An Open Letter to Global, Mike Baker and Steve Rocchi

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Posted By: shelly jaffe

An open letter to Global, Mike Baker and Steve Rocchi: Are you going to re-emburse these people who have lost money buying bad autographs with your certs?

You can tolerate GAI just so much. This jersey is the straw that broke the camel's back!
(see the pictures of this horror at the bottom of this post).

This jersey with Global Authentication just sold for $7,000 on eBay. Just look at it. I am sure that many of the members of this board can see it for what it is. Total crap.

Global has had a revolving door of "so-called" authenticators, beginning at first with Justin Priddy, then Mike Baker took over for many months and now Rick "Gizmo" Giddings.

Who are these so-called "experts"?

This thread will revolve around the bogus items passed by Global with certification that include Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams, whose items show up most often on eBay with their certs. There are now probably a couple of hundred Global certified pieces on ebay.

There are currently 227 Mickey Mantle signed pieces on eBay. 20% of all Mantle signatures on ebay are authenticated by Global, including these pieces which were originally distributed by a well known East Coast distributor of bogus material who also distributed to Shop At Home, B&J, Howard's and Madison Sports.

Just look at these bad ebay items:

GAI MICKEY MANTLE Autographed photo Global Cert. - eBay (item 290227396698 end time
May-04-08 18:29:54 PDT)

GAI JOE DIMAGGIO Autographed photo Global Cert. - eBay (item 290227395814 end time
May-04-08 18:24:32 PDT)

GAI TED WILLIAMS Autographed B&W 8x10 GLOBAL CERT - eBay (item 300221568250 end time
May-04-08 10:02:56 PDT)

Mickey Mantle & Joe Dimaggio 8 x 10 photo GAI Certified - eBay (item 380021023601
end time
May-03-08 15:47:55 PDT)

When did Mike Baker become an autograph expert exactly? Maybe his appearance on TV as a card expert was justified, but autographs?
And according to a conversation I had with Global, Mike Baker did not even look at the items which he allegedly examined. Yet his signature is on all these certs.

Since Global is an "approved" eBay authenticator it's difficult to have these bogus items removed. Global isn't allowed to authenticate David Wright's signature due to David's complaint of them passing bogus pieces. Shouldn't that tell you something?

Again I ask, what makes any of these Global people "experts"? How has eBay continued to allow themselves to have a relationship with this company? They have the consistency of a Frangipani, probably getting an eventual one correct by accident, but how do they continue to have a following of any sort with this shabby work and these so-called "experts" at the helm?