Definitely use a ballpoint on regular baseballs. I made that mistake early on and ended up using autographed baseballs to pley catch with because the autographs completely turned into blobs. When I have the right supplies, I prefer paint pen on a black baseball to any other option. It just looks great IMO and I have never had an issue with bleeding on black baseballs. Here's a Jason Heyward I picked up:




BTW - I'm really impressed with that A-Rod auto baseball. I would have predicted serious bleeding for sure. It looks great!!!