Cal Ripken Auto Question?

[magnificent5762]

Sup guys. Was checkin out ebay the other day, and saw a Cal Ripken Auto Ball with a JSA COA. It was at $39.99 + $8 shippin with a minute left.. It had no pictures and the seller had good feedback, so I pulled the trigger. I won it for that price, and got it today. So I checked it out, and it was on an American League Ball. It came with a JSA mass authentication letter for like 40 different auto'd HOF auto balls.. So that worried me a little bit off the bat.. Anyway, here's a pic of the auto:



My only issue is that looking at all Ripken autos online, none had the writing between the R and J. Most only had an "i".

Can anyone let me know what they think? I mean even if it was only $50 ill be contacting the guy if it looks fake.. Thanks erybody.

[magnificent5762]

nobody knows?

[Sox Fan White/Red]

i think you are ok

[MCXC1987]

i'd have to agree with you on what you said. The "J" bugs me on it. Cal was always consistant with his auto, but I am by no means an expert. just my .02 cents

[gafatboy]

well i am not a pro at authenticity by any means, after looking at a few of the ripken autos i have from different years the only thing i can see is that you are right about the writing between the R and J, all mine have the "i". the only other concern is that the J is open by that i mean the the tail of the J doens't meet with the top swirl.. also if it is JSA authenticated i think they put a hologram sticker on the ball with a number to match the authentication letter..if you want i can try to email you some pics of my ripken autos so you ca compare for yourself if you want to compare for yourself. it could be the real thing but that is the only auto i have seen with the ripken wrote out like that.

[magnificent5762]

yea It really doesnt look like a single ripken ive found.. if anyone else can confirm this or help me out.. cuz i needa contact this guy.. his ebay says "no returns on autos" so Im gonna have to be positive before I go to him with this.

[magnificent5762]

Aight guys well I did alot of searching and ebay searching and came up with these pics, which all looks very similar. Two are Facsimile, so obviously, those are pretty good sources:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://cdn2.ioffer.com/img/item/140/397/061/ifg3.jpg&imgrefurl=http://kr.ioffer.com/c/1019518%3Fprice%3D2&usg=__risSG9DB2BPZHQ2g1j2dTdnJ 2fQ=&h=300&w=400&sz=19&hl=en&start=346&zoom=1&tbni d=7Jmc3rjpEIrZJM:&tbnh=141&tbnw=179&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcal%2Bripken%2Bsigned%2Bbaseball%26um %3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1280% 26bih%3D709%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx =830&vpy=257&dur=2632&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=133&ty= 154&ei=yLW3TPmyF4aglAfW9viICQ&oei=RrW3TPO2H4X6lwed kZGQCQ&esq=13&page=13&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:13,s:34 6 -Facsimile

http://cgi.ebay.com/CAL-RIPKEN-JR-Or...f#ht_795wt_990 - Facsimile

Then all of these look very similar and have the additional writing between R and J

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...429,r:12,s:261

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...:429,r:22,s:28

http://cgi.ebay.com/CAL-RIPKEN-JR-Si...a#ht_604wt_905

And this is Auth but with a different looking sig.. showing his sig has varients
http://cgi.ebay.com/HOF-Cal-Ripken-J...ht_1481wt_1082

BUT now my only question is, for the mass authentications, do they mark the balls at all? Because I got with it a letter that says

"This letter will serve as a certificate of authenticity for the following autograph(s) authenticated for Huggins and Scott Auctions - Summer Masterpiece ending July 9th and 10th, 2008. The auction house describes the items as LOT #1212.

48 Single-Signed Hall of Fame Baseballs with Williams
Then theres a list of OAL/ONL signed balls.

Then "On behalf of James Spence Authentication LLC. we believe that the signatures listed above is/are genuine. We appreciate your business and look forward to examining other collectibles for you in the future.

The it has spence's signature and everything.
The rest pretty much checks out: it has ripken listen and this is an AL ball... so what do you guys think?
Do these kinda auth lots come with some kinda marking on the ball?

[magnificent5762]

cmon guys. nobody? Cuz if it's fake or I'm not sure I gotta go to this guy and tell him whats up.

[gafatboy]

ok i am sorry...i did not see the JSA in the first post about the letter of authentication, my bad for trying to speed read...Jim Spence does authentication for a couple of large shops in my area and good..after looking at some more of ripken autos myself after your post got me curious last night and early this morning i think that the ball may have been signed earlier in his career or at least before 2000 maybe...i did a little comparing with some autos i have that i got in person when the players were either still in the minors or first year in the majors and compared to autos when they were more "seasoned" players..it seems the younger the player the clearer the autograph or more full since they aren't signing that many, but if they become a star player and sign more often they seem to tend to shorten their signature...example david justice as a rookie but when he got mlb shortened it to dave justice and some times just a j squiggle j squiggle if he is in a hurry to get thru a crowd of public signing..another good example of changing the way they signed auto's durinf their career is barry bonds, old signature spelled out and neat and the closer to the record he got the sloppy B squiggle B squiggle because of all the auto's he signed..you did a lot of homework yourself to which is good...i think you got a good buy and the jim spence letter removes my doubts about it..also f.y.i. back in the 90's when the card industry exploded with inserts and players like thomas, griffey,canseco, were all on top and card shows and signings were going crazy and mailed auto requests some players used "ghost signers" to sign cards for them that they didn't have time to sign so the "ghost signatures" are also considered authentic also but i don't remember for sure of hand the players that were known to use "ghost signers"...i am going by memory from 20 years ago but i think i might still have the beckett or baseball magazine that i got that piece of info from. dang getting older the mind starts to go. hope this helped.

[magnificent5762]

ok i am sorry...i did not see the JSA in the first post about the letter of authentication, my bad for trying to speed read...Jim Spence does authentication for a couple of large shops in my area and good..after looking at some more of ripken autos myself after your post got me curious last night and early this morning i think that the ball may have been signed earlier in his career or at least before 2000 maybe...i did a little comparing with some autos i have that i got in person when the players were either still in the minors or first year in the majors and compared to autos when they were more "seasoned" players..it seems the younger the player the clearer the autograph or more full since they aren't signing that many, but if they become a star player and sign more often they seem to tend to shorten their signature...example david justice as a rookie but when he got mlb shortened it to dave justice and some times just a j squiggle j squiggle if he is in a hurry to get thru a crowd of public signing..another good example of changing the way they signed auto's durinf their career is barry bonds, old signature spelled out and neat and the closer to the record he got the sloppy B squiggle B squiggle because of all the auto's he signed..you did a lot of homework yourself to which is good...i think you got a good buy and the jim spence letter removes my doubts about it..also f.y.i. back in the 90's when the card industry exploded with inserts and players like thomas, griffey,canseco, were all on top and card shows and signings were going crazy and mailed auto requests some players used "ghost signers" to sign cards for them that they didn't have time to sign so the "ghost signatures" are also considered authentic also but i don't remember for sure of hand the players that were known to use "ghost signers"...i am going by memory from 20 years ago but i think i might still have the beckett or baseball magazine that i got that piece of info from. dang getting older the mind starts to go. hope this helped.

Yea I was thinking that.
Thing that I really wanna know tho for those who have items with Auction House COAs, do they come with a Sticker on the ball or somekinda marking to link the Coa to the ball? Because auctionhouse COAs dont have any number or picture.