Help with a Mantle bat
 

Authentic?

Another pic..

Shelly?

One more pic..

The main reason I dont like it. It signed on a big stick. It just does not look right to me. I could be wrong on this one but my opinion is no.
:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

No. Don't like the k and the y. Also the space on the names to close together.

By the way what is your name?

Hi Shelly, My name is Andrew.

I'm usually pretty good with mantle and this on looked good to me right off the bat (no pun intended). The big stick bat bothered me too. Do we know for sure that Rawlings didn't manufacture these bats during mantle's lifetime?

Big stick has been around for a long time. It is not an authentic autograph in my opinion. Being on the big stick just adds to it's not being authentic.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Why did you even ask for your opinion. You have so many of your own. Please dont ask us if you already know.:mad:
Mark not upset with you. I am upset with the people that come on here ask what you think and then tell you what they dont like. If you dont like something about a signiture dont buy it.:mad::mad:

Seems to me the guy is just creating discussion and debate. You don't like it, don't participate.

if you looked you would see they asked for my opinion. Like I said. No more from the new guys let them decide. If your not on here for more than two years forgetaboutit.

Shelly, while I have a pretty good handle on what an authentic Mantle autograph should look like this one seemed tricky. So I sought out the opinion of other experts such as yourself on it. I can tell you what I like and dislike about it as well as take into account your thoughts and the thoughts of other forum members; it's not a contradiction. That was my intention anyway. I think most of us agree this is an In-betweener. Certainly wasn't my intention to offend you by posting my thoughts about it.

No problem. You have other people on here that will be more than happy to help. I will stick to the people that have been on here at least two years.