and his Ebay id is hammersportsrelics. I also want to make sure I state here that I hold no ill will to those who recommended him. If you had no problems you likely would have had no reason to have concerns about how he ran his business. In fact I was quite happy with the job he did with the first ball I sent him. That is why I was comfortable giving him my repeat business. Unfortunately it seems I was the guy that drew the short straw this time and actually had an issue with job he had done. Yes I should maybe have asked more questions up front but that is hindsight now. I guess I would have expected someone who had been doing this as long as he had to always err on the side of caution.

At this point I've started the search for a new ball and will share it here on the new pick-ups thread when I find one. Hopefully the hit I take when selling this one won't be too severe a lesson learned.

[Duluth Eskimo]

Originally Posted by effe

PM sent

Never got your message. Sorry to hear you're not getting any response, but to add any type of "lube" to the ball for conditioning when the ball is signed seems like the wrong move. Clearly there is damage to the signature. Any chemical is likely to remove paint pen or sharpie and it appears it did on the raised parts of the signature. BTW, this was not the person I used.