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Ted Williams Ball - Genuine or (more likely) Fake?

First of all, thanks for accepting me into your group! A little about me: it's been quite some time, but back in the sportscard "boom" years of the 90's I was a pretty successful show dealer in the Boston, MA area. Since about the year 2000, I got out of it. I handled back then a couple of Williams autos, but both of them were certified pulled from packs, so I had no question about the authenticity. This ball is a totally different story. I now make my living selling mostly media (DVD's, CD's, comics, books, audiobooks, video games, computer software, and athletic shoes, basically anything I can turn a few dollars on) on Ebay. I spend weekends going around to yard sales to find inventory. I picked this ball up at a yard sale last weekend. The holder was all beat up, and the woman having the sale had this buried in one of those Wal-Mart type big blue totes along with a lot of junk. When I asked her what she wanted for it, she just shrugged her shoulders and said "make an offer". She said she had no idea where it came from, and it was pretty obvious that she could not have cared less about it. Knowing that 49 out of 50 of these are fakes, I told her honestly I did not want to pay more than $5 for it, because it was like buying a scratch ticket with terrible odds of winning. She was happy with the $5; no negotiation at all. Once I got it home I got online to pull Williams autograph photos. Some things about this ball look good, others not so good. I read mostly good things about Stacks of Plaques, but their biggest drawback was obvious. Real easy to pull the ball out of the holder and switch it with a bad one. The ball was the correct era (Bobby Brown American League President from 1984-1994) but it was scuffed up. I wouldn't think that a ball for an autograph would be damaged. The ball looks clean other than the scuffing. Then I looked up discussion forums, and I found you guys! Just looking for opinions; if most of you give it a thumbs-up I'll send it off to PSA. If not, I'll save my money, put it on my desk, look up at it once in awhile and laugh! Awaiting your combined expertise.

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Permalink Reply by James on July 27, 2015 at 8:35pm

This looks good to me, but get some more opinions. If real, what a steal at $5!

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Permalink Reply by Paul on July 27, 2015 at 8:38pm

So what's it worth if genuine.

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Permalink Reply by James on July 28, 2015 at 12:55am

Probably around $400 USD.

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on July 28, 2015 at 4:23am

authentic and a very nice example. 400 is high. in this condition, with the scuff, and no authentication, I would say 200 to 250.

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Permalink Reply by warren wheeler on July 28, 2015 at 4:35am

So far I'm feeling pretty good about it based on the comments! I thoght it looked good but I am far from an expert, and with all of the fakes out there and the fakers getting better and better at their craft I was a skeptic. I'll keep following this, and I have to say I'm enjoying reading some of the other threads. And terrier8HOF, if I get mostly positive reactions to this I'm sending it off to PSA. I do buy and sell, and I won't sell something like this unless I'm 100% sure of it's authenticity. But I can't fix the scuffs!!

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on July 28, 2015 at 10:36am

I am sure you will get no negative responses on this ball.

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Permalink Reply by Mike P on July 28, 2015 at 11:14am

This is authentic in my opinion. Definitely should get this authenticated if you intend on selling it for a profit. Nice ball even with the scratches

I agree with Terrier on the price. You could probably get anywhere from 200-275 without authentication in that condition.

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Permalink Reply by Fuddjcal on July 28, 2015 at 11:34am

Love the story and signature...It's worth 125-150.00 IMHO with the heavy scuffing.

PSA will charge you 75.00 plus postage to send it in. Then you might be able to get 2 bills for it on a GOOD DAY....maybe.

As Donald Trump would say..."I think I like my Williams balls with dotted i's, not with-out," so that takes it down a notch for me. Still for 5 bucks...you did GOOD!

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Permalink Reply by Null on July 28, 2015 at 1:34pm

Yeah I wouldn't even waste the $ sending in to PSA/DNA honestly. Just throw it up on eBay for $250 obo or something and see what offers roll in.

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Permalink Reply by warren wheeler on July 28, 2015 at 3:27pm

Thanks to everyone for all of the input. I'm leaning toward Ryan's advice and just putting it out there for sale as is. If people like yourselves can be so sure that this is a genuine autograph, as long as I post quality photos I would think an expert would know what he or she is looking at. And by the way, PSA is actually $100 plus postage for Ted Williams.

I do come across a number of signed books, and if I come across anything that might be questionable I now know where to go! I've been reading some threads and you folks know your stuff. Thanks again!

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on July 28, 2015 at 3:48pm

Agree with Ryan's advice. No doubt authentic, but the condition issues will suppress price enough that authentication won't pay for itself. Throw it on eBay with big, clear photos and a reasonable price... it will sell.