Interesting observation on LOA's

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Posted By: Hankron 

I have noticed that, on average, the autographs I sell sell for more if I DO NOT provide a letter of authenticity.

Along with my usual photos and other wares, I regularly sell a wide variety of mostly obscure autographed items (No Ruths or Cobbs). With or without an LOA, I guarantee the authenticity (can be returned at any time if deemed fake), have a 10 day Review/return period, detail the autograph's provenance (Mike Gutierrez, PSA/DNA, Mastro, Sotheby's etc) and provide detailed images. I also recommend that the winner prints out the eBay page for their records.

In general, I have not found a benifit in providing and advertising that I will provide a paper LOA or letter provenance (i.e. "this picture auto came from a Gutierrez auction"), versus not provideing one. In fact, I auctioned three identical Koufax/Ryan/Feller balls, two without an LOA and one with. The two without sold for $125, the one with sold for $75. I should also point out that I have not found a financial benifit for providing a LOA from a prominant autograph expert, like PSA/DNA or Sotheby's (again, I mostly deal in esoteric autographs, and not selling Christy Mathewsons or James Dean).

Now, a few winners will specifically ask that I provide a LOA for their records, and I happily comply. But, for example, a potential bidder asked why I didn't provide an LOA for a particular under auction autograph, and I said, "Because my autographs generally sell better if I don't offer one."

I end by saying that I also have found this trend surprising (only applying it to my personal selling experience, and readers should not interpret it that I am extrapolating it beyond my personal sales), but, as I'm the one calculating the sales checks as the come in, I cannot despute the numbers.

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Posted By: Hankron

I should add that making a propor LOA (which involves more than saying "This is real" and signing your name to a post-it) is a pain in the butt, and I will be more than happy to comply if the bidders don't want me to provide them

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Posted By: Hankron

Being premtive in my posts, I say that I also get the angle that this may be a reflecttion on the desirability and worth of an LOA from me, rather than on LOA's in general.