$250.00 on PSA or James Spence?
 

If You had to spend the money to grade a Ruth Ball who would you pick out of the 2 and why?

250.00
 

JSA because I can drop it off in under an hour.....

I personally think either are fine (one isn't going to bring you more money than the other) unless you do that whole ball grading thing with PSA.

My opinion is JSA is a bit stronger in sports, but I'm not sure the market shares that perception. Probably seen as equals in most eyes.

I just did it.....
 

a month ago, I have a Ruth/Gehrig/Huggins 1926 Yankees Ball. I paid the $250 and went with JSA. No brainer. Better reputation for sigs. Plus they travel if u don't live near them and don't want to mail it, u can visit in person and have it done in an hour or 2....or 3.

Another reason...
 

I don't like PSA, they put stickers on vintage balls.

http://cgi.ebay.com/180704359856?clk...d=252336154475

Not sure if in 10 years if u want the sticker off if remnants will remain, let alone, seeing it on their now, looks stupid.

Not sure about PSA, but on the submission form, JSA gives you the option to not sticker the item.

Stickering a Ruth ball is plain nutz.

It's my understanding that PSA does offer the customer the choice on where the sticker will be placed (baseball or LOA).

Absolutely. I own a 1993 Greensboro program guide signed by Derek Jeter authenticated by PSA and I had the option of having the sticker on the guide or a LOA. Of course, I picked the LOA.

I prefer PSA for several reasons:

1) You said Grade and from my understanding JSA doesn't grade, they only authenticate.
2) I have PSA grade and encapsulate all of mine and I have them put the sticker on the LOA, so yes you do have a choice. I have all 170+ of mine in a 7 foot tall display case and I like the way they look when they are stacked if encapsulated vs not encapsulated. I am able to put more on each shelf.
3) In my experience as an autographed baseball collector, PSA graded balls bring a higher price.

Tony III

Shame it's got to this point - Buying the cert and not the autogtraph and now paying 250.00

+1

Dave you are so on the money

It really is a shame. Not to discredit JSA or PSA, but it seems, especially on the rare stuff, that prices are low, collector confidence low, and chances to sell VERY Low without Certs from those two "big ones". PLenty of items that are authenticated by guys like Richard Simon, Kevin Keating, and others doesn't have the collector confidence, despite them being VERY credible authenticators.

Ebay weeds out the crappy authenticators, yet so much garbage still gets on there and again, JSA and PSA get the VERY High fees, not just because of their 'expertise",but because THEY CAN based on ebay and others tooting their horn so loudly.

Its crazy too. I have a Billy Martin signed GPC that I tried selling on here, and David Atkatz looked at it and said it was fine. But, I couldn't sell it, and It would cost me way more than its worth/what I paid for it, to have one of those guys authenticate. yeah, its not a huge name, but a VERY Popular one, now Im not sure how to proceed, so I can make a profit. its all just crazy.

Dave - you are not totally correct there.
The proper statement is thank you to their advertising budget for making them what they are today and making collectors believe in their invincibility.
And thank you to the people who criticize them but still pay for the cert.

I have always found it interesting that these services have such a sliding scale for authentication services. It is not the difficulty or time-consumption of authentication that sets a price, but the final sale value of an autograph. Is it harder to authenticate a Lou Gehrig auto than a Kirby Puckett? No (it's arguably easier), but Gehrig costs 200 while Puckett costs 30. It is immediately obvious that the service is not one of authentication per se, but of adding value to an item, and the company wants a percentage of that added value.

But those of us on the autograph side of this hobby are apparently stuck with them.

Not if you refuse to use them.

Yeah, but then David, if you don't use them, and need to resell an item, you are potentially stuck with it. Its a vicious cycle.

JSA/psa
 

JSA is much easier to submit to than psa. They do many shows, if you don't feel comfortable sending items away.

If it's JSA VS. PSA, Its JSA all the way...

A few months back, I went to their office to have a piece authenticated. Immediately upon entering, I was graciously greeted by a polite and professional staff member who immediately took it upon themselves to make my hour stay as comfortable as possible... My piece was successfully authenticated, and I was congratulated by several staff members...

I have never been treated so well, in any retail environment... Therefore I have to say that Mr. Spence has done a phenomenal job at training his staff on how to treat customers... and he will have my business whenever it comes to authenticating autographs...

Hope this helps,
David

I am almost at a loss for words. someone likes a company for their 1 hour martinizing service, another because they shook his hand, another because the sticker goes here and not there. How about whether or not the ball is actually real and whether a company is actually good at determining such a fact?


You just assume they will get it right, so let's grade all the perks in making the decision. How about looking under the hood instead of seeing if the service dept. has free donuts sitting out?

Mmmmmm Donuts!

+1

Two older stories that bear repeating,,,
D-e-l-e-h-a-n-t-y,,, I think most of you know what I am referring to.
The item in question sold in auction for only $30,000.

And one more,,, this story relayed to me by a very well known dealer,,,who allowed me to quote him by name on my web site but I won't use his name here.
two George Bush TLS's were in a large auction, which was authenticated by PSA.
Both were autopens using the same autopen pattern. Both received a PSA COA.
All they had to do was to lay one on top of the other to see that they were autopen signatures. The dealer who bought them did exactly that when he received his winning items. The auction house did make an immediate refund.

Stuff like that is more prevalent than people think. That's why I have a hard time accepting the 'honest mistake' excuse. Anyone taking his or her time just can't make that error in my opinion.

JSA gave an auction loa to a preprint Mike Tyson 'signed' photo a few weeks ago at a big auction house. The piece sold and shipped out.

They just look at scans when giving out auction loa's. Why is it that an auction loa holds ANY water, if they are looking at a scan, thus not being able to determine a preprint?

I showed that glaring error in all its glory to try to underscore the fact that the system is broken but the autograph world just keeps on a spinning in its own crazy way. It's in an insulated cocoon totally detached from reality because there is too much money to be made the way things are being done right now by the people doing it to enact any reforms that would actually help the hobby. Where is a customer's bill of rights?