[whiteymet]

Originally Posted by brooklynbaseball

Many years ago, included in an auction was a "holy grail" signed item in a signed set I collect. I won the auction for a bit over $7k and was thrilled. The one thing that bothered me was there is a collector I am in touch with that ALWAYS outbid me on items like this, as his funding far surpasses mine. I contacted him and he gave me the following reason why he passed on bidding (winning) the item. When Jim Spence worked for PSA, he had authenticated the item, and psa had applied a sticker and slabbed the item. When the owner submitted the item to the present auction house, psa decided they did not believe the card was indeed authentic. THEY PAID the owner $2k to remove the card from the holder and remove the sticker. I was shown the stub from the check paid by psa. The auction house then sent the card to JSA, who slabbed the card again. NO MENTION was made of any of this by the auction house. I decided to pass on the item, and the auction house, when faced with the information, cancelled the transaction and supposedly sold the item to the underbidder. It's just how things work in this, and many other hobbies, honor doe$ rarely exist.

Must be more to the story for PSA to shell out that kind of dough!