Disturbing Confession ...
 

https://scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...-A&oe=687E0CCC

(Posted originally on autographs101)

"Mistermancave has sold over 4 million items. Yes million. Surpassed 350 million in sales. Sold and produced holograms fanatics Tristar jsa Radtke tse sports Schwartz sports every gtsm player mill creek mays bonds you name it we made it. We sold over 5 million fanatics holograms alone outside what we produced to the biggest vendors in the industry. Jsa we made and produced over 3 million counterfeit stickers and holograms. Steiner sports. Wow. We made yellow cards holograms and then numbered sets in the millions. Panini. Oh yea almost forgot. We produced holograms and cards for their entire database. When Kobe died we put out 80,000 items into the market place. Sold over 500,000 counterfeit panini items.

Dominque ball of Carmel Indiana was the sole person who put out the 100,000 tom Brady items in the market. He was the source of it all along with Nicklaus litcher. He funneled every item dom produced. Dominque sold under the name dilliano which was his brother and multiple Florida accounts with the name Steve Jordan and all those accounts riddled with Dom’s work.
He’s the one who showed me the dark side of the industry and the money that can be made. Dominique was the original artist for the holograms then it turned into auto pen. You can buy a 150 auto pen on Amazon have people overseas vectorize signature and use ink scape to auto pen.

There has been nothing like this since operation bullpen. We sourced it signed it certified it and sold it all over the us for 20 years. Ultimate sports. Athletes one. Signature dog. All American authentics. And mister fucking mancave. We are going to be what records are made of. No one’s ever sold the volume of items and holograms ever. We started with blue mounted memories cards and holograms when I met Dominque , Patrick Riley of Carmel Indiana (he was partners with Dominque ) and met with the hologram ladies in China himself for us. It was an addiction. How many items can I sell and give a front of a huge company. I did it for years. Purchased millions of dollars of legit items. Mixed it until Dominque found the hologram connect. Then I had the bank roll to buy even more. Do more signings. Every one item from a signing turned into 10,000. And it was certified. 95% of the Mahomes and Aaron judge on the market are sold by me. Basically every autograph sold in the last 25 years you should have it looked at. It’s fake and someone sold it to you other than me. I wish I had the exact dollar number of money taken in from this and I’ll go to my grave never knowing. I kept this secret from everyone. If you knew in the industry you knew. No family. No friends. No one. Even employees who worked for me had no idea. It was ran that well. The building was seized and I let it happen. The run is done. There’s over 500-700 MILLION dollars in value of holograms and cards in there. Let that sink in. Every company I’ve touched is now my bitch. That was my goal. Once you came at me or spoke my name I went after you and your company directly. Intentionally. Tristar. We made so many fake holograms and even your newest ones been sold. 97% of tom Brady Tristar is fake. We sold fake tom Brady for 12 years. Steiner came at me then folded. Fanatics I bought so much they didn’t know what to say or do but when you ran your mouth and what Michael Ruben thinks he’s done to the industry I set out to make as many fanatics counterfeit stickers I could. Millions upon millions.

There will be photos of this bust I’m sure of it. If it was fanatics they may try to bury it all but the Westfield police department came today at 9am with semi trucks. I hope no one tries to hide this. I want to expose it all and how big of operation you all knew was going on but grasp how big it was.

I wish I could write a book about this.

