COAs are a license to print money. There was a time when each signer had a stack of COAs next to them at the table. Then COAs started costing $5-$10. Then the big sell was online COA. Look up the COA for the signed item at any time, day or night! The thing is when these COA companies go belly-up (and they will) will the COA database remain online in perpetuity? The answer is "no". Case in point. The former owner of CSA, used to have online COA at every show. I don't know if the former owner had a piece of the COA business or the business was subbed out to another company. In any event COA online is toast. It will take the collective memory of hobbiests to remember if such a coa company even existed. Hobbiests will likely remember JSA, Upper Deck, perhaps Schwartz, Steiner to name a few. As another poster said take a picture. Keep the ticket stub (if possible, CSA does, MAB does not). Keep a show flier, advertisement in the paper, email from the company, something that proves the event took place, there is no reason to spend money on a COA.
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