Agreed - Jim's post is a great one (like many in this thread). I don't see the 'heat' as all that bad...yet - nothing like some of the autograph threads have turned into.
Thanks Shelly and David, for your comments. I have been collecting autographs for about ten years, but most of that time it just amounted to studying and comparing them. Ruth and Gehrig have always bothered me, primarily because I would like to eventually own something signed by each, but the comfort level has rarely been there for the affordable ones.
The following by Jim is something I wanted to say as well, but I didn't want Chris or David to think I was referring to them (I wouldn't have been). But I think it's the reason that the authenticators get away with shoddy work, and why the auction houses patronize us. By the way, the bold part of that last sentence is what pisses me off more than anything. They don't want to take the time to do due diligence, but they dismiss the opinions of those who do.
"all of the parties involved WANT an expensive museum quality item to be real."
I don't authenticate autographs, so I have the benefit of being able to 'stop' looking when I get to the point where I've decided the item doesn't look good enough for me to want; however, if I ran an auction house I would not accept items I felt uncomfortable with, even if I thought they might be real - unless it was just 'presentability' that got me to that point.
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