I always took it as a challenge. Started slow and bad. And shifted to the giant that was built. I spent sleepless nights planning what items to counterfeit next. I had every hologram we ever made extracted from every companies database and put into excel. So with a touch of a button I can type mahomes and a bin shoots out with every Mahomes sticker hologram or coa card. Every item automated and sorted. I’d spend countless hours scrolling excel finding my next score. It was a thrill having every athlete in every sport from every authentication company at your finger tips to produce the signature flawless authenticate it with flawless bootleg holograms and then sell it for half of what a company does by the 1000s. That’s all I spent my time and my life on. What was the next item to do. Next name. Next flawless signature. I was addicted. It was a rush. I wanted out. But the money was too good. I can make 100,000 in a week if I wanted to. The fact that not one dealer that knew what we were doing to the industry, or when I took their exclusive no one ever picked up a phone to confront me. That baffled me. I told multiple dealers I will ruin you and your exclusive. They knew better. Once the heat turns on. New company same game but make it better than the last that got you caught up. Every company made changes. We did too. They added security. We did too. There was nothing that couldn’t be done. I sat on an auto pen machine 8 hours a day perfecting signatures that would pass any coa. It even passed by own players during signings we’d mix in items. What would you do if you could create any signature on any surface flawlessly and have the holograms to boot. I just couldn’t stop. You will see a boom in bad autographs with good stickers hitting the market like a fire storm. I sold over 2 million in just holograms to every avenue I could.

Enjoy the industry all."

This is making the rounds across many boards.. anyone fact check this?

oh oh! If this is true, then this is not a good thing for the autograph portion of our hobby and definitely not a good thing for TPA authentication or aftermarket autographs. ring the bell, iceberg straight ahead!

Ive seen this in a few places and it reads like someone just rambling with no direction and not a ton of proof behind what he's saying.

I don't know if this specific story checks out, but the confessed scammer, Brett Lemieux, has some Internet bread crumbs:

https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.co...y-restitution/

https://community.glowforge.com/t/on...on-focus/58773

I wouldn't be surprised. Just hope it's not true.

This has been going around (not this post specifically) for a few months.

I've still not seen anything about it anywhere else except social media posts. I'm not saying it is or isn't legit, but I'm surprised there's not more of a fleshed out story given this thing is like 5-6 months old.

BREAKING NEWS: Sports memorabilia dealer raided, admits scamming collectors, hobby in $350M fraud and forgery scheme

https://sportscollectorsdigest.com/b...forgery-scheme

Well, this escalated quickly.

For reference, the first I can remember hearing about any of this was a shared FB post about some sketchy Gretzky pucks back in January.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1697...7470872185824/

I'm not sure if this was what opened this particular door, or if there was past history.

This is why I hesitate to spend real money on signed cards.

He mentioned JSA; weren't they implicated in the fake signed T206 scandal from a while back? This guy mentioned mostly modern stuff, but it's possible him or someone working with him branched off.

Yes reads like a drunken suicide note if the body they found is the guy who wrote it…


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Lou Gehrig Says!

Ok, so there's a body, but on a brighter note the opinion sellers made a profit.

If I understand this, and I probably don't, the opinion sellers were bypassed. These fakes were created by auto pen, then had fake authentication holograms/stickers/whatever type of certs added.

So, no, that's another sad thing besides the corpse. The opinion sellers didn't make a profit from this. :(

Yikes !!! :eek::eek::eek:

Same here. Always a signed Fleer Jordan hitting the market, Jackies, Mantles, etc. How many of these are actually real ??

The sort of items he sold seem to be the ones I would see and immediately think, that's fake. It's almost like junk wax the amount of signed jerseys, 8x10 generic dime color photos, footballs, baseballs, large oversized "art". You see with superstar Autographs at low tier auctions and many shows.

Those booths have always just been instant passes because I just have never trusted them.

I feel like the amount of framed jerseys especially, all framed the exact same way all in the exact same layout and style all with perfect autos all using super low quality chinese jerseys was a dead giveaway.

100%. I’m sure these dealers specifically wish this news came out 2 weeks AFTER the National instead of before, so they could get one more big pay day.

I have one item that I now doubt its legitimacy — a multi-hologram Mike Tyson Punch Out 11x14 that’s gotten WAY too visible the last couple years.

disturbing news
 

This is just wretched enough to be true. I've never been a big auto guy, and
this is exactly the reason why. Trent King

It pains me to read rambling....maybe later:rolleyes:

i'lll pass on reading that mess. Moral of the story...don't "invest" in autographs!

