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Fake charity items from PSA Productions.....Jordan, Lebron, DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Aaron Rogers, etc.

I mentioned this here last year and nobody responded. There is a company here in Phoenix called Mountainside Fitness, to which I belong. They are again setting up a charity auction from a company called PSA Productions run by a guy, Jim Johnson (pretty sure that is his name). They set up inside the health club and have bidding sheets. Just about everything is fake, with the exception of a PSA Magic and Bird and a JSA Cincinnati Reds signed photo with Rose, Bench.

All of the fake items are certified by GA, yes, Steve Sipe. Everything is elaborately matted and framed to throw off any suspicion.

The banners at the tables all have large PSA lettering so it appears that PSA is the company offering the goods, when in fact it is someone taking advantage of the PSA name recognition.

I of course asked to speak with the general manager. No surprise, he isn't available. They offer me their corporate number, nobody answers and they ask you to leave a message. Again, no surprise, no return phone call. This really p***** me off. I went up to every person I saw looking at the items and warned them to not bid. My first inclination was to write "fake signature" on the bidding sheets. My daughter talked me out of it, because she thinks we will get kicked out.

They were offering Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Lebron James, Aaron Rogers, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, and Ted Williams. Just about every item was around $400 in the bidding.

Any suggestions? I was thinking about contacting the local newspaper, not really sure of anyone cares besides us. If you live in Arizona and have a Mountainside Fitness near you, go in and see if they have the same set up. Maybe if more people called to complain, they would do something.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on August 25, 2014 at 5:09pm

Do you have a local "consumer warning" type reporter on one of the local news stations? This is a juicy story for one of those types. Especially considering the gym is terminating memberships of anyone who blows the whistle. Now that they are using COAs that have been banned from eBay, that gives you some solid substance to show the material is suspect and you don't run the risk of looking like a "nut."

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Permalink Reply by Steve on August 25, 2014 at 6:33pm

I am going to contact the Phoenix Republic and also call a few of the tv stations. I know they will want me to be able to prove that these items are fake. I can prove that to you guys, no problem, but to people with absolutely no experience, I'm not sure.

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Permalink Reply by Dom Vito Castiglione on August 25, 2014 at 8:25pm

Maybe we can try to get a show like HBO Inside Sports to do a program about forgeries at these charity events, coach's corner, ebay, morales, GA, ACE, Rocchi, ect. That might wind up being dozens of episodes though

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Permalink Reply by Tim Davis on August 26, 2014 at 10:45am

Steve.... I am in Scottsdale and will also make some calls about this. I will put a call into the top guy in the circulation dept (my dad worrked there for years). I know it seems somewhat silly (speaking to someone in circulation), however he knows me well and can vouch for me with someone on the reporting end.

I agree 100% that this needs to be stopped. Its bad enough them selling forgeries, and supposedly "for charity", under a bogus "PSA" name, but then to threaten people if they say something. This does have all the correct ingredients of a "juicy" story.

I will call him tonight.