Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Giuliano Cipolla ( JEFFERSON) on November 27, 2016 at 7:50am

James, I heard similar stories from other collectors recently, even with items that were already examined by some Giants in the industry like Bob Eaton, and James Spence. PSA makes a lot of mistakes. JSA is making a lot of mistakes also since James Spence SR is not there all the times. Personally if I had to get an item authenticated, I would not send it to PSA since Grad is gone, and I would not send it to JSA since Spence SR is hardly there. 

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Permalink Reply by Mike T on November 27, 2016 at 12:26pm

JSA is a train wreck with entertainment stuff, no better than a 50-50 coin flip. We did a Star Wars analysis and over 55% of the JSA certed Star Wars autographs listed on ebay last week were fake. It's not worse than Global or GA or GAI or whatever the hell they call themselves now, but its darn close. I'm not sure why anyone would use JSA for entertainment stuff, it's terrible. And i'm not convinced they are much better in any other field except Space where they have Mr. Zarelli.

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Permalink Reply by Joe W. on November 27, 2016 at 12:33pm

Isn't Roger Epperson associated with JSA? On another note, what I do not like about the corporate TPA companies is you really don't know who authenticated the signature(s). At least with RR and independent sellers there is an accountability/liability factor.

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Permalink Reply by Scott Paul on November 27, 2016 at 3:09pm

JSA used to be pretty good with classic autographs (apart from the period they were authenticating the secretarial autographs of Griffith, Gleason, Heston, Curtis etc. as everyone was).  I think Tom Kramer works for them and I have a lot of respect for him. The problem is like you say there is no way of being certain that Epperson or Kramer actually looks at their area of specialty. I have long argued that the person that looks at the item being submitted should be the name on the certificate along with the date. I do not believe any of the major TPA's do that.

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Permalink Reply by Mike T on November 27, 2016 at 3:28pm

At PSA I'm pretty sure the authenticator who looked at the item is the one who signs the letter. JSA has really good consultants, but it seems they hardly use them for entertainment stuff. I mean some of the stuff they pass is straight up inexcusable, secretarial signatures that have been known for over 30 years. It's just incompetence.

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Permalink Reply by Scott Paul on November 27, 2016 at 3:46pm

I didn't realize that PSA did that I seen stickered COA items that just have a little card and I think it just has printed signature those might be older though.  I think LOA's might be signed by the person but not sure.   I never pay much attention to either PSA or JSA and never used either one except for quick opinion and I stopped doing that long ago. Do you know is there a way to tell about when something from PSA or JSA was authenticated?  I know they have numbers but wondered if it corresponded with a year.  I wonder if they are still authenticating the Andy Griffith and Charlton Heston etc. secretarial autographs or if most were done a few years ago?  If they are currently doing it that goes way beyond incompetence.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on November 27, 2016 at 4:23pm

I don't know if that's the case for PSA/DNA or not. Do you see many LOAs signed by Zach Rullo or Brian Sobrero? I haven't seen many that weren't signed by Grad.

I believe that LOAs are issued for any item where the authentication fee is over $50. COAs are issued below that unless the submittor pays the LOA upcharge.

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Permalink Reply by Mike T on November 27, 2016 at 8:34pm

You don't see many, but there are certainly LOAs out there signed by others besides Grad and Orlando. Don't forget the full time staff authenticates every day while the part time consultants only come in if they are needed.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on November 27, 2016 at 8:40pm

Grad, Rullo and Sobrero were the full-time staff.

Permalink Reply by Mike T on November 27, 2016 at 8:49pm

Not Orlando?

Permalink Reply by Mike T on November 27, 2016 at 9:02pm

Grad was the principal authenticator, so I'm sure most of the stuff (Sports, Music, Entertainment) went through him. I have no idea how it will run now that he is gone.

Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on November 27, 2016 at 10:19pm

Orlando is full-time but he's not an authenticator.

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