Lot # 32: Faroid Rubber-Core Golf Ball w/Raised Concentric Ridges

Category: Golf Balls

Starting Bid: $500.00

Bids: 9 (Bid History)

Time Left: Auction closed
Lot / Auction Closed




This lot is closed. Bidding is not allowed.

Item was in Auction "Summer 2020",
which ran from 7/8/2020 12:00 PM to
7/25/2020 8:00 PM



Faroids are among the most desirable golf balls in existence. Its concentric ring cover is recognizable from over 10 feet away. They were designed to be struck a certain way in order to maximize the flight characeristics provided by their raised concentric ridges. Some Faroids—like this one—were even marked "This End Up" to remind the golfer (the Faroid 75 was not marked "this end up").

The Faroid offered here presents better than most.  It does not bear a single unsightly strike mark, but it has had some light paint touch up.  The entire ball has not been repainted, just those areas where there appears to have been cracks/scratches in the original paint. Some of the paint has gotten into the original blue lettering on each of the poles, but only to a minor degree.  The best part is the touch up does not detract from the appearance of the ball, as it matches exceptionally well. 

The thing to understand here is that equipment makers sold the paint to the golfers, so they could freshen up their golf balls.  A number of the old equipment catalogs in this auction offered golf ball paint to the early 20th century golfer.  After all, a repaint was easier to do than remake the entire ball, which was also done back in the wood-shaft era.  Long story short, Faroids are highly desirable for a variety of reasons, and this is an excellent example.

 

Tip:  When you zoom in on an image of a nice, even unused golf ball on this site, all kinds of paint chips and cracks can appear and it looks like the ball has been through a war zone. This is because the ball is being magnified exponentially beyond its original size.   When viewing the ball in your hand, however, those same chips and cracks appear quite insignificant, which they are, and are usually not even noticeable. The best indicator of what a ball will look like in real life is when you size the ball on your screen to the same size as an actual golf ball - usually 1.68 inches in diameter.

 

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