[Plinvestments]

Originally Posted by Runscott

First of all, based on the evidence I've seen, the 'pre-cert' letter just means that at first glance the autograph looks real. Of course, any good forger can accomplish enough to make his work look good at first glance. I get the 'pre-cert' thing when it's a large lot of autographs - to me that means they'll get around to looking at the individual ones later. But they damned well better do it at some point, or they have no business certifying any of the autographs.

So before you buy something, you need to do what you thought the certifier was doing for you: compare to known exemplars and make up your own mind as to how likely it is that the autograph is real. If the autograph doesn't look like the player's 'normal' signature, and you still want to buy it, go find an example of the 'oddball' signature. If you can't, and you've got any sense at all, don't buy it. I've heard people here say, "Yeah, but you'd sign funny too right after a stroke." ...and various other comments as to the state of the player at different times in his life. Yes, I would. So simply show me one more example of that post-stroke autograph and I'll eat crow.

I'm with Travis on this one.

Pre-cert by PSA means that it will always pass if you pay for the full LOA. A pre-cert by JSA is a cursary glance.