What's missing from this discussion is the concept of risk. Autograph collecting is a risky hobby. There is a tremendous amount of fraud and the barriers to entry are low. Minting a fake coin or printing a counterfeit baseball card is difficult and expensive. Not so with putting a pen to paper.
Every collector should understand that they are accepting some level of risk by participating in this hobby. If your stockbroker recommends an investment in good faith that doesn't do well, do you expect him or her to "make you whole?" If you lose a case in court, do you expect your lawyer to pay the tab?
You can build a solid collection and minimize risk by using all the tools at your disposal: buying from reputable sources, employing a credible authenticator, networking with other knowledgable collectors and using common sense. But there are no guarantees in life!
If anyone would be positioned to make you whole, that would be the seller subject to reasonable limits. They sold and profited from the item.
The authenticator is not a guarantor and does not indemnify. If they make too many mistakes, their reputation and business should suffer accordingly. If you expect TPAs to indemnify, prepare for massive price increases and even more reluctance to "correct past mistakes."
When I first entered this hobby over 20 years ago, a wise and experienced collector told me, "Everyone gets fooled once in a while. It's the price of admission to this hobby. What you want to do is take steps to make that price of admission as low as possible."
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