Mantle Help

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MICKEY-MANTLE-AUTOGRAPHED-BOBBY-BROWN-BASEB...

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Permalink Reply by DB on July 26, 2012 at 8:13am

Jim as I am sure you have realized by now, this rabble rousing group is more accurate that the greater majority of "3rd party authenticators" combined. For the most part they are not paid for authenticators but their exhaustive knowledge on Mantle is quite good. While the manner in which it is sometimes communicated is not always pleasant it seldomly misses the mark.

Did an NVA COA get posted, yet? This is a link to the Banned List so you can fish for yourself in the future; http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/autographs.html if you have questions, as I did, many moons ago about the entries just ask as the list can easily be misinterpreted.

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Permalink Reply by CEE GEE on July 26, 2012 at 5:08am

Jim...this is what an authentic Mantle looks like...unfortunately that ball will never pass PSA and or JSA...its worth less then the ball cube...not saying by any means you don't have a good reputation...The guys on the show Pawn Stars sold one just like yours about a year and a half ago...and I am sure there rep is pretty respectable...but these forgery style fakes are out there give or take in the 6 figure range...they have infected the industry terribly and will probably be out there in the market for the next 20 years to come...these forgers sold over 100,000,000.00 in forgery sales at the height of the Operation Bullpen days...this is one of those fakes...sorry

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on July 26, 2012 at 6:16am

What a gorgeous Mantle signature. WOW.

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Permalink Reply by CEE GEE on July 26, 2012 at 6:36am

Also Jim here is a top and bottom comparison...as you can see the top is a perfect example and yours under it...the fakes that are out there in the market sell for a quarter of what an authentic one sells for most of the time...

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Permalink Reply by James Wymer on July 26, 2012 at 7:21am

Jim I also want to mention that Chris, Zipper, Cee Gee, and others do not like to give away specific autograph tips as they do not want to inform the forger on how to improve his craft.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Poore on July 26, 2012 at 7:26am

I don't blame them one bit. I wouldn't either.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on July 26, 2012 at 8:03am

This is a tip I don't mind sharing because it's general and the forgers can't get it right anyway.

The biggest tell on Mantle fakes is often the slowness of the Ms. The real Mick would tear through the Ms quickly, smoothly and without the slightest hint of hesitation. He went so fast you often see streaks in the ink.

Almost all these fakes have slow and wobbly Ms. You can plainly see where the pen carefully and deliberately went into the angles and curves of the Ms. Why? Because a forger has to think about the shape he is forming. It is not natural and instinctive like the real Mick. Look very closely at the Ms of almost any fake and you will see hesitation. Sometimes it is very suble, but it is almost always there.

Of course, there are some fakes where the Ms are done quickly, but the shape is usually so far off it's an obvious fake anyway.

Speed + proper shape is very, very difficult to achieve.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on July 26, 2012 at 8:17am

Mr. Zipper, well written as usual, but as both you and I know, those without a trained eye cannot see the slowness.

These forgeries are meant to have the appearance of being authentic since they are being purchased by those who know zero about autographs, and that's why the forgers and sellers of forgeries will always be in business.

Forgers and sellers of forgeries count on the wannabe collectors to purchase forgeries like the one highlighted in this thread. It has ruined the hobby to the point that the hobby will forever be infected with this garbage.

We will continue to expose this crap as long as sellers continue to list them.

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Permalink Reply by Fuddjcal on July 26, 2012 at 10:16am

plus, on the balls (no pun intended)...when he starts the M's, you can almost always notice a "ink dot" right where the pressure on the pen starts and it almost always crosses flawlessly or close to it on the balls. On Photo's, I call this "dropping ink". There is sometimes more wiggle room with photos as he will come up short when making his M's. Forgers CAN NEVER and WILL NEVER get this right.

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Permalink Reply by CEE GEE on July 26, 2012 at 8:18am

Great points Zipper...I will also like to add placement of a authentic Mickey Mantle auto and formation of like Zipper pointed out is Mantles M's...those Banana shaped M's are always a dead give away...Mantle signed very sharp and like Zipper also mentioned very fast as shown in my photo example where the E and Y in Mickey is not even connected....that's from shear signing speed as well...also notice how smooth this auto is...fluid...and almost perfect...fakes almost always have hesitation and shaking or tremors in the letter formation...there is so many things to look out for but those really are the best things to look at first...