[travrosty]

everytime i see an expose on the autograph hobby, i am glad the fraudsters and forgers are caught and exposed, and if it is an authentication company, great! they already know that what they are doing is incredibly flawed, but they take no reforms or actions themselves, they are very comfortable in their warm bath water. They think they can do it forever.

the hobbys swimming pool needs to be drained, cleaned, scrubbed, disinfected and filled back up with clean, fresh water.

I don't think we will lose collectors, but i hope what happens is that collectors wont just rely on an authentication company totally out of publicity or perceived reputation, but instead do some homework, slow down and take a little time to buy an autograph instead of an impulse buy because it has an abc or xyz sticker.

If the collector base shrinks a bit, maybe prices will come down, thats okay, but i dont think there will ever be a mass exodus of collectors, especially baseball, its too popular a sport.

What is happening now is not working, its a flawed, closed circuit system that benefits some at the expense of others. look at haulsofshame. 99.99 percent of the collectors out there dont know about the christy mathewson signed 'won in the ninth' controversy, the babe ruth signed ball controversy, they need to know. when 10,000 dollar, 50,000 dollar, 100,000 dollar and up pieces get sold with an authentication sticker from abc and xyz and these companies don't acknowledge anything, don't say anything and ignore, something needs to be done. good old competition would solve it but the people making the money on the current system don't want any.