I'm hoping that my low end autographed cards, like my 86 Topps Wally Backman, are safe.

If this guy wrote a self-aggrandizing confession and then drunkenly offed himself, it wouldn't be the biggest tragedy in the world.

Your 86 Topps Wally Backman is safe (good) :)

There was a thread in the net54 autograph forum a while back stating the overwhelming majority of autographed items are fake. I agree with the above: "What did you see?" "Iceberg, right ahead, sir!"

Completely agree. Seems most are decorative items for mancaves.

I 100% believe this. Ive seen so many Panini and PSA stickered photos pop up on ebay that coincidentally have no loa or coa and when Ive done PSA quick opinions on the ones im interested in they never pass. Especially with the modern stuff gaining alot more popularity its no surprise something like this would happen.

I suspect the thrust of the thread was “the overwhelming majority of autographed items are fake … except for the ones I buy …..”

There have been several of those threads in the 10+ years I have been on here. Then the bigger auto collectors and sellers always come on and say don't worry it isn't true most autographs are real.

I find it funny all the people saying that is why I stayed away from autographs when the same exact thing is and has been going on in the card world. If you think fake slabs aren't a HUGE thing, LOL, good luck with that. The grading companies adding pics of graded cards anyone can lookup has greatly helped. At least now you can't crack a newly graded card and put that flip and a lower grade card into a newly made slab without everybody knowing the card is different.:eek:

There is a fake copy of pretty much everything made being. I hear southeast Asia is a good place to find those items or find someone that will make them for you.;)

LOL, isn't that the truth.:D:D:D

That’s what everyone thinks. I try to buy mostly checks but even that isn’t infallible. There’s just too many Robinsons, Clementes, Aarons, signed vintage cards and sets, that suddenly pop up in every auction in the hundreds every month. Did collectors who owned them not realize they had value until recently and were hiding them, refusing to sell them?

Hopefully these dealers will be booted from selling the fake inventory before the big show next week


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The avalanche of signed Goudeys from obscure players that suddenly all surfaced at once in the past 3-4 years was particularly ridiculous.

Lots of 80 year olds (or their heirs) woke up one day and found the same stash of signed Goudeys. Remarkable.

Unfortunately this hobby is filled with greed and its only getting worse. The damage has already been done. At this point unless you personally see the player sign the item I wouldnt feel comfortable buying any modern player auto.

+ 💯

I don't really understand the allure of modern autograph collecting...most modern sigs aren't signatures at all. They're lines...or squigglies. Most are unintelligible as signatures.

Quite a few players appear to be illiterate. And/or just don't give a shit. Modern baseball and basketball . . . . signatiures are a joke. Many guys now just do their initials. I've even seen one initial as a signatue.

This is my NFL team’s QB’s signature. It is of NO surprise he doesn’t have the work ethic or processing ability to do the job. He did make me decide I wanted nothing to do with modern autos after getting back into the hobby.

EXACTLY why. Autographs were crooked as hell before they migrated their way to sportscards. This should be a shock to anyone. Especially with all the scribbles being done today, mostly by the athletes family and friends.

The most coveted and expensive Ohtani signed card his autograph starts with a "C" and then a line and maybe a "y". It rediculous.

I remember some very smart, great, fantastic beautiful collector calling the Sports Card Hobby one big "Billion Dollar Fraud many years ago and was laughed and sloughed off.:D:D:) Especially when he called it a "Multi-Billion Dollar fraud".:D:D:D Facts are Facts...The posts AGED really well with every fly by night new company, breaking to go broke mystery fudge packs, Fake patches, fake relics and of course, the heart of it ALT today. Fake Autographs.:D

Since every thread needs a picture here is a very accurately graded card from PSA. Please ignore the extreme diamond cut. Honestly I am impressed they got it to fit in the slab.:D

I’m trying to understand the signed card aspect to this. Are they saying they manipulated certified autographs too? That seems difficult since they carry pre-printed identifiers that the card is an autograph insert as opposed to an after market signed card, which would seem easier to manipulate.

