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Antiquities

Dear Steve,

I was pleased to get your response. You are right, I meant Autographs America. You asked why I would sell these things for less than they might bring. The answer is pretty simple for someone in the retail business at a high end mall with a few desperate consignors. So I put my prices very competitively so I can move things more quickly. I don't have the luxury of waiting to achieve the highest dollar per item, and the terrific people I have worked with as clients, who are now in need, deserve a quick return. I hope you and your readers understand that. It's a humane issue. We are all Americans and we need to work together through good times and bad. Thank you for this opportunity.

With kind regards,

Toby Stoffa, President, Antiquiies

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Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on April 16, 2010 at 12:06am: Hi Toby,

Thanks for your reply. For the future, if the autographs will pass PSA/DNA, JSA or REAL, you can sell them immediately for more than twice than you asked and not have to pay percentage rent or salesperson commission on them.

Do you use them or who do you use for authentication?

You mentioned Autograph Central. Was your experience with them similar to Autographs America? I agree with you that Autographs America is a company I would not want to buy autographs from, but Autograph Central isn't someone I'd buy autographs from either.

In a phone call with Jerry Gladstone from American Royal Arts in the fall of 2008, he said that you bought autographs from Forever Legends like he did. He also said that Starabilias did, and I think The Art of Music, and he mentioned a couple of others whose names I forget. Is that right, and are you happy with the quality of their autographs?

Forever Legends used Christopher Morales, who was the topic of this blog:

http://autographmagazine.com/2010/03/christopher-morales-forgery-au...

Thanks for you post; I look forward to hearing from you.

Steve

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on April 17, 2010 at 6:31pm: Hi Toby,

Regarding Autographs America, I think this email really says it all about the company--what do you think?

It's from Autographs America owner Brian Burkel to a cute blond real estate agent/suspected forger:

----- Original Message ----
From: Brian Burkel
To: Christie Carrroll
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 9:36:19 AM
Subject: Guitars

Christie,

Hello!

I need you to pick out guitars in the garage for the following bands (not bass guitars)

Metallica (with Robert Trujillo, NOT Newstead, or Burton) songs, pics, etc.
AC/DC (2 guitars) Bon Scott and Brian Johnson
Rolling Stones (like the gold one) Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, Ronnie Woods, and Charlie Watts
INXS
U2

Also, I need you to go to Office Depot and buy a Sony Cybershot Camera like the one we have here about 8 Megapixels, and get a 1GB card for it. We have these guitars sold for around $3,000 but if you can't take a picture of them, we can't sell them. IF you have a good one at home you can bring GREAT but if not we need to buy one.

Try to pick the guitars that best fit the bands, and use colors that show up with the camera, like WHITE

Brian

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on April 18, 2010 at 12:36am: Toby,

You said in your first blog post:

"You mentioned Autograph Central. I think like everyone who first heard of them, I was happy about the variety until I checked on some dates and then never went back. Please try to be accurate in your accusations because what you said is not true."

Then in this blog post, you said you were talking about Autographs America, not Autograph Central.

I went through some spreadsheets sent to me last July by someone I believe to be a disgruntled employee of Autographs America--they sent them to me anonymously. These spreadsheets contain records of over 13,300 items Autographs America sold from November 2007 to July 2009.

Attached is a spreadsheet of about 175 purchases by Antiquities Las Vegas and Antiquities California of autographed memorabilia from Autographs America. Included are things like a Metallica-signed guitar with Cliff Burton for the unbelievable price of $920--none are even known, and if one were, it would probably bring well over $10,000. Above it on the spreadsheet I was sent, but not sold to you, is a Beatles-signed "Yellow Submarine" album for $1035. A genuine one would easily bring 100-times that--more likely $150,000-$200,000.

So you say you didn't do business with Autographs America, but from what I've seen, that isn't the case.

If we have proof that you've bought from Autographs America when you claim you haven't, how can anyone believe that any of the autographs you carry are genuine?

Steve

Antiquities-Autographs_America_Purchases.xls

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on April 23, 2010 at 1:06am: Antiquities Web sites are:

Las Vegas, NV: www.antiquitieslv.com
San Francisco, CA: www.antiquitiesca.com