Not your average "is this real?" Mantle thread
 

I do not want to say too much as to influence opinion but would love to hear the board's pro's thoughts. I try my best not to clutter the forum with these kind of threads but this ball has thrown me a twist...Thanks to all of you who share your knowledge around here. I have learned a ton... So what do you think?

Looks good to me, but others know Mantle better than I.

Looks weird to me but I am not an expert. Though my Mantle instincts have been good in the past couple threads.

In my opinion, it appears to be an authentic exemplar with a few road bumps.

:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d I would buy it and enjoy it.

Shelly, Thank your for responding but is that a good smiley or bad one?

When its bad:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: when it is good:):):):):D:D:D:D:D

haha...thanks, the animations didn't show up in original one for some reason. I appreciate you chimiing in Shelly ( as well as the rest of you)...Let's see if Jim, Richard, or Chris care to comment before I explain why I posted.

Reading other Mantle threads, I thought the "banana M's" were a sign of a bad Mantle sig, so I would have thought this one was bad... This is why I paid a premium to get my Mantles from a dealer I trusted implicitly!

These are "banana M's".

Looks good, maybe he signed it while walking. A couple of blips but enough of the right stuff to feel good about, IMO.

Thanks for the comparison post, very noticeable difference when viewing them side by side.

Shelly knows the Mick as well as anyone.
They closed many a bar in their youth :):).

You call them banana m's I call them the quarter moons.Either way they a crap. Richard, Mickey could drink almost any human under the table. The only ball player that put him to shame in that era was Billy Martin;)

100% authentic

Thanks to everyone for the replies....This confirmed what I already believed. I saw no issues with the autograph itself and the ball has the Upper Deck hologram on it. The hologram looked legit and I didn't think incription threw up any red flags (esp considering this was common UDA ball inscription). My surprise came when I called Upper Deck to verify the hologram matched a Mantle ball and their response was "We cannot confirm the authenticity" and will make no further comment. This concerned me as I generally check all my Upper Deck products with no issue. I do this as much for if I ever sell it I know many buyers will do the same. I asked question after question and they would say no more. I then as a test tried to verify other UDA products I owned which I had the original box, COA, pouch, etc.. as I knew they were legit. Not all of these could be confirmed so apparently Upper Deck has developed some cataloging issues or something lately which is rather disappointing. I always considered their memorabilia side to be top notch if you couldn't watch it be signed yourself...Anyways, thanks for the help. I haven't decided what I am gonna do with the ball yet but least I know its good whatever direction I go.