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Mickey Mantle-Your opinion please

Here is a picture of my Mickey Mantle autographed baseball that I purchased early in my collection. I would like your opinion on it's authenticity.

Thanks

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Mickey Mantle ball photo.jpg, 281 KB

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on November 6, 2014 at 4:00am

Not authentic, regrettably. A common forgery style. Sorry.

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Permalink Reply by Sean C. on November 6, 2014 at 4:20am

The good news is, with a little time and research, you can pick up an authentic ball relatively cheap. I got mine for $160.

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Permalink Reply by Null on November 6, 2014 at 7:28am

Bad fake... sorry.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on November 6, 2014 at 6:13pm

That particular style Mantle forgery usually comes with a COA from "Hollywood & Sports Memorabilia."

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Permalink Reply by Scott Leavitt on November 7, 2014 at 9:12am

Can you provide me with what gives this away as a forgery?

Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Null on November 7, 2014 at 11:36am

It's a forgery because it's a forgery. Simple as that. There is not one "give away", it's a very bad forgery all around. It's like asking "Can you tell me why this turd is a turd?" You can't really explain it, you just *know* it's a turd. You have to study authentic signatures enough and then you can just tell. This is an amateur forgery we have seen 1,0000x here. It's not something that will just "click" overnight, there is plenty of information on this site that myself and others have written that will help you spot common fakes/authentics etc.

Here is a comparison with an authentic one. The top is AUTHENTIC, the bottom is yours which is clearly fake:

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on November 7, 2014 at 2:23pm

This is kind of like asking how do you tell a Monet from a Manet. When something is not grossly malformed, there is no simple concise answer.

The questioned item is a known forgery style. After you have seen enough of them, you just know the look.

In essence, it is about having an experienced trained eye, seeing thousands of examples over time, and knowing when it is not right.

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Permalink Reply by Sean C. on November 7, 2014 at 9:19am

Mantle would typically follow through on his M's, for example there would be a tail leading to the 'a' in mantle. Also, the K E Y in Mickey are very flat. Mickey had a special flare to his K's and Y's...that forgeries just can't duplicate.