The ball looks good to me.
Although I would be very careful in trying to ascribe what a forger would or would not do and when. The longer you are around the autograph field the less and less surprised you get by the outlandish forgeries out there. Stories are just stories. The piece must speak for itself.
In this case I believe that it does.
Oh...and this being a Bobby Brown ball means that it was signed 1984 or after. Tony Perez was elected to the Hall in 2000. Mantle died in 1996, so the Autographs were collected over a period of time. That also explains the different pen colors.
My guess for value would be around $200 or so. It's a nice strong Mantle on the sweet spot. The non uniformity of pen color and shading hurts it a bit.
Hope this helps and welcome to the board!
Tom C
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