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Authenticity is Everything
GFA/Tony Podsada in the news...
Here is an article on ESPN about Muhammad Ali signatures & forgeries.
http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/17101800/debate-muhammad-ali...
Surprisingly, GFA's Steven Rocchi answered some questions for this article, which I found hilarious. Check out some of his quotes:
"That company is GFA. Stephen Rocchi, who founded and runs the company, says he stands by every signature that GFA authenticates, and if someone claims what they bought was fake, he'll buy it back from them. He's only had to do that once since 2011, he says, with a Mickey Mantle autograph that he still believes was authentic.
Rocchi says his company gets bashed because, unlike the leaders in the industry, he said he doesn't let politics get in the way of authenticating pieces.
"We don't pay attention to how many autographs someone brings to us or who they are," Rocchi said. "We make it only about the autograph. We have exemplars, we match the autograph in front of us to the exemplars and have 15 points of authentication and if it matches, we call it real. We don't have deals with auction companies like the other guys do, and we don't know dealers. It's better that way."
When told that competitor JSA failed a GFA-certified Ali signature at a recent show, a signature that had been bought on eBay after Ali's death, Rocchi said that's because "our competition will fail anything with our sticker."
Check out these quotes from Tony Podsada:
"Podsada's items do not come with a certificate of authenticity. Disenchanted with the authentication business, Podsada said he merely offers buyers the assurance that it's a "decorative item only."
"I believe what I have is real, but I don't guarantee anything because I know too much," Podsada said."
LMAO!
Here are a few other interesting tidbits from the article:
"EBay does not pull auctions itself, as certain legal rulings have established that the marketplace does not have any legal liability if a person buys a fake on the site"
"EBay maintains that less than .025 percent of its listings in 2014 were identified as being "potentially counterfeit,"
"In the past month, 55 GFA-certified items have sold on eBay. Those items have sold for an average of $106.41 Include the GFA price of $25 for authentication, $20 to Podsada and eBay's 10 percent take and a seller's margin on Ali items, before shipping, is less than $46 per autograph.
Rocchi said he's proud of the low cost that is being delivered to the consumer, saying this is the way it's supposed to be."
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mike Ruff on
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i don't know, i'm not an expert so i don't make statements or claims that i don't know are true.
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Permalink Reply by Erich Jerozal on
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Then why claim slander. If you don't know and are no expert. How can you call defamation on these guys??
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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on
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oh, and here is a really well-executed Mantle certed by GFA. Note the similarities between this ball and, well, other Mantle balls certed by GFA. Also note the lack of similarity between these and authentic Mantle signed balls
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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on
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Terrier, how many dozens of those obviously forged "500 Homerun Club" baseballs have we seen sold on Ebay with COAs from Guaranteed Forensic Authenticators!!!
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here is an authentic Mantle signed baseball for comparison
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Mr. Ruff, where are the "False accusations?"
Also, I believe it was you who wrote (paraphrasing) "Do you know the number of people you've hurt."
Do you realize "the hurt" done to collectors/sellers who are having a difficult time selling their authentic autographs?
You also claim that you don't know autographs; so what's your stake in defending Rocchi?
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Chris, please get the conversations correct, that was said by someone other than me, take a second look. i have no ides who you are and what people may have been hurt.
provide 1 piece of evidence that shows GFA certs nothing but fakes. I don't want to see your photos anymore they seem to be the only thing you do, posting photos and call them fake. show something real proof not your opinion or the opinions of others on this board. Cant we all agree that you can not authenticate something by a photo?
Why do you troll ebay and pretend to be someone else? Are you not Perch712 on both eBay and Yahoo? how many people did you troll last week alone? i couldn't be the only one. it was a nice touch sending me links of articles written by you over a year ago that just happen to have my photos in the article, the photos were 3 weeks old yet are in your article from 2015. Your last message to me was short. "FACT" was all you wrote. am i supposed to take your word on it and the links you sent me to articles written by you? that wouldn't be very smart. i do research and read both sides of the story.
I don't know autographs, i'm just a collector like most others here. don't take it as i'm defending one company over another. i recently purchased some photos and needed them authenticated, i went with GFA. it doesn't take much to search the internet and see that most if not all the negativity of GFA comes from this site and mainly you .
Why are you so Pro PSA? i haven't found anything written by you talking about Mastro and probably the most famous b-ball card of all time, i'm mean that should have ended PSA right there and then. i haven't seen anything about the 2 lawsuits going on now from collectors suing PSA and JSA for making the same statements i see you make. you may have written something, i just haven't found them yet.
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Mr. Ruff, I have been studying autographs for a long time and I do it by my trained eye.
The proof is in the eye.
You explain to me how Forensics has anything to do with autographs?
Explain to me how the below pertains to autographs.
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/forensics
I will also state definitively, that I have yet to see an authentic Mickey Mantle autograph with a COA from Rocchi and his GFA group in the last 5 1/2 years.
Not one.
Show me a few authentic Mantle autographs (all with GFA COAs) from the below link of Sold Auctions from Ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=mantle+gfa&_in_kw=1&_ex...
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So you can tell a fake just by looking at it? is that really a statement you want to stand behind?
The term "forensic" means simply, "having to do with the law." Document Examination, as an established field of scientific study, came into being early in this century as a means of identifying forgery and establishing the authenticity of documents in dispute.
Chris, i don't know you, but i really don't believe that you would say "the proof is in the eye" and expect me or anyone else to take your word on it. Come on. this is a site that claims to protect collectors, and you are going to say that just by looking at something you can tell if its real or not.
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It's all in the eye for me. That's how I do it and that's how most collectors who know autographs do it.
That's why I post photos of those forgeries.
That's the proof.
99% of Mantle forgeries can be opined by a simple scan; that's how bad 99% of them are.
The GFA-certed forgeries are worse than most.
And I stand behind what I say.
I have a challenge for you.
Show us one of your GFA-certed Mantle autographs.
Just one. If I state that it's a forgery, I want you to remove the GFA hologram and submit it to PSA or JSA.
If it comes back authentic from PSA or JSA, I will pay you $500.00 for your Mantle and pay the authentication fees.
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that's how you do it. do you have any real formal training? You cant claim something is fake and stand your visual examination, would that even stand up in court?
Id like to think you are an intelligent person, but your statements make me think differently. you have spent years making these claims, posting photos and calling something fake.
ill take your challenge, however i dont want your money. i will make a video and post it to you tube. i have photos, ill remove the stickers and ill send them into PSA and post the results. i will not post them here, i already know what your going to say, the same thing you have been saying.
Would you mind addressing my questions to you about your ebay and yahoo names? can you also answer the question why you don't talk bad about PSA when there is proof they have had issues too?
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