[RichardSimon]

BY KEVIN NELSON Sept. 23,2010 "I know what motivates forgers, counterfeit distributors, and crooked authenticators: money. And ego, of course. But mainly money, lots of easy money.

But what motivates the people who try to expose the forgers? I was thinking about this while watching Chris Williams’s latest Youtube video on the rash of Mickey Mantle forgeries now flooding eBay. I have written about Williams in the past, and frequently exchange emails with him, and I continue to be amazed by the passion he brings to his fight to clean up the hobby.

The forgers also have lots of passion—making money will do that for you. But Williams doesn’t make money when he posts on Youtube as tomtresh2; he’s doing it because he loves collecting, loves autographs of the genuine kind, and positively hates the crooks and scam artists who peddle bad stuff to the many apparently clueless eBay buyers and sellers.

Williams has been at this for years—shining a light on the hobby’s shadiest operators despite threats and insults from them. Yet many of these operators remain in business and if they are no longer in business, others who are equally shady and corrupt have taken their place. Williams is a Paul Revere of the autography hobby, warning us about the scoundrels in our midst, and he deserves to be heard."

Some people really do something for the hobby and Kevin Nelson clearly sees that.