He’s admitted to being around 300 years old.
When? Jane said he’s about 300 but actually the timeline works a lot better if he’s only around 200ish. Time works concurrently in our land and the EF so when Bae left and landed in Victorian London, then it has to be about the same time in the EF.
On Neals wanted poster he listed his DOB as March 21, 1977. Emma showed up as a newborn in 1983, so Neal is 6 years older than Emma which puts him @ 22 when Emma was 16.
What I’m saying is that he landed in our world again when he was 15, he needed a birthday that would match that age. So 1977+15 = 1991. He landed in 1991.
Neal maybe didn’t know how to used the Crystal Ball but the point is that he KNEW ABOUT the Crystal Ball. Rumple only acquired that from Jefferson’s visit and that centuries after Bae had left home. So only way Neal could have known about the Crystal Ball and what it could do was from having been in OZ himself. Have to wonder how he even knew his father had it.
And it could just be knowledge culturally. Neal didn’t know what he was looking for, just that Rumple must have had something in his possession that might help him.