This guy sounds like an absolute psychopath.

The glee and total lack of remorse in how he describes his destructive behavior.

Somehow he ends it thinking he's the hero in exposing the seedy underbelly of the hobby, seemingly not aware that HE'S the seedy underbelly.

Throws in lots of self-aggrandizement and self-mythologizing for the inevitable Netflix documentary that's going to help "immortalize" him, whether he's still with us or not.

I wonder how many in his circle will describe him as "A Good Guy" or "A misunderstood genius", or any other number of positive platitudes to normalize his scumbaggery.

I'll guess we'll know if they ever make the evidence they impounded public or if it's just a large stack of Jerseys, Helmets, Hats, Balls, Bats and 8x10's.

Maybe he was getting his exemplars for his autopen from legitimate certified autographs, maybe he was just blowing a lot of wind into the air. I don't know.

I also think he got a lot of satisfaction out of spewing "estimated values" for fake autographs that were essentially worthless. In today's aspirational society, he wanted to be able to say he ran a "Billion $" business through nothing but grit, determination and hustle...and who gives a shit who got hurt by him along the way.

Sounds like possibly he might be a dead guy at this point, if I am following this correctly.

Slightly off-track, but worthy of sharing I thought.....

One of the hottest prospects in baseball right now is Roman Anthony, who was recently called up to the Red Sox. My kids had an opportunity last week to spend some time at batting practice on the field and meeting the players, one of which was Anthony. He was very nice and signed a few things for them.

I don't collect modern cards (other than to buy a few for the kids to get signed last week), so I wasn't familiar with Anthony's autograph. There are tons of his signed cards on eBay, and the signature on all of those looks like what you see in the first pic - an illegible squiggle. These players likely are signing hundreds (or likely, thousands) of cards for the companies at a time, so the autograph becomes a quick scribble to get through the massive pile they need to sign.

Now compare that to the two cards he signed for my kids. Not exactly Williams or DiMaggio, but totally legible.

I'm the first to squawk about how players don't take pride in their signatures any more, but after seeing the different versions Anthony used and considering the vast quantities they likely have to sign, it did make me think about it a bit differently for a bit.....

Might possibly be...

I look forward to law enforcement’s pics of the seized goods. A whole lot of dealers sure aren’t.

This is why I like to buy contracts...
 

In the off case that i am collecting autographs...

And a few vintage baseballs...

I have a few modern autos, but most were obtained in person or pack pulled from the major card companies. I would still think that most of those are legit... but who knows.

Autograph evolution happens, especially in this era where players/people are paid to sign 1000s of cards.

Sometimes it takes a step forward, sometimes it takes a step back. A lot of guys will have various signatures depending on the era they're signing.

Derniche Valdez 2023 vs 2024 auto...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/317080243218
https://www.ebay.com/itm/226761140850

...and here's a reality check for why some people have those sloppy scribble autos. We're losing Andre Dawson and Mariano Rivera level autographs for scribbles because of things like this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j8F3_rKCU8

The use of Sharpies doesn't help matters. Way too wide so that the letters become indecipherable. Here is one of Harmon Killebrew, who had one of the most beautiful signatures I have ever seen (not mine):
https://photos.imageevent.com/imover...ize/Hkauto.png

Exactly. Its just a quick scribble or sloppy initial. Theres a few modern players I would be interested in collecting but technology and fakes are getting better every year so who knows what I'm really buying. And if I had any I would never feel 100% certain I had the real thing unless I was there to get the signature.

This problem is only going to get worse. Theres too much money to be made with all these celebrities, "influencers", and kids entering the hobby.

Geez, what kind of drugs was that guy on?

