Posted By:
SolomonThe circumstances surrounding a submission, for cards or autographs, to an authentication company often dictate how the item is graded/authenticated.
I know many submitters would send questionably trimmed/altered cards in with a group of fresh/unaltered cards, hoping the graders will look at them as being one "good" group.
All the major auction houses, when they have JSA or PSA/DNA etc. certify some of these huge bulk lots of 1000 autographs - do you really think they are looking at each one? If there is a lot of 100 Cal Ripken Jr. 16x20s, that all look like they came from one source, with the background that the auction house has (theoretically) vetted the source to begin with - do you think they are examing each and every single? What is the lot is 2000 various baseball stars, including lots of obscure plays from the 70s and 80s? I can assure you, if you stick 10 bogus Bob Feller autographs in a group of 1000 various legit HOF autos...they're going to get by.
If someone is submitting a $5 autograph that was susposedly just signed minutes ago...yeah you're not going to get the same level of review.
Ultimately, any authentication company is only worth what they're willing to back their opinion. Every single company has screwed up, and will make more mistakes.