[Runscott]

I recently had a non-baseball friend send me a link to a Ruth-signed baseball that was up around $10K in the bidding. He was very excited about the price it was getting.

I sent a simple email reply: "forgery". He wanted to know why, as it looked like the other Ruth autographs he had looked up, and it had this great COA attached to it. I told him that there were various characteristics that linked it to a forger who had been getting his wares authenticated by PSA and JSA for years. I have no idea when the forger created these pieces, or if he still does, but the point, I told him, is that the buyers don't care. As long as the piece has the COA it is a marketable item and will get traded as such. It might as well be a bitcoin.