I’m sure at least part of that is true and that is precisely why the only autos I’ve ever given a damn about are ones I get in person, or on the rare occasions in my hobby career where I decide to do TTM runs.


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How many 1933 Goudey Gehrig's and Ruth's have hit the market recently? All the sudden people found these in their collections that were handed down and wondered if these guys' cards were worth something?

I never trusted this space of the hobby. Nor the game used area. Cards are bad enough but signed and game used requires more suspension of disbelief than I can muster up.

Oh, then that is double sadness.

But don't people who buy things with certs/holos/etc then usually get them opinionated because the slab is a good way to keep the item protected?

I still have a lot of practical questions about this confession.

If you make a fake LOA sticker and cert for a major retailer in the hobby, it is easy to search for it in the LOA database and see it's not there. I always check but I guess some people don't. Even people who are paying thousands of dollars for somebody like Brady, apparently.

Autopen is not magic. It should be fairly easy to distinguish it from a real signature, even when looked at by someone who is not an "expert". It's not all that different from distinguishing between a xerox and a live document. It's hard to imagine so many LOAs being issued for what are said to be autopen signatures.

of course the occam's razor and logical answer here is that the prices have gone up in the last 3 years, so people are more willing to sell than ever before. they are now often one of the central focal points of many auction catalogs (post-war section) and 10 yrs ago would be buried in the back pages or put in lots.

it is not reasonable to assume that forgers are now passing the most scrutinized and high value autographed cards by Keating/PSA and auction house experts. it is also important to note that most auctions that showcase a significant amount of signed cards are due to consigners who were graphers/TTMers in the 50s and 60s that are now ready to part with them, or have passed on and the collections have been consigned by descendants. i have been personally involved in 4 such cases.

yes, i know what my signature says and the old tagline "no conflict, no interest". FWIW this ring has been primarily focused on modern stars (Judge, Gretzky, Brady, etc.) so they can sell high volume into high demand markets through ebay and online stores, not the best of the best in auctions.

A bit more detail

https://sportscollectorsdigest.com/b...008C7489478H2S

From what ive seen most don't have LOA's with the item picture on it. Theyre simply just the psa/jsa/panini stickers on the item. Some might have a coa but what theyre doing is finding a legit item certified by psa or jsa and copying that cert # onto another sticker and putting it on the item. Alot of items dont have the picture of the item on the database. It'll just say "Kobe bryant 8x10" on the psa or jsa website. So as long as that item is a Kobe signed 8x10 with the same cert # nobody would know because theres no picture to reference.

I thought this was the OP’s confession that he sits in a small room smelling his 100yr old tobacco cards

Confirmation: Autograph dealer identified as man found dead in Indiana raid of fake memorabilia

https://www.cllct.com/sports-collect...ke-memorabilia

I bet eBay will have ALOT of new listings in the next few weeks as people will be dumping their items on eBay to get rid of them! After all of this, Why would anyone want anything with a TPA authentication sticker on it? And let’s not get started on fake slabs! That’s another can of worms! Buckle up, this hobby is above to hit a shit storm in regards to fake items in our hobby! Time to get the popcorn ready!

Would the authenticity guarantee process catch the fake slabs for anything sold over $250? Or do we think that the fake slabs are so well executed that they would slip right through?

My opinion is I think they are so well executed that they would slip by. But I could be wrong. Makes me want to sell all of my PSA slabs right now because we Just don’t know anymore with the way the Fraud and scammers are hitting the hobby right now.

It depends on if someone is trying to make the slabs in their garage with Plexi glass and a hammer and chisel or have access to real machinery. Nothing against anyone's job but printing cards and molding plastic are jobs that can easily be done by former or future McDonalds employees. I have friends that have worked in both fields and a couple of them are great people but dumb as a post. For example people make fake Rolex watches. The $200 models will fool anyone who doesn't really know watches. The $500 models will fool many Rolex owners and the $1200 models are so good you can actually swap out parts between a real and counterfeit ones. But yes molding plastic or printing simple pictures is near impossible to replicate. It amazes me every single day this hobby hasn't crashed and burned from all the corruption that openly runs rampant.

