Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Geoff LaVeine on June 22, 2012 at 8:43am

Thanks Mike. I've been lurking here for a while and I always value your opinions.

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Permalink Reply by Geoff LaVeine on July 10, 2012 at 9:39am

Ok so this picture arrived a week or so ago, and it looked good to me.  So good in fact that I decided to go ahead and get this thing PSA/DNA authenticated.  The auction was already over, but I figured I'd go ahead and do a PSA/DNA quick opinion since the $7.49 will go towards the authentication fee anyway, and I'd include the "Likely Genuine" email with it when I mailed it.  Well much to my dismay, it came back this morning as "Likely Not Genuine".  I've used the service a few times before and this is the first time i've ever had that result, so needless to say I was a little bummed.  I can spot a fake Scarlett pretty easily (or so I thought...) on ebay, and there are certainly plenty of them.  I thought this signature looked good, and featured the slanting from top to bottom that all of her authentic signatures always have. 

So my question is this - how reliable do you think the quick opinion really is?  It's not that I'm in denial - but I just don't really agree with it.  And for what it's worth, I did write the seller and he said he obtained this as the Avengers premier along with Jeremey Renner (which he has for sale another poster with both Renner and Johansson) and he also has another auction with another Scarlett.  But he did offer me a full refund - so should I take him up on it?  I was able to get this 11 x 14 for $100 best offer.  He originally had it priced at $179.00.  Should that have been a red flag?  Most real Scarlett's go for alot higher than that, but I was thinking I got a good deal.  Should I just go with the refund? 

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Permalink Reply by JXE on July 10, 2012 at 12:37pm

I wouldn't sweat the quick opinions. I've found them to be spotty. Usually they are over-cautious and they sometimes say even obvious stuff is likely not genuine if they have any small reason to be concerned. That's probably a good thing. I've had them come back likely not genuine and I've still bought items in the past if I was sure about them and trusted peers were also sure. 

I got this one about a month ago from an in-person collector I trust who got it at her Walk of Fame event. Yours has many similarities to it:

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Permalink Reply by Geoff LaVeine on July 10, 2012 at 9:36pm

Here is a pic (from my cell phone unfortunately) of the CD cover that I got from Newbury Comics.  In my opinion, her signature here has alot in common with the 'not likely genuine' poster signature above.  I'll let you guys try to be the judge though.

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on July 10, 2012 at 10:26am

Wouldn't it be nice to know who gave the "Quick Opinion"?  What were they doing at the time? Were they looking at the item on their phone or on a massive HD screen?

Was the "opinionator" someone who is fluent with all styles and variations of this signature?  Or, Was it a sports expert that took the request? Was it someone else hired to compare submissions to images in a database?

For the continuing education of collectors, it would be nice if these "quick" opinions came with reasoning.

You sound like that you trust yourself more than the opinionator. That is not a bad thing.  Especially since you have been doing your homework. Remember, opinions aren't always correct.  The same goes for all of the bad items that have genuine "COAs". Do those COAs make a bad item real? Nope!

Maybe your initial feelings on the item will lead you to seek a second "opinion" from another party. It could be that the "Quick" opinion is correct.

"Quick" opinions rendered like this aren't always a bad thing. They just aren't always right. There is just too much secrecy surrounding them. At least in my "opinion".

 

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Permalink Reply by Geoff LaVeine on July 10, 2012 at 10:38am

It's certainly possible that the person who looked at it could be right.  We all know that unless we see them sign ourselves, nothing is 100% certain.  My concern is that there are so many fakes of her signature, that I can't be for sure that alot of people even know what to look for.  There was another topic about her before where Mike pointed out the slanting in her signature.  Somebody else in that thread said they have 6 Scarlett's and all of them slant.  I actually have a Scarlett autograph that she signed on a CD that she sang with Pete Yorn.  I can post up an example of it later and it looks alot like the sig on this poster.  That autographed CD came from Newburycomics.com which sells alot of autographed CD booklets - I trust what they have is legit.   I also trust Mike's opinion, who replied to me about this earlier in the thread - we both thought it looked ok.  But now i'm starting to wonder if I should just send it back - even though I think it's good - which sucks because I really like the pic alot and it is a really nice looking sig in my opinion. 

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Permalink Reply by Geoff LaVeine on July 10, 2012 at 12:02pm

I don't have a scanner, but i'll try to get it scanned tonight at my parents house. I can also take high resolution cell phone pics of it, but i know a scan will help alot more.

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Permalink Reply by Geoff LaVeine on July 10, 2012 at 9:48pm

Here are 2 pics I took of the picture - first one is with flash and the second one is without -

and here is the CD insert again, but taken with flash and a little closer to it

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Permalink Reply by Geoff LaVeine on July 11, 2012 at 9:19am

Thanks Mike. So now this makes me wonder if I should even bother sending this in for PSA/DNA authentication. I had planned on using the $7.49 quick opinion as credit towards the fee, but since they didn't give a likely genuine opinion, I don't imagine I should reference it. I'd hate to pay the $60 bucks to send this off and have it come back as no good based on just the quick opinion.

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Permalink Reply by Geoff LaVeine on July 11, 2012 at 2:24pm

Looks like eBay has pulled the auction (even though it's already done and paid for) because of the quick opinion result. 

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Frew on July 12, 2012 at 10:23am

I've been in this same situation before.  I found out about the quick opinion service after i had already won and paid for several auctions from the same seller.  I'm new to this hobby and decided for peace of mind I'd use the service just to see if my items were any good.  I ended up getting 3 "likely not genuines" and ebay removed the listings and eventually removed all this guys's items and suspended his account.  I did get a full refund.

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Permalink Reply by JXE on July 12, 2012 at 10:27am

The problem is that this is only good if the item is fake. In this case, Geoff just created more grief for himself and for the seller because PSA wasn't correct on an item he knew was real in the first place. The moral of the story is don't get a quick opinion on something you know is real after you've paid for an item. PSA holds too much power by being able to pull items and suspend accounts based on their quick opinions, which are spotty at best.

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