[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by Splinte1941

as businessmen, they should be applauded. As authenticators, that's for someone else to decide.

Large amounts of money spent on advertising is what helped PSA to corner the market. Then Jimmy Spence left PSA but he benefited from the money that had already been spent on advertising.
As authenticators they are no better, and maybe worse, than the top dealers that I have listed here many times,,, Stinson, Gordon, Albersheim, Keating, Corcoran, Cariseo and Lelands and Alexander Autographs for auction houses. None of these I have named use third party authentication. They don't have to. They don't want to. They will dispute the myth that you have to have your stuff authenticated by a TPA in order to sell it. I would also trust the opinion of Ron Keurajian over any of the TPA's.
One of the TPA's just had two VERY high priced single signed baseballs removed from ebay despite COA's.
Collectors continue to make the mistake of rating the TPA's as the best in the business, that if you don't have a TPA cert. with an item, you can never be sure if it is good. Well I have listed many items here over the years where that is not the case. I am aware of many more items where that is not the case. (anyone thinking of Donavon now?).
If collectors stay with good dealers and don't keep trying to look for those great deals (we have seen that lately here) then maybe we can help clean up the hobby.