Kenesaw Mountain Landis signed ball, 4 others. INSIGHT PLEASE!

My father recently purchased a few baseballs at an estate auction of a former player that had passed away. While he was interested in the jewelry, he picked up the balls for me knowing I'm a passionate collector.
Upon receiving them, i recognized the squiggles of Kenesaw Mountain Landis and could read a "TJ Hickey" fairly easily. I dont know who Hickey or the others are, but i definitely know who Landis is.
It would cost $100 to authenticate it with PSA. My few questions are:
1) Does it look era appropriate?
2) Likely authentic or no?
3) who are the others on the ball?
4) worth the $100 gamble sending to PSA?
ANY INSIGHT would be tremendously helpful in deciding what i do next. Thanks guys. I've included scans of all panels and markings/stamps/flaws

Tags: Kenesaw, Landis, Mountain, Real, Value

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Permalink Reply by Brian Dailey on October 23, 2016 at 10:29am

Here are additional photos of other panels on the ball

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Permalink Reply by James on October 23, 2016 at 2:04pm

After looking at some of the other pics, I'm afraid this might be a reproduction. Better get some more opinions.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Dailey on October 23, 2016 at 3:20pm

The reproduction idea crossed my mind, but find it difficult to agree. The estate was a former player that had passed away. Several balls were in the bag, tucked away in the garage. A team signed Mud Hens ball from 1934, and a few local league (Toledo Ohio) as well. Additionally, the other autos on the ball are Tiger principle owner Francis J Navin, actor Joe E Brown (played on a few baseball movies in the 30s, including Alibi Ike),Jack Calvey. They wouldn't appear to have any logical tie together for a reproduction to be made. The whole thing is quite the mystery. The fading on some but not others could be 100 various reasons. Idk how the ball was stored/found/kept so it's tough to say. I'll dig further.

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Permalink Reply by James on October 23, 2016 at 2:02pm

I'm no expert on Mountain Landis, but his graph looks pretty good on this ball, although with it being so bold, I wonder a bit. If authentic, I think it's safe to say it's worth easily over $1000. I'm not sure what the market is for signed baseballs with his sig. I used to own a Ruth/Gehrig/Landis signed ball. The signatures were faded but very legible. Landis' autograph on paper isn't cheap, so on a ball even more. I would say it's worth the $100 gamble, because you may have a ball worth a couple of thousand or so.