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500 baseballs with GAI Mike Baker COAs

Tripped over this seller and posted info on my PSA/DNA thread (we can''t stay focused in any thread, I know) based on a discussion we were having with Brandon. Since GAI is now defunct and there is alot of allegedly fake items rubber stamped by Baker and Justin Priddy (who is now ACE) it seemed to me to let this seller know before what he has sold comes under fire and or he is banned. Based on the response he provided on how he acquired his inventory whenever I hear "friends" I start having my doubts. Redsox have Spring Training in Florida along with most major league teams - seems a stretch!

here is an ebay seller;

Member id benandsavy1 ( 181

)

who is selling quite a few GAI sport items. When I inquired of a Terry Francona item; with cert number GV326376.

he responded that the "authenticator" is Mike Baker director of authentication - so perhaps he doesn't know. I did as suggested above but am surprised as he seems to have sold a number of GAI items and would have thought that Steve et all would have headed him off at the pass already.

Going to post this here and over on the EBAY watch list as I have some trouble buying this response to how he acquired his inventory of GAI items. Since attending training camp is a possibility there are one too many questions.... we'll see if there is any follow-thru as Brandon now has a head's up -: me and my friends had all the balls signed at spring training we did over 500 balls gai had mike come out and certified them at the camp. i will call gai and see if they can redo them for me thanks again

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on January 8, 2011 at 2:28pm

DB...thanks for the heads-up. We can edit comments in forums so I PG-13'd the post best I could. Fuddjcal, you're making good points, but avoid the 4-letters please. Thanks

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Permalink Reply by DB on January 8, 2011 at 2:09pm

Incidently, I have asked steve to remove fuddjcal's post due to the profane laced nature. We have to remember to mantain a professional decor in our language for a number of reasons. I am pretty sure the points can be stated w/o the profanity.

Travis - not necessarily do they have the pictures. As I understand the pictures are only available if an LOA had been done.

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Permalink Reply by Fuddjcal on January 8, 2011 at 3:41pm

wwwwhhhhaaa . Little cry baby. Can't take the word F'ing. Cry me a river little girl. It's not even profanity. Take my post off for all give a rats ass. You want passion and you want the truth from a collector point of view. We'll you got it. WE ARE P**sed Off and we are not taking anymore of this BS. Instead of stroking Steve Sipe, hold him accountable for the 1000' upon 1000's of fakes THEY CREATED. It is 100% FACT and you know it. Constructive points have been made by Travis toime and time again and I don't see him whining like a little 3 year old to take my posts down. Steve Sipe will never answer here because he is a scaredy cat. WE AS COLLECTORS WANT TO KNOW HOW IN THE HE double toothpick, he can have a cozy relationship mwith E-bay and let the stuff go that he does. I am not accusing him, but yeah, the public wants answers.

Take all my posts down and you can argue it out with Travis. Good luck to you wuss. Cry to Steve to take this down too. Censor the whole site for all I care.

Thanks Steve for changing the work "dick" to "Equipment" and letting the post stand on it's own. You don't have to worry about Censorship DB. When a contributor of your stature can't handle a couple of "F'ings" which isn't even a word, that is just plain wrong. I'm soooooooo sorry if you are offended. We'll obviously, I'm offended by all the BS on this site and issues such as I brought up are never addressed by anyone but Travis. You only want to go on on on on on on on about "mistakes" other companies make. BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH These are legitimate points from a collectors point of view and there is nothing done about it.

Do I ask Steve to take down your posts when you take the a**** point time and time again? No, this is still America where free speech is King. You are an idiot. Good luck blogging with Travis.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on January 9, 2011 at 12:50am

Actually, DB did it because he's aware that we're careful about profanity, since we have a family audience. It used to be that all we could do was delete comments with profanity. But our platform has recently been improved to allow us to edit comments.

DB was helping us out...not trying to get rid of your comment because he didn't agree with your positions.

Regarding GAI, they authenticated thousands of Mantle, DiMaggios and Williams that PSA/DNA and JSA passed on, and every reputable expert and dealer we knew thought they were all bad. There may have been even 10,000 total...it was a hoarde that supposedly had been in storage since the 90s.

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Permalink Reply by DB on January 9, 2011 at 1:27am

Steve Sipe as suggested by Travis could have simply washed his hands of it. They don't have pictures of every item and there is no requirement that Sipe "police" ebay. That's EBAYs job and we all know how well they do that. If there is any collector who knows what they are doing they should by now know who to go to for verification.

just the other day a kid tried to sell me a Ted Williams with a STAT coa on it. Want to buy it?

could Sipe do more - perhaps. will he - it's up to him. Incidently, this blog was about 500+ baseballs and Sipe has chimed in with how that came about. People like you should congratulate people when they do something for the cause instead of constantly throwing flames at them using pretty pathetic language.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Sipe on May 5, 2011 at 12:04am

Ok lets just put an end to the DB theory here ok.

Mike Bybee (an employee at the time) and another associate of GAI went to Spring Training in two locations for over two weeks and this guys baseballs are a product of that mission. Our management did this because we wanted to verify each and every signature on site while it was happening. The GP certs were not used as the vendor of record could not produce them in time for this trip. DB why are you such a conspiracy theorist anyway?? You sent me an email and I ansered it clearly and yet you will not let this be??

Mike Baker was not involved with this event. It did happen and was all witnessed in 2008. Although I was a consultant for the company I was behind getting the people where they needed to be and handling all of the travel and coordination. It all happened so back off all of the allegations of some sort scam as it cost a pretty penny and was well worth it.

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Permalink Reply by DB on May 5, 2011 at 12:43am

believe that was already done on the 1st pages based on input from Brandon and the communication you sent along. this thread has been dormant for nearly 4 months. fundamentally, the problem of many certs where the actual authenticator's name is not on them. Incidently, a number of posts were removed when people have been eliminated from this site so the posts will look awkward at times.

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Permalink Reply by Fuddjcal on May 14, 2011 at 9:18am

No we won't back off. It's nice to see you here, but you really didn't answer to the fact that there are 1000's of obvious fake Mantle's everyday with Mike Baker Certds that you are not addressing...please let us know the story of THAT scam and why it continues... Help me understand and then we'll Back Off". Thanks again for answering the original question, but many of us would like you to address the FAKE MANTLE issue. FUDD