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Sharpie Signed Baseball

RickyHendersonSDRickyHendersonSD Posts: 327
in Trading Cards & Memorabilia Forum
I have a Rickey Henderson baseball signed in black Sharpie several years ago. It was not my choice for him to use a Sharpie as he was doing all of his signing using it. Well, anyway I know a Sharpie is not a good instrument to use on a baseball because it fades over time. The autograph has been kept in a plastic baseball sphere for about 7 years with no obvious sign of bleeding. Does this mean it will not bleed now since it has been so long ago?

Comments

  • riccaboniriccaboni Posts: 454 ✭
    Best advice I have is to avoid contact with sunlight with the ball. Even artificially light can play tricks on balls signed in Sharpie, I've heard. I keep my Mike Schmidt and Pete Rose balls in my desk, with Yaz, Barry Zito, Dave Kingman, Steve Carlton, and Bob Feller in the closet. I take em out for a look now and then, but I don't trust plastic to be as UV resistant as it claims to be.

    -Ian
  • boggsboggs Posts: 91
    Hard to tell for sure. If kept in a low moisture enviornment it has a better chance of not bleeding.
  • LWMMLWMM Posts: 471 ✭
    From what I've heard, OMLBs are better with sharpies, as, when created, the leather distilling process is exact, unlike minor league balls. What type of ball is yours?
    image
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  • RickyHendersonSDRickyHendersonSD Posts: 327
    LWMM, it is an Official Rawlings Major League Baseball so maybe that is why it has not bled at all over 7 years or so.
  • digicatdigicat Posts: 8,551 ✭✭
    Well, speaking from experience...

    Back in 1989, I was at a show and had a ball autographed by then-phenom Rickey Jordan. The ball's been kept in one of those ball spheres, and on a shelf for the first 5 years, and in a box for the last 12 years. Jordan signed the ball in blue sharpie. Today, you can barely make out the sig. It looks more like a faint blue stain than an auto, and Jordan had a pretty looking autograph.
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  • spacktrackspacktrack Posts: 1,084 ✭✭
    I have a Bob Feller autographed ball with blue sharpie marker and it has not faded in 10 years. It's been displayed on a shelf away from sunlight.
  • digicatdigicat Posts: 8,551 ✭✭
    Give that Feller another 7 years. The Jordan (signed on an official NL ball) looks progressivly worse every time I look at it.
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  • NickMNickM Posts: 4,895 ✭✭✭
    Some fade and/or bleed worse than others. I have some that I got almost 25 years ago and still look just fine, and others that have faded considerably or left a broad corona effect.

    We won't even talk about what a Sharpie signature does over time on early 1980s OPC cards. image

    Nick
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  • stownstown Posts: 11,321 ✭✭✭
    I have a George Brett ball signed in sharpie from '85 without any bleeding (checked it 3 months ago). It's been wrapped in the original tissue paper that comes with the box.

    Whatever you are doing and where ever you are keeping it, you must be doing something right image I would keep it as is and hope for the best.
    So basically my kid won't be able to go to college, but at least I'll have a set where the three most expensive cards are of a player I despise ~ CDsNuts
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