[irv]

Originally Posted by Duluth Eskimo

Dale,
You’re being naive. There is more forgery in the art world than in almost all antiques. Multi million paintings shown to have been painted years after the artist died. Google search it if you have any questions.

It’s not that I don’t feel bad for some of the guys on this board and the current t206 scandal. I do. Blindly trusting authenticators and auctioneers is dumb. As others have eluded to, specifically the Baker t206, if you can’t see there’s an issue with that than I don’t know what else to say. Many of those cards look like they were signed yesterday or in the same light flowing hand and signed with the same pen. In fact they probably were. I know it’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback, but many of those clearly have issues.

I now know I was but when I first got back into the hobby and seen these services and the claims they made plus all on here who utilized them, I assumed they were above board.

Originally Posted by packs

How do you know their skill set isn't exactly as advertised? These cards fooled seasoned veteran collectors, some of which specialize in this exact area. People get fooled sometimes. This forger was prolific and from all outward appearances (huge sales) very good at what they did. No one questioned whether or not the autographs were right. It was only found that they couldn't be right when the original scans were dug up. If the signatures were blatantly fake, that's one thing. But as we can all see from the high dollar sales of these cards, the signatures fooled almost everyone who came in contact with them.

Exactly, and why most send things into the "Experts" or "World leading" companies to remove any doubts.

Originally Posted by Daveyc

there has been some speculation as to how long these authenticators actually spend reviewing each signature. I have been attending the HOF induction ceremony for years. James Spence and his crew are always in attendance. He usually has a couple of young guys set up at tables for authenticating autos that are being signed in person. for instance. MAB always sets up and has dozens of signers. you enter through the front door of the Inn where the signing takes place. go to the athlete you paid for and get the sigs. after which, you exit out a back door and walk around to the front of the building where JSA is set up to "authenticate" one guy will enter the player/item into their data base, the other affixes a sticker to the memorabilia. they hardly even look at the item. a forger could bring dozens of baseballs, bats, uniforms etc around the side of the building and get in line for "authentication". I have never seen an item even questioned. it is literally an assembly line. THere is absolutely no authentication going on there, just data entry. I have been watching this for years and years.

James himself also does "authentication" in Cooperstown. he sets up at the small card show. I have watched him work many many times and have been quite underwhelmed. there is usually a pretty long line, and people walk right up to him and have him "authenticate" their items in front of them. this is where vintage items are done. the absolute longest I have ever seen him look at an item is no longer than 20-30 seconds. and that was for a multi signed baseball. it is VERY fast. then he hands the item back, enters the data into his template and boom, LOA.

At least for JSA, we are not even paying for a few minutes of their time when they are authenticating items. It really is just a few seconds. it is very casual, and I felt uncomfortable having the client watching him work. Seems that there could be situations where he could be pressured into passing an item.

that is just my two cents. I was wholly unimpressed by the whole process.

The only thing that would be easier is to just print the money yourself!

Originally Posted by rainier2004

Id have to disagree here. All four of those professions can held accountant and legally prosecuted and it happens all the time. Fraud and malpractice as well as a pile of other charges can accompany those and do all the time.

And my guess is you do perform some homework on this stuff. If you went in to see the doctor for a cough and s/he put you on an antidepressant you wouldn't educate yourself at all? You need some new breaks and the mechanic charges you 2k you wouldn't go seek more information? If you normally get a 5k income tax return and get a new accountant and all of sudden are getting 18k in return you wouldn't follow that up? We do it all the time.

In the end we are responsible for ourselves, medically, financially and everything else. It used to a right of passage in hobby, otherwise you just would get ripped off until you did. If you don't have time to research your "hobby" spending thousands of dollars then maybe you shouldn't be doing this if you place 100% with someone else's opinion. I thought the educating yourself was part of why we did this, its enjoyable, it starts friendships and is a major reason I am part of the hobby.

When companies come out with claims/logos that read "Experts" "World's Best", "World leading", "Guaranteed" "Largest, most trusted" "Never get Taken", etc, etc, etc, they are implying that they know what they are doing.

It's easy, imo, for some who have been in the hobby of collecting for years and years and maybe even before we had these TPA's, to recognize/know the things that have been said in this thread, but I also know there are many every year that join or rejoin the hobby, like me, who don't know all these things.
If these TPA companies weren't so forthright with their claims and logos and put a disclaimer right on the front page stating their grading analysis are only an "opinion", then maybe that would help newbies somewhat to get 2nd and 3rd opinions, but, like I have been saying, when these claims are implied that they are the experts, world leaders, etc, then why would anybody do that?
Look on Ebay, Auctions, etc, and what do people see? They see all 3 of the big TPA's flips so why would they not trust them and think their opinions are the best and legit?