Spalding Ford Frick Ball - Not What It Seems

[BrandonG]

Yes, like I said, a very close friend/business partner. I had a paypal chargeback years ago which made me unable to accept payments or buy stuff on eBay, I used his name and SSN on the paypal and have worked under that for about 7 years. hence the original connection. This ball was in my original possession and used for the book, then handed off to him, it should have never been made public or for sale, and that was an agreement. It was broken. I'm trying to do the right thing here.

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by BrandonG

Yes, like I said, a very close friend/business partner. I had a paypal chargeback years ago which made me unable to accept payments or buy stuff on eBay, I used his name and SSN on the paypal and have worked under that for about 7 years. hence the original connection. This ball was in my original possession and used for the book, then handed off to him, it should have never been made public or for sale, and that was an agreement. It was broken. I'm trying to do the right thing here.

Was it used in the book as a multi-color stitch ball or in its original condition? Who doctored that baseball?

[Mr. Mitt]

Originally Posted by BrandonG

This ball was in my original possession and used for the book, then handed off to him, it should have never been made public or for sale, and that was an agreement. It was broken.

So, who did the alteration? The "partner" who may have a history of doctoring balls or you, the ball authenticator?

Was this, or any other doctored balls, used in your book and does your publisher know this?

Seems the choice to be made is publlicly share the name of the fraud on this forum (you said you'd be cutting ties with him in a previous post) or risk people thinking (rightly or wrongly) that the seller is and has been you all along.

[khkco4bls]

Is someone sayin, I smell a rat..brandon this needs a full explaination and tell everyone who he is. And no he isn't a nice guy.

[Mr. Mitt]

To me, the story is flimsy and doesn’t eradicate the few facts that we actually have. It’s just my opinion, but I’m not buying it, at all. Until we are privy to the person behind the alteration and sale, one must conclude that it is Brandon given he originally bought the ball and the last person to sell the ball had an eBay id that used to match his name. It’s going to be extremely difficult to alter this conclusion. Simple, rational deduction all point to this. A complex, tangled web of an explanation just makes the case more unbelievable.


Jerry F!cch!

[yanks12025]

Wow. Pretty sad how quick some people will throw a good member of this forum under the bus. Brandon has helped tons of people with questions about baseballs and look how he gets treated.

[khkco4bls]

I would say he is out in front of the bus, not under it . Be careful...

[murphusa]

Some balls if you ask me

[horzverti]

Originally Posted by yanks12025

Wow. Pretty sad how quick some people will throw a good member of this forum under the bus. Brandon has helped tons of people with questions about baseballs and look how he gets treated.

The problem is that Brandon is the board expert on vintage baseballs. He is the one who is actually writing the book on the ball itself. Whenever anyone had a question on identification or authentication of a newly discovered ball we would wait until Brandon responded to the question. Brandon even was allowed access to the non-public archives at The Hall of Fame in Cooperstown to conduct his research. There is no doubt that he is an expert. Count me as one more member who is thankful for the questions I had which were answered by Brandon...however...

...I had an overwhelming feeling of 'oh no' as I read every new post in this thread. This just does not pass the smell test. I am disappointed.

[slidekellyslide]

I admitted that I made a mistake in selling some reproduction cabinet photos I made (which I clearly marked as reproduction on them) only to have those people turn around and try to pass them off as real after they scratched off the repro markings I put on them. I'm willing to take his word for it that the person that sold the item is not him...I think he should out this person though, there's not one single reason for him to take the heat on this when his friend is the one who tried passing off a fake.

[vintagebrett]

Originally Posted by BrandonG

I had a paypal chargeback years ago which made me unable to accept payments or buy stuff on eBay, I used his name and SSN on the paypal and have worked under that for about 7 years. .

I'm confused at this statement - if you are unable to have a PayPal account then why is your name on the PayPal receipt for the original purchase of this ball? Since you used his name and SSN, shouldn't his name be on the account?

[slidekellyslide]

I don't think the question gets any simpler than this: How is the ball used in the book?

[ngrow9]

Potentially a stupid question, but was there ever a period in which the NL used a red and tan laced ball?

[BrandonG]

Please don't confuse a "shipping" address to an owner of the paypal account name. The paypal account I use currently is not in my name, but has the Business title of History of the Baseball. Reason for this is my bad credit history with paypal as explained. Not changing these accounts or names was pure laziness on my part, and I am obviously paying for that now.

Now on to the use of this ball in the book. This ball is NOT used in the book. It was originally going to be used to replicate an extremely rare 1930's All-Star ball, a ball that I have not seen for sale, nor would have the funds to purchase if one surfaced, but I really wanted and needed it in the book. This ball was restitched by the replicator to be used strictly for photos, and that's it. However I acquired photographs of a genuine model months later, and no longer needed the replicated stitching.

It is not my place to release a name to a public forum, to people I do not know, I do not want any legal issues raised against me. I now see that it was a big mistake to have the ball switch hands after my use, my intentions in the memorabilia community have always been to out reproductions and fakes, which I do on a daily basis, including THIS particular ball, and help the industry with the knowledge I have gained over the years.

