Authentication Lie Pictures

[WMMRMATT]

Last week I posted about purchasing a 500 homerun club signed baseball from a local Sports Card Store. The ball was authenticated by STAT Authentic, which I never heard of so like any smart investor, I had the ball examined by James Specer. Spencer ruled the ball was a fake. Below are pictures of the ball.

What are your opinions? Real or fake? Help !!!

[Vintagedeputy]

If my memory is correct STAT was (is) a company that authenticated sigs at the actual signing. Sigs look legit in my opinion, and I've seen alot of those sigs over the years, but dont take my word for it.

Jim

[byergo]

Do you mean James Spence? And if the signs aren't real, they are a darn good fake.

[CollectGU]

These balls are evrywhere on ebay and in in my opinion the signatures are bad fakes especially the Killebrew and Mantle.

Regards,
Dave

[JasonHalliburton]

Those signatures look like they may have been done by the Marino guy that was caught forging so much. There was a video on here that had a little bit about him on it.

That is if these signatures are fake...They look pretty good to me though. The only one that I see that might be bad is the Frank Robinson....

[JasonHalliburton]

The more I look at the photo's, the more I think they are all bad.

[sammy]

The Ted Williams is the only one that has the appearance of being real, and thus could go either way.

The rest are forgeries.

That is not a legitimate 500 HR club ball. It might have started out as a single signed Ted Williams and someone added the rest.

Sorry.

[David]

Most anyone in the hobby is going to take Spence's opinion over Stat's.

[Swoboda4]

Harmon Killebrew would never sign his name like that.

[bigtruck260]

Killebrew looks bad - but IMO Aaron and Banks look pretty darn good.
Get a second opinion. Did Spence say all of the sigs were fake, or did one bad one ruin the whole ball?

This is the problem with having team items authenticated. I have had a couple rejected because one or two "looked" bad. I also have items that I have kept in my collection because I completely disagreed with PSA, etc.

Here are photos of two Pujols sigs that failed PSA...FYI I got one from Heather Morris (Matt Morris's wife) at a annual Breast Cancer card sale at Busch before a Yankees Game - the green card came directly from Cards VP John Mozeliak after the first one came back as a "fake" (I told him about it, and he said he understood, but was 100% certain Albert signed all 100 of his cards that day). Both are real IMO - I have seen literally THOUSANDS of Albert's sigs from every year. Different styles, but both legit. Pujols is not the type of person who would have someone else sign his stuff for him....reagardless, both failed. Spence is coming to town on Dec. 1 - and I am having him look at them to see what he says. If they are rejected again, I am writing off authentication altogether.

FYI - my rule of thumb is that if I need authentication for an item - I stay the heck away. I don't buy anything I can't identify as authentic myself.

[bscott]

the signatures look like forgeries to me. impressive forgeries, but forgeries nonetheless.

you could send this ball to psa/dna or gai and you would most likely find the same resulting opinion: the ball is probably a fake. and that sucks.

if this "local sports store" of yours is operated by decent people, they should refund your money. however, I believe your previous post stated that the people who sold you the ball have refused to give you a refund.

my advice: ask for a refund again. if they refuse, you can make a formal complaint to the better business bureau. or, take your story to a local newspaper (it's a good human interest piece) and stick it to your local sports card store with some good old fashioned "bad press."

the mere mention of your willingness to go a newspaper could make the seller reconsider: no business wants bad publicity. period. and no business wants bad publicity as the holiday shopping season approaches.


good luck! and let us know how it turns out!

-bscott.

[Swoboda4]

The "d" in Ted(Williams) is bad. It's a good attempt but fake. The problem and challenge,for a decent forger is to create many signatures on one item. If you thought you did your best work with the Williams,you must continue on the tightrope with the other signatures. I started out with signature collecting before game used and it's my opinion it's fake. I also contribute to the autograph forum also you can try over there for an opinion.

[both-teams-played-hard]

Those signatures look like they may have been done by the Marino guy that was caught forging so much.


My thoughts, also.

[ahuff]

Ones that I have received personally that appear to be fake: Ernie Banks, Eddie Mathews, and Harmon Killebrew.

I purchased some from Scoreboard that don't match, as well. They are: Willie Mays, Hank Aaron (I have 2 one Scoreboard and one that was on a team signed ball -authenticated).

[BULBUS]

20+ years collecting autographs, I believe all the signatures are off.

[skipcareyisfat]

None of them look right to me either. Didn't the Marino family mark their 500 club balls with some type of infrared marker near the ROA/RON stamp? I did a quick search but didn't come up with anything. Seems like those marks usually ended up turning yellow.

I did come across this page on Richard Simon's site. Lots of interesting stuff and opinions here about PSA and those goofy "autograph" insert cards.

http://richardsimonsports.com/hofauto2.htm

[worldchamps]

I can confidently say those are all fake on the 500 ball

the Pujols cards are good though

[WMMRMATT]

I appreciate your help. I will keep you posted. Thanks.

-Matt