Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Steve on June 12, 2015 at 9:52pm

In my opinion, nope.

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Permalink Reply by James on June 12, 2015 at 11:07pm

I agree, Steve. In particular, I don't like the slant. Tim, I hope for your sake we are wrong. Maybe others will chime in.

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Permalink Reply by Steve on June 12, 2015 at 11:33pm

I agre, the slant us an issue, but more so, the c is a loop instead of how it should be.

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Permalink Reply by tim hendrickson on June 13, 2015 at 5:13am

I appreciate your thoughts and opinions.....

I started looking at mantle fakes a few weeks back for some reason....I have an old Scoreboard Mantle was bothering me so I was researching COAs... That one looks like it's likely bad since the Scoreboard era was such a mess.....but I decided to throw this picture out there just to see what some others thought.... I love the picture and the signature...and will keep it no matter what...I always felt Mike Stoner was really reputable...he is still out there today doing the Collector Showcase events.....he was Mickey Mantle and Greer Johnson's attorney back in the day, so it was pretty hard to not feel I was buying the real thing....I don't recall what I paid....probably a lot  back then, but who knows, I might just hit a Collectors Showcase event and ask him if he thinks it's real.....

Still love the picture....and thanks....love the site and information..

best wishes

Tim

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Permalink Reply by Randy on June 13, 2015 at 8:27am

While the "c" is indeed a little atypical, the autograph in my opinion is legitimate. I have seen authenticated examples with a similar "c" which almost looks like an "i".  

Mike Stoner is a legitimate autograph dealer who sets up at all major shows in the US. He is on the Board of Directors of the National Sports Collector's Convention.

He knows Mantle's autograph as well as anyone. Seek him out at the CSA show in Chantilly in July and have him examine it again if you so desire but I would feel comfortable with it myself as is.

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Permalink Reply by Randy on June 13, 2015 at 6:03am

Authentic IMO.

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Permalink Reply by James on June 13, 2015 at 11:46pm

Tim, Randy really knows his stuff, particularly Mantle and Ruth. So you should be glad to hear his opinion on this Mantle.

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Permalink Reply by tim hendrickson on June 14, 2015 at 5:34pm

thanks for the response....indeed, it is good to see something positive about my MM plaque.....although I wanted to hear the good and the bad......I was thinking that, IMO, a plaque is about the least desirable collectable to have signed.....but at Mike Stoner's booth, everything else was super expensive and my meager budget wouldn't get the nicer signed items....and I did want a real mantle auto.....anyway, my thought the other day was why would someone take a reasonable nice picture with a pretty autograph and buy the component parts of a plaque, go through the labor to put it all together and sell it if it was a forged autograph....clearly they could matt and frame it and make a much nicer piece that would command more money.....seems like a lot of work and expense when they could just sell the signed photo...

I still think it is a great action shot and want to believe it is real....in fact I am considering going to DC next month to the CSA and seeing if he thinks it's real...it will take me the whole day to get there and back, but I have not been to a show in years...maybe it will be fun...

thanks again everyone.....

tim

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on June 13, 2015 at 6:36am

I have seen Michael Stoner COAs on items that were undoubtedly bad. Whether the COAs were swapped out or photocopied, I cannot say.

In fact, I wrote about it on my blog, Steve Zarelli presents: The Collecting Obsession, a few years ago.

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Permalink Reply by Null on June 15, 2015 at 6:29am

Not authentic IMO

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