I don't recall seeing anything in this that mentions slabbed autographs; it only talks about faked autographs and counterfeit holograms/stickers.

It sounds to me that it involves non-slabbed items, where there's only a hologram/sticker on the item to "certify authenticity".

Steve

I suspect many of the people saying that wouldn't bat an eyelash at prewar cards that are 5s or above, and I'm skeptical. Jefferson Burdick's collection is full of rounded corners, creases, paper loss, and discoloration, and he was collecting as the cards came out. Either he was stepping over flawless examples to pick up damaged ones, or many of the prewar cards in high-graded slabs today have had work done.

Again, I think it’s all about this market right here. These sellers are neck deep in modern + the biggest names of the past 50 years, especially all-time level QBs and wrestlers. I’ve seen wayyy too many JSA, Tristar, and Fanatics stickers on cheap bagged and framed items to make sense. Anyone who’s been to a show has. It’s like in ‘98 when dealers had stacks of McGwire and Sosa but they’d barely signed anything.

Fanatics knew about it for 7+ years and now own the modern hobby. F—k those guys.

The good news is, your vintage slabs should be safe (at least from this operation).

The truth is likely somewhere in between what the dead guy said and this Fanatics statement. I’d probably lean more toward dead guy, who caused them to create a new sticker (silently, I assume) two years ago. i suppose no company would admit to 80% of merch bearing their seal being fake.

I agree. Dead Guy was copying product from multiple companies, and over a long period of time. If a single autopen was being used, and I'll guess an experienced operator could get 2 signatures a minute, the guy working 8 hours could crank out about 1,000 signatures a day. Even at half that, an addicted criminal could conceivably make around a million fake signatures a year. How many years was he doing this before Fanatics got wise to it? Then add the two years it took for the operation to be brought down. Any way one looks at it, it's a huge number.

I also think the fact modern autographs are often merely scribbles, or sloppy initials, made them much easier to fake convincingly, and quicker to make.

It will be interesting to see how the "hobby" responds. Will it just be one collective shrug of the shoulders, or will people bail out of modern sigs and turn their attention to other sports collectibles, like memorabilia, game used, etc.? Everything can be faked, but autographs are by far the easiest, and Dead Guy has apparently thoroughly saturated that arena with fakes, at least modern.

My guess is, Fanatics and other companies will come up with better authentication/verification methods, and business will continue as usual. Autographs were never my thing, and I collect absolutely nothing that is modern, yet I feel very bad for all the people who have been victimized or are worried they may have been.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see the FBI agents on the case make that quick drive from Westfield to Rosemont in 12 days to shut down the people selling this crap.

I would argue it's not diamond cut (which means, to me the corners aren't 90 degrees) but rather the image on the back is tilted.

I think I agree, but shouldn't that still preclude it from grading 9?

LOL, Scott I have bragged about your card descriptions before so please put you glasses back on and look again as it is diamond cut and not just a little.

EDIT: I added a square cornered red line to the image to help. :)

diamond cut? or is the print off kilter? the card itself looks square?

At the risk of invalidating your previous praise I'm not 100% sure. The card is not square in the slab, which makes the left and right sides look off, but the front image with the vertical lines doesn't look diamond cut, so I think it's a tilted print job on the back. Run through the press a little crooked somehow, but cut correctly. Obviously there's no benefit to me if the card is good or not so it's the unbiased opinion of one guy who hasn't held the card in his hand, your mileage may vary!

and yes I agree it still shouldn't be a 9, but sometimes they don't pay enough attention to backs

Good points. Kind of sad all the way around, including someone going to such involvement they felt the best way out was to lose their life

This is all correct, autopen is very much detectable and in many cases fiarly obvious to decipher from a natural signature.