Posted By:
prewarsportsI have dealt with all of them. Keating is the most honest and straight guy I have met in the autograph collectibles area. PSA/DNA is shotty, and expensive but I believe they are reputable and have had no complaints within the past 4 years personally. My problem with GAI is this. I took some signatures down to the Sun Times show that originated from a large collection I bought. The stuff I did not chose to buy was sold to Mike Guttierez later and all authenticated by him (GAI). All items were obtained by the same collector, mine were just photos and the Guttierez stuff was on baseballs. He was not there to authenticate for GAI at the show so he had some lackeys there who were looking through Mike's exemplar book and giving free opinions as a promotion. They said my items (from the same collection as Mike's stuff) didn't match their exemplars. So I waited and watched at their table while I had some cards graded. Out of 50 people there getting autographs authenticated for free, only about 5-6 were given certificates. I took my items to PSA/DNA and they all passed. I would trust Mike Guttierez to look at them, but I would not trust the other guys at GAI with my autographs. Richard Simon seems to know quite a bit and was very personable when I met him in Chicago and had him authenticate a baseball for me.
No COA is a good substitute for research and common sense when buying autographs. All reputable sellers and dealers will offer a lifetime guarantee on their items and if someone does not I would steer clear regardless of the COA which comes with it.