Mantle Opinion

[tha-rock]

Hey folks...

A friend asked me for help on this Mantle. It's on a Bobby Brown OALB. At first glance it looks OK, but I'm hesitant because I know Mantle is highly forged and there are better experts out there on his signature than I am. Can you help me with the authenticity of this or lack thereof?

Thanks in advance.

[Duluth Eskimo]

I don’t believe this is good. Too many things I don’t like

[Seven]

Originally Posted by tha-rock

Hey folks...

A friend asked me for help on this Mantle. It's on a Bobby Brown OALB. At first glance it looks OK, but I'm hesitant because I know Mantle is highly forged and there are better experts out there on his signature than I am. Can you help me with the authenticity of this or lack thereof?

Thanks in advance.

I'm not fond of how the M's are shaped. I'm not an expert, however.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

This is one of those instances with Mantle balls that comes up every so often.

For those of you who do not like it, your feelings are valid. There's this anomaly and that anomaly--oh, and that other anomaly! While I'd rather have a less cloudy photo (and perhaps rather have it in hand) to be entirely certain, I'm bucking the trend here and saying it's likely genuine. With that being said, it's a show-era Mantle ball, which are extremely common, with all kinds of issues to give pause. On top of that, it's toned. It would be a huge "no, thanks" if offered to me, as there's a whole field of Mantle balls to pluck from. Why bother with something like this?

[rand1com]

It is authentic.

Price would determine whether I would buy it but as far as authenticity I would have no qualms.

[Duluth Eskimo]

I've always said I'm not afraid to be wrong. I don't like the M's myself or the flow, but the rest looks pretty good.

[tlake22]

It's 100% good

[shelly]

[tha-rock]

Thanks for the opinions, folks. I apologize for the photo quality- here's a cleaner version.

I agree with BillyCoxDodgers- the ball is toned, and it probably is a show-era specimen. I don't know if it is for sale or if the person who sent it to me is a potential buyer. It came to me from a friend who said something like "Hey...my buddy has this baseball, what do you think?" If he were asking for my opinion for his collection, I would suggest he get a better specimen, but since we are asking for donations for our Old Timers Banquet Auction, he may be thinking of donating it to us. https://www.otbaseball.com/banquet