Steve Rocchi
 

What's up with this guy? He is president of PSA, then forms GAI, now GFA. This GFA crap is being bought at ubid by the hundreds, especially Mantle, Williams, and DiMaggio. This guy is a joke, and ripping off. What a clown

Ripping people off, sorry.

There have been a few threads here pertaining to GFA. One fairly recently. :)

i agree , everything he touches turns to seed, psa, gai, now this.

minimum $100 per signature 20 day turn around.....where do I sign up?

When GFA (Guaranteed Forensic Authenticators) first appeared in Sept. 2011, they had three pricing tiers of service ($10.00, $15.00 and $30.00).

All of a sudden, out of the blue recently, Rocchi's pricing skyrocketed. The fact still remains though, that there is no method to contact GFA and Rocchi.

This is the kind of crap Rocchi has been "forensically authenticating."

Attachment 86482

Attachment 86483

nice of them to also put that giant sticker on the front of the piece. :(

And that has to be one of the most stupid things in the history of authenticating. TPG's doing that should be sued for destroying and devaluing the item. To me it's inexcusable.

Rocchi because the primary "authenticator" after AlwaysAtAuction (also known as Always-Fake-At Auction...giving full credit to Fudd) changed their company name to AtAuction.

AlwaysAtAuction's primary "authenticators" were Chris "I Never Saw An Autograph I Didn't Like" Morales, Ted "What Am I Looking At" Taylor" and Drew Max.

Rocchi simply picked up where Morales, Max and Taylor left off.

Probably to cover the previous hologram of one of the usual suspects.

True story.

I can tell you for a fact that some submitters INSIST on specific sticker placement, including right next to the signature on vintage items. There have been cases where the TPA has called the submitter back on the phone more than once and asked, "Are you absolutely sure you want the sticker there? We can put it somewhere else..." And the person has insisted.

So it may very well not be the TPA's fault when you see obtrusive sticker placement.

I have to disagree with this. The authenticators only do this if the customer requests it (I know this is true of most alphabets, but can't be certain of GFA). Hence, I do not blame the authenticators, but the people sending items in and telling the companies to do it. You can get an item authenticated without putting a sticker on it, people! Further, people who are getting items authenticated should recognize how many collectors hate these stickers and won't consider an item that has one. I can crack a slab, I can throw away a letter. I won't purchase a sticker.

Beat me to it there Steve.

That sort of reinforces the notion that with a lot of collectors the authentication (and overt evidence of it) is just as important as the piece itself. That right there is the result of some great marketing.

Yes, as well as the result of people being previously burned by bad material. Even if what they have is bad, a bogus cert can provide bogus peace of mind.

Good point Wayne, but wouldn't a sticker on the back provide the same assurance?

For many it would, but I can imagine someone valuing the display value of a sticker. SEE EVERYONE! SOME "EXPERT" SAYS IT'S REAL!

Am I wrong here, but do we really care where they place the sticker on a fake? Maybe I am wrong, but that Mantle looks bad to me.

No I don't think so. We were all commenting in general after it was pointed out that many times customers rq that the stickers be put on the obverse of an item rather than the back.

I think we all agree that the Mantle is bad. The sticker talk was a sidebar discussion.

Thanks Jeff. I would agree placement on a good item is very important and I certainly would rather have it on the back, but I guess if someone pays their money and just has to have it on the front oh well.

You just cannot argue with bad taste.

they can just refuse to put the sticker on the item, if a customer asked for the sticker to be placed over the autograph, covering it, would the tpa do it? you got to say no sometimes.

At least several years back, I was told the PSA rule was they automatically put the sticker on a ball, but would instead put it on the LOA if the submitter asked it not be put on the ball.

PSA asks you where you would like the sticker on the submission form.

On this one I agree with Travis. Sometimes ya just gotta say no. If a customer asked me to put a sticker on the obverse I would give them a choice. It goes on the reverse or you are getting it back without a sticker. Pick one.

i see jim stinson private signing boxing photos with that stupid sticker on the front now. the photo already comes with a stinson coa showing the boxer signing the photo, but stupid people throw that away and have a psa sticker put on the front of the photo. craziness.

At least now we know it is authentic. ;)