David Or Fuddjical?

[mr2686]

As for handing over the secrets of the trade, that gets to be more touchy. As Chris won't do, and I won't either, he won't tell every last secret. I am 100% sure that scammers and fraudsters read this board. If we told them everything it would make their profession easier for them. ..I don't care if we expose bad items at CC every single hour, I will not tolerate belittling remarks. It's just not right imo....Thanks for listening..

Leon, I absolutely understand what you're saying and why that could be a problem. It is touchy for those reasons and for the following. Without any discussion of why an autograph is bad, there can be no knowledgable dialog to possibly "correct" the person that thinks a good autograph is bad. By just taking Chris's word (and I'm not trying to pick on him, believe me) the rest of us are taking a leap of faith (and as we all have discussed recently, a leap of faith in this hobby is very dangerous). Now, all I know about Chris is that he starting doing the videos on youtube exposing the autographs he thought were bad. Now Chris is on here and trying to expose bad autographs on ebay and cc, etc. All of this is great, but he's asking everyone to take him at his word...which wouldn't be as hard if he, or anyone else in the same situation for that matter, would come out and either explain why they are bad autos, or at least discuss their qualifications. Let's face it, even Richard has said that he (Richard) made mistakes on some Mantle autos in the past. Has Chris been a long time collector? Guess what, I have too but that doesn't qualify me as an expert on some stuff (granted you could pick anything off of CC and be right 100% of the time). I'm not saying Chris is wrong, and I'm not saying he doesn't know what he's talking about, all I'm saying is that if you can't see both sides of the fence on this issue then there will never be a solution to the growing problems in the hobby.
Like I said, I don't have the answer, but I do appreciate the chance to discuss this here.

[thetruthisoutthere]

Originally Posted by mr2686

Leon, I absolutely understand what you're saying and why that could be a problem. It is touchy for those reasons and for the following. Without any discussion of why an autograph is bad, there can be no knowledgable dialog to possibly "correct" the person that thinks a good autograph is bad. By just taking Chris's word (and I'm not trying to pick on him, believe me) the rest of us are taking a leap of faith (and as we all have discussed recently, a leap of faith in this hobby is very dangerous). Now, all I know about Chris is that he starting doing the videos on youtube exposing the autographs he thought were bad. Now Chris is on here and trying to expose bad autographs on ebay and cc, etc. All of this is great, but he's asking everyone to take him at his word...which wouldn't be as hard if he, or anyone else in the same situation for that matter, would come out and either explain why they are bad autos, or at least discuss their qualifications. Let's face it, even Richard has said that he (Richard) made mistakes on some Mantle autos in the past. Has Chris been a long time collector? Guess what, I have too but that doesn't qualify me as an expert on some stuff (granted you could pick anything off of CC and be right 100% of the time). I'm not saying Chris is wrong, and I'm not saying he doesn't know what he's talking about, all I'm saying is that if you can't see both sides of the fence on this issue then there will never be a solution to the growing problems in the hobby.
Like I said, I don't have the answer, but I do appreciate the chance to discuss this here.

Mike, I totally understand and appreciate your comments.

Long before I started doing videos in Oct. 2008, I wrote for approximately ten blogs writing about Ebay sellers of forgeries. When I decided to start doing YouTube videos, I made it known that my videos were never meant to be educational.

I do what I do for one reason only and that reason is to expose forgeries and those that sell them. That's what I do. I love the hobby; I love baseball cards; collecting certain autographs is very cool. And I will do all I can to get rid of the scum that have infected our hobby.

[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by mr2686

Leon, I absolutely understand what you're saying and why that could be a problem. It is touchy for those reasons and for the following. Without any discussion of why an autograph is bad, there can be no knowledgable dialog to possibly "correct" the person that thinks a good autograph is bad. By just taking Chris's word (and I'm not trying to pick on him, believe me) the rest of us are taking a leap of faith (and as we all have discussed recently, a leap of faith in this hobby is very dangerous). Now, all I know about Chris is that he starting doing the videos on youtube exposing the autographs he thought were bad. Now Chris is on here and trying to expose bad autographs on ebay and cc, etc. All of this is great, but he's asking everyone to take him at his word...which wouldn't be as hard if he, or anyone else in the same situation for that matter, would come out and either explain why they are bad autos, or at least discuss their qualifications. Let's face it, even Richard has said that he (Richard) made mistakes on some Mantle autos in the past. Has Chris been a long time collector? Guess what, I have too but that doesn't qualify me as an expert on some stuff (granted you could pick anything off of CC and be right 100% of the time). I'm not saying Chris is wrong, and I'm not saying he doesn't know what he's talking about, all I'm saying is that if you can't see both sides of the fence on this issue then there will never be a solution to the growing problems in the hobby.
Like I said, I don't have the answer, but I do appreciate the chance to discuss this here.

Mike,
I for one would like to speak up for Chris' qualifications.
Discerning bad autographs from the good is part art and part science. The "science" part being a good exemplar file to use to compare the questioned autograph to what you absolutely know is good (your exemplar file). The art part is in a persons eye, for want of a better term. You have the eye to do it well or you don't. Many advanced collectors don't even have this. I have seen bad items in many a quality collection.
I know after being his friend for some time now,that Chris has the eye. I trust his opinion. He knows what he is talking about. I have seen examples of it and I have seen items on ebay, that were well done forgeries, that he has pointed out to me. I trust his opinion and always will.

[thetruthisoutthere]

Originally Posted by RichardSimon

Mike,
I for one would like to speak up for Chris' qualifications.
Discerning bad autographs from the good is part art and part science. The "science" part being a good exemplar file to use to compare the questioned autograph to what you absolutely know is good (your exemplar file). The art part is in a persons eye, for want of a better term. You have the eye to do it well or you don't. Many advanced collectors don't even have this. I have seen bad items in many a quality collection.
I know after being his friend for some time now,that Chris has the eye. I trust his opinion. He knows what he is talking about. I have seen examples of it and I have seen items on ebay, that were well done forgeries, that he has pointed out to me. I trust his opinion and always will.

Thank you, Richard, I appreciate that.

The check is in the mail...

[mr2686]

Thanks Richard, and that's the kind of info that's invaluable to the rest of us. I definitely understand what you're saying about the eye. I think I have a pretty good eye in person, but to tell you the truth it's getting harder to be able to look at some internet scans on the screen and always tell 100% (probably because my eyes are shot from looking at computer screens most of my life). Some are obvious, some not so much. Plus, there's nothing like having an autograph in your hands and being able to magnify it to see how it looks. I really miss the days when you could get a 3x5 Rube Marquard for a couple of bucks and know that it wasn't worth anyone taking the time to learn how to fake his sig. The genie is out of the bottle I'm afraid.