All baseballs in the book are genuine, however there are times where logos, color, etc need to be enhanced with photoshop, but it had never crossed my mind that this was a bad thing at all. The goal is to represent the best information possible, and if that involves making a yellow ball a little more white, or a logo a little more crisp, then I did so thinking people would rather see cleaner models so the ball is easily identifiable. If you disagree with this please let me know. Does anyone have opinions on that?

I have not made one dime from this book, I work full time and am doing this as a love for the game and it's artifacts, and to educate my fellow collectors. I would have no point to tarnish my reputation selling anything fraudulent, and would never do so for a cheap ball.

I apologize if some of you need more explanation than that, but I feel I have taken care of the matter, this ball will be back in my possession and destroyed. I just hope that some of you appreciate what I have done, and acknowledge the many hours I've committed to removing fraudulent memorabilia from eBay and other sites, including autographed baseballs.

And to Nathaniel, this type of ball was used for what I believe were all-star games in the 1930's, but not regular games.

[vintagebrett]

Originally Posted by BrandonG

Now on to the use of this ball in the book. This ball is NOT used in the book. It was originally going to be used to replicate an extremely rare 1930's All-Star ball, a ball that I have not seen for sale, nor would have the funds to purchase if one surfaced, but I really wanted and needed it in the book. This ball was restitched by the replicator to be used strictly for photos, and that's it. However I acquired photographs of a genuine model months later, and no longer needed the replicated stitching.

Just out of curiosity - I imagine you search eBay so how did you miss seeing this rare baseball, one that you've never seen for sale before? It was listed in the vintage baseballs category and ran for 7 days. You admitted that you knew this faked ball existed. If I saw my friend selling something I knew was fake I would have done something about it right away.

[horzverti]

Originally Posted by vintagebrett

Just out of curiosity - I imagine you search eBay so how did you miss seeing this rare baseball, one that you've never seen for sale before? It was listed in the vintage baseballs category and ran for 7 days. You admitted that you knew this faked ball existed. If I saw my friend selling something I knew was fake I would have done something about it right away.

Brandon? Thoughts on Brett's post above?

I have some more questions:

The eBay name of the seller of sham ball was originally your name, yet you claim that the seller is merely a friend/partner of your's? Why would he use your name at all? If you had a Paypal problem, why not just create a new ID for yourself? There isn't a high feedback # for the sham seller...nothing to lose there.

Why would you, the guy who is writing the book on balls, associate with a known seller of repros? You wrote that you sold the ball to him, but asked him not to re-sell it? You know he sells repros, why would he hold onto a ball that was not legit? It isn't a collectible. Of course he was going to try to sell it. Is he, you?? If not, then who is it?

Why did you not stop the eBay sale? You are the ball guy, you must have seen it out on eBay.

Why did you join the conversation only after Brett's original post?

Yep, the private feedback thing is another flag.

The big problem here isn't merely another shady seller on eBay. The problem is that this sham seller may be the guy who is writing a book on baseballs. I now quote myself, "YIKES"!

[BrandonG]

I'm not sure anything I can say right now will remedy your views at this point. I tried in a previous post to explain everything, including my relationship to the seller. The ball wasn't sold. I noticed just a little too late to have the auction stopped by contacting the seller, I don't live and die on eBay. The buyer ended up being a friend, and I immediately called them and told them to cancel the sale and don't pay for it. They are a member and can confirm that, I will not give that name either though. So just to be clear, the ball was NOT sold.

I cannot give a name as I still have very close personal and financial ties as explained earlier, including website fees and registration for work I've done in the past when I was a full time designer, and I cannot lose that stuff. This person is not a board member, and barely sells anything on ebay anymore, yes they sold repros, but ALWAYS listed as such. Because of our ties with paypal and such, he kept the ebay name to retain the feedback count, and as you can see I started a new one. I'm not sure what good that would do for me especially because those who don't trust me, aren't going to have their minds changed.

I made a $20.50 mistake here, trusted the wrong people, and now I'm being compared to the likes of OJ. I get the concern, but I don't understand the logic of a guy like me, with so much invested in accuracy and credibility purposefully defrauding someone for peanuts, a month before releasing my guides. So if you want to blame me, blame me, but I cannot keep defending every post.

It has come to a conclusion that this is a witch hunt, and it seems I will be taking the full brunt of the blame here regardless, and maybe rightfully so as it was poor judgment on my part not holding on to the ball originally. I never specifically said don't sell the ball, but just assumed they would know better. Again, a poor lapse in judgment on my part. But what comes next here? I don't release the book, I don't help out anymore, over this? The assumption was guilt from the get go, I'm losing a friend, I'm losing credibility...This is a no win for me any way this goes. I don't see what else can come from this, people are selling trimmed cards for hundreds of thousands, and fake Ruth's for thousands, and this is the topic that ruins my credibility? Having a friend who's an idiot?

To those of you that know me, or have taken my advice on baseballs, I sincerely apologize if you feel different about me because of this situation, but my hopes would be that this gets put behind me. This has made me angry and physically sick, and don't know what else to say. This will be my last post regarding this, and I will not be looking at the thread any longer. you can PM me if you would like to talk.