It's every baseball collector's nightmare. You're at a sporting goods store, minding your own business, and maybe even purchasing some running clothes, shoes, or fishing rods. Then, out of nowhere, you here that a baseball Hall of Famer will be signing in 5 minutes at Register 7, and wristbands are limited to the first 200 people. You quickly spring into action. You head for the baseball section, but alas, you arrive and find that the entire place has been picked clean of Official Major League baseballs, and all that are left are - gulp - crappy synthetic leather baseballs. It has happened to us all. You buy the cheap ball, get the autograph, and pray that it holds up, only to slowly watch it fade and bleed over time. You hide it in the closet under some throw pillows, but it's no use. It fades and bleeds anyway. But I think I have a solution: the Staedtler Lumocolor #317 medium point marker. I have seen this marker in action a ton over the last year. Signs beautifully on EVERYTHING, and dries instantly on all surfaces, promising to never fade or bleed. It has worked really well on all the super glossy baseball cards I've seen signed with it, with no fear of it smearing like a Sharpie sometimes does. But what about those evil synthetic leather baseballs? I had to get one of my own and try it out. So today, January 31, 2013, I secured the autograph of Atlanta Braves general manager, Frank Wren, on such a baseball using the Staedtler Lumocolor #317 medium point marker, and I am going to blog on this discussion thread with photos and commentary to see how well the marker holds up over time against the atrocities of the synthetic leather baseball. We'll start with this picture taken 6 hours after Mr. Wren signed the ball with the Staedtler marker. Let the experiment begin.