Williams, Mantle & Dimaggio Signature Opinions

[wmullis]

I have an opportunity to purchase these baseballs. All three come with COAs but none of which are widely recognized authentication companies. I am specifically concerned with the Mantle "Shop at Home" COA which I have read some bad things about.

Anyway here is the three baseballs, I would really appreciate any opinions you can all share.

[mr2686]

I have all 3 on balls that I got in person, and although not an expert, I have been talking a lot to people on this board to increase my knowledge on these 3 so that I can purchase with confidence on the secondary market. With that said, I'm almost certain that the Mantle is bad, fairly sure that the Williams is bad, and have no opinion on the Dimaggio.

[scmavl]

I don't like the Mantle. It looks slowly drawn. Look at the M in Mantle, it's shaky. So is the Y in Mickey.

I owns autos by the other two but am no expert on them. Good luck.

[shelly]

Open d or a dead giveaway on the williams. Mantle is shake and bake.

[Fuddjcal]

The Mantle is among the worst of the worst..... Known as a Shake & Bake, Fakey Fantle & Shakey Shantle. I have yet to see an authentic Mantle with the Fake @ Home COA....Many many forgeries sold to those poor unsuspecting dupes.

[BruinsFan]

Not Really on the Williams AHHH What are you talking about. Here is another PSA Baseball signed by Williams and IT IS IDENTICAL!!




The Mantle: Well Enough said.








Best keep your day jobs boys...You are not qualified to Authenticate much!

[jbsports33]

Williams is not good, look at the open "a" in Williams - not closed like the one above

Jimmy

[Fuddjcal]

Originally Posted by BruinsFan

Not Really on the Williams AHHH What are you talking about. Here is another PSA Baseball signed by Williams and IT IS IDENTICAL!!




The Mantle: Well Enough said.








Best keep your day jobs boys...You are not qualified to Authenticate much!

while I haven't put in the hours on Williams as I have on Mantle, one can EASILY tell the first one is a known FAKE and the 2nd is as good as gold.

Take another look cheif and I think you'll see the open "a" in the forgery and the a is closed in the Green diamond PSA example among other things like the general baseline in the forgery is a mess.

Best to take another look Knumbie J Skull, you are not qualified to call out all us non-experts when it's as plain as the nose on your face.

[ss]

The Williams and the Mantle are obvious forgeries. Not even close.

[mr2686]

Not Really on the Williams AHHH What are you talking about. Here is another PSA Baseball signed by Williams and IT IS IDENTICAL!!

Really? You think those look identical? Maybe it's you that should think about keeping his day job

[wmullis]

I had a bad gut feeling about the Mantle, I am glad that I trusted that feeling and posted the balls here. That is the worst thing about this hobby, you really have to be on your toes to make sure you don't get duped.

When BruinsFan posted these for sale I thought I could be more confident about items being posted here on this website but I guess that just goes to show that no matter where you buy from you still have to be very careful.

Thanks for all of the opinions, you all certainly saved me and hopefully some others a lot of money.

[Leon]

This scenario brings into question who and what should be allowed to be sold on the BST of this forum? Since these sigs seem to be bad (according to those posting) what are ya'lls thoughts on these questions? I am not sure how to protect the board when also allowing so much commerce to go on? Of course if I/we see anything blatantly fraudulent we will take action, but these authenticity questions are many times a "he said, she said" kind of thing. It seems experts can disagree and then we have dueling expert opinions? What should the rule(s) be? Should we ONLY allow auto's or auto'd items with COA's from reputable companies or people? Very difficult situation....

[Mr. Zipper]

Originally Posted by Leon

Should we ONLY allow auto's or auto'd items with COA's from reputable companies or people? Very difficult situation....

Absolutely not. One of the benefits of the selling forum is that it is generally from knowledgable, reputable collectors. Adding a TPA/COA requirement would be a burden on the vast majority of sellers.

Don't create rules to handle the exceptions. These things usually weed themselves out, as it did in the case.

One rule that might make sense is that scans are required for any item over a certain amount. This would prevent anyone from trying to sneak one by.

[barrysloate]

Leon- think it's pretty tough to have a set policy when so much of the autograph world is in chaos. It's hard enough to get two authenticators to even agree on a signature, and everyone talks about bad items getting LOA's. So how can you enforce an area that has trouble enforcing itself?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Mr. Zipper

Absolutely not. One of the benefits of the selling forum is that it is generally from knowledgable, reputable collectors. Adding a TPA/COA requirement would be a burden on the vast majority of sellers.

Don't create rules to handle the exceptions. These things usually weed themselves out, as it did in the case.

One rule that might make sense is that scans are required for any item over a certain amount. This would prevent anyone from trying to sneak one by.

Don't worry....I HATE making rules so that is not my intention whatsoever. What I hate worse than rules though is not discussing anything that we can think of to try to make the forum better. Our BST is wildly popular and usually has far more threads than any other section of the board. There are 0 rules now and that would be my intention going forward. I don't even like the requirement for scans but it makes sense to have them. As always it is Caveat Emptor over there. My only punitive actions I/we can take are not being able to use the board if someone does something wrong. Of course general laws still apply as they do anywhere. Any other thoughts would be great too. best regards

[thecatspajamas]

How about just advising board members that, when they see an item from the B/S/T page being discussed elsewhere on the boards, to post a link to the discussion on that item's B/S/T page. That way, if there are conflicting views of the authenticity of the item, potential buyers can read the discussion and take it into account when deciding whether to purchase (or bid on) it. That would preserve the "wild west" feel of the no-rules B/S/T section, but also add a bit of peer accountability for the sellers without admins having to costantly police the boards for potential fraud. And of course, Caveat Emptor would still reign supreme.