Steve Koschal “Please Stop Authenticating” Where's Law Enforcement?

This was listed today (September 1, 2010) on eBay as Item number 110579362880,
a 3-day auction with a $1,500 Starting Bid:

CALVIN COOLIDGE HANDWRITTEN SIGNED LETTER 1926:

This is the description: "This is a great historical document. It is a hand written letter by President Coolidge on White House stationery to David Lawrence who was making a daily topical survey of the National Government an undertaking that the President applauded. Mr Lawrence went on to found U.S. News and world report.
The letter is accompanied by a certificate of authentication by Stephen Koschal world renowned expert on Presidential autographs.
The letter has been trimmed and is attached to a larger sheet of paper. There are wrinkles where it has been folded. We will ship the letter insured at our expense."

This is the Steve Koschal COA dated a week ago, August 24, 2010:

THE LETTER THAT STEVE KOSCHAL AUTHENTICATED IS A FACSIMILE.
CAN'T STEVE KOSCHAL TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A LETTER HANDWRITTEN IN INK AND A PRINTED FACSIMILE?

HERE'S ANOTHER COPY (IN BETTER CONDITION) OF THE FACSIMILE AUTHENTICATED BY STEVE KOSCHAL:

THE ORIGINAL LETTER HANDWRITTEN BY PRESIDENT COOLIDGE IS IN THE BUFFALO AND ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY ARCHIVES, BUFFALO, NEW YORK. THIS IS HOW IT IS DESCRIBED ON THE U.S. GOVERNMENT WEBSITE "GUIDE TO RESEARCH COLLECTIONS" http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/guidedisplay.pl?index=c000738

"A letter from Calvin Coolidge to David Lawrence written on October 2, 1926. In the letter, Calvin Coolidge states the usefulness of Lawrence’s
The United States Daily, a topical survey of the bureaus of
the federal government."

IF YOU WANT TO SELL THE FRAMED DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE YOU BOUGHT AT THE FLEA MARKET, AND YOU NEED A CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY, CONTACT STEVE KOSCHAL AT SKOSCHAL@AOL.COM OR CALL HIM (HIS CONTACT INFORMATION IS LISTED ON HIS COA REPRODUCED ABOVE).

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Comment by Rick Badwey on January 9, 2011 at 5:57pm: Herman, I understand your point clearly. Miss your great auctions!

Comment by Rick Badwey on January 9, 2011 at 5:56pm: A house divided against itself cannot stand!

Comment by john reznikoff on January 7, 2011 at 12:36pm: I quit reading it...a lot of the traffic on this site (AA) is lawyers, mine included. He is being sued by multiple litigants.

Comment by Herman Darvick on January 7, 2011 at 11:28am: No offense to Rick and Greg, but the whole point of my blog was written right after Koschal's August 29, 2010 Autograph Alert "Breaking News" titled "PSA DNA 'Please Stop Authenticating' Where's Law Enforcement?" Koschal can't tell the difference between a copy of an ALS and an original handwritten ALS. He's the one who should stop authenticating. As the old adage goes, people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Comment by Rick Badwey on January 7, 2011 at 8:46am: Notice the positioning of the "My Dear Mr. Lawrence" in relation to "The White House" print between the 2 letters

Comment by Jorge Corvo on October 1, 2010 at 8:18pm: Your TOS reads

"in a manner that is libelous or defamatory, or in a way that is otherwise threatening, abusive, violent, harassing, malicious or harmful to any person or entity, or invasive of another's privacy;"

It is most likely prudent that you follow this rules before you start making statements in reference to other hobbyists and dealers.

Comment by Herman Darvick on September 23, 2010 at 5:46pm: Steve Koschal runs Autograph Alert. Everything you read on Autograph Alert is written by Steve Koschal. When he writes quotes of others, he is the one making up the quote, such as, in his "Breaking News July 28, 2010," Koschal wrote: "Even as long ago as 2001 Darvick was saying 'maybe one day the UACC will get back to its roots. Maybe there should be term limits for officers. At least one officer has been there too long.' I never said that, not in those words or any words. In fact, I do not believe in establishing term limits for anything (we already have term limits; it's called an election). As far as a connection between Mike Frost and Steve Koschal, I do not know for sure. I believe that Frost and Koschal used to be partners in P.A.A.S.

Comment by scott on September 23, 2010 at 5:18pm: Who is responsible for Autograph Alert? Is there a connection between Mike Frost and Stephen Koschal?

Comment by Herman Darvick on September 21, 2010 at 1:20pm: you'd think by now I would be able to spell Koschal without makeing a typo: StephenKoschal.com

Comment by Herman Darvick on September 21, 2010 at 1:17pm: Rick, I saw a commercial promoting "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" and heard Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) expressing my opinion in nutshell: "When he stops lying about me, I'll stop telling the truth about him."

Rick, Steve Koschal devotes a full page on his autograph business website promoting his status as a third-party authenticator, then he uses his autographalert.com website as an informative news website to attack the credentials of the two acknowledged leading third-party authenticators as companies as well as attacking the individual experts used by each company. What he is doing is trying to eliminate his competition.

And he tries to have it both ways:

From Autograph Alert: (7/24/10) ""[Who'd be] foolish enough to spend money to have some high profile authenticator look at it and declare your item is not genuine. This happens very often, especially with some of the incompetent authenticators used by eBay." (9/15/10) "Who has any respect for most autographs being offered on eBay? By this time everyone should be aware that eBay uses the high profile 3rd party authenticating companies. Look at the mess that has been created."

From StephenKoscal.com: "Steve Koschal claims that his competitors ask him for his help: "Our autograph authentication service is the choice of many of the high profile authentication services. While in their office when they are unable to come to a conclusion and need a professional researcher, for a professional opinion, they contact Stephen Koschal. When they are physically at an auction house and just don't know, they contact Stephen Koschal directly from the auction house."

Unbelievable!