Caveat Emptor

I did my daily rounds on eBay today and came across one eye-popping item—a White Sox team autographed ball going for $249,995. What in the name of Charles A. Comiskey is going on here? Oh, it’s from 1917, the last time the Sox won the World Series until 2005 (they are a franchise both old and lacking in accomplishment). An authenticating report—think Charlie Brown getting a signed document from Lucy before kicking the football—identifies seventeen legible signatures. Here’s the kicker—one of those signatures belongs to Shoeless Joe Jackson. And all this time I thought Jackson was illiterate. Oh, it’s possible he signed his name with someone guiding his hand, only I doubt it was on a baseball in a clubhouse where teammates or anyone passing by could have made fun of him. Neither the “authenticating” report nor the item description makes any reference to Jackson’s illiteracy. Buyer beware. Me, I’ll hold on to my quarter of a million dollars and spend it on something more authentic, a unicorn, maybe.