Mark McGwire Ball Authentic?

Saw the Wilt thread about Field of Dreams being spotty, well this is a ball I got as a gift back in 1998 that has a COA from Field of Dreams. Is it any good?

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Permalink Reply by James on September 17, 2014 at 9:25pm

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I don't think yours is authentic. The time around when you got your ball, 1998, was when there was a huge demand for anything Big Mac. Hence, lots of forgeries. Now, McGwire had a lot of autograph changes in his career. Here is an example of his earlier autograph when he was with the A's.

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Permalink Reply by James on September 17, 2014 at 9:27pm

Here is a typical MM auto in 1998.

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Permalink Reply by James on September 17, 2014 at 9:33pm

He also had a "ballpark" sig that was kind of an abbreviation of his 1998 sig. And there is also another style from his earlier days. Yours almost looks like an attempt at combining two different eras of Big Mac autos. The ending of yours actually would be kind of consistent with an earlier Mac version. And the Ms are too small. In 1998, MM wasn't doing in-store signings so a lot of places were trying to get his autograph any way they could. Field of Dreams did do a lot of in-store signings, but I'm pretty sure not with Big Mac. Sorry.

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Permalink Reply by James on September 17, 2014 at 9:40pm

You know what. I keep looking at yours, and like I said, the ending of yours is consistent with an earlier version of his autograph. Actually, very much so. So I wouldn't totally rule it out. I lean toward no, but that ending is almost spot on from an earlier style. So to paraphrase Jim Carey, I'm saying there's a chance. You could try PSA, and see what happens.

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Permalink Reply by BC on September 17, 2014 at 10:02pm

Thanks for your help, James!

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on September 18, 2014 at 4:20am

not authentic, sorry. in 1998 the market was flooded with Mac forgeries, as his signature was in high demand and he was not signing much, especially on the sweet spot. this is no doubt a forgery.