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Babe Ruth signed baseball - Real or Fake?

Hoping this get some opinions on this baseball please, I know some of you study Ruth ;)

Trying to break through from the Williams/DiMaggio/Mantle items into more of the Cobb/Ruth/Gehrig stuff which I assume is much more difficult to be keen on as there are good fakes.

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on July 24, 2014 at 9:25am

hard to fake the age of this signature. I am never certain with Ruth, but this one has many positives.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Kaminski on July 24, 2014 at 9:27am

Thanks as always Terrier!

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Permalink Reply by Mike Kaminski on July 24, 2014 at 12:36pm

Thanks for all the input William, I know you study Ruth quite extensively :)

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Permalink Reply by Mike Kaminski on July 24, 2014 at 12:50pm

Thanks William! What do you think a piece like this would go for? It's on a National League ball so I'm guessing that devalues it a bit and also has four low key signatures on the panels but displays nicely as a single.

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Permalink Reply by Randy on July 24, 2014 at 10:31am

Authentic, IMO.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Kaminski on July 24, 2014 at 10:33am

Thanks Randy. Any idea of value/grade for a ball like this?

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Permalink Reply by Mike Kaminski on July 24, 2014 at 10:34am

It's on an official Spalding ball and has 4 other low key signatures.

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Permalink Reply by Randy on July 24, 2014 at 10:40am

$3000 or so IMO provided it is authenticated by PSA/DNA or JSA.

Balls like this typically sell in the big auctions around this level including buyer fees.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Kaminski on July 24, 2014 at 11:29am

Awesome, thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Dane on July 28, 2014 at 10:59pm

Yeah, but that means he has to get it authenticated ($300), ship it ($50 to PSA and probably $61 return based upon $41 for $5000-$10k declared value and $20 int'l surcharge), discount buyer's premium ($525 for 21% on $2500), pay auction fees ($375 for 15% on $2500), and ship to the auction house ($50). So, that would be about $825 in fees and $525 haircut for the buyer's premium. That puts the value outside of an auction a lot closer to $2000, and he'd still need to cover the PSA related ($400) fees.

Consider all of that and demand for non-SS/non-team balls, and it's probably fairly valued around $1250-$1500 unauthenticated.