Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bob Salvati on September 11, 2014 at 7:16am

Permalink Reply by James McCay on September 11, 2014 at 6:43pm

Musician autographs are not at all my specialty. But the few I do know and own make me agree with Bob's assessment. eBay made it impossible to do much about scum like these guys anymore as we can no longer see buyer ID's (as of this year) to tell them they bought fakes (which I always did regardless of eBay's stupid rule against that). I'm a Forensic Document Examiner and I'll be damned if a money hungry company that knows NOTHING about autographs is going to tell me I can't tell a buyer scientific facts. 

Great job Bob!

James

Permalink Reply by Bob Salvati on September 11, 2014 at 7:33pm

Thanks for you comment, James, and thank you.  I have been collecting Rock & Roll autographs since 1988 so I guess that makes me someone with over 25 years of experience. What makes someone an expert, I don't quite know but I will say is that this seller's stuff is all bogus.

Permalink Reply by Jeff Schmitt on September 28, 2014 at 10:11am

Who is an expert? Nothing more than the guy with the MOST STUFF.   It usually starts out with some guy walking around a show and seeing someone with a pile of items on their table.   The browser then says, hey you have a lot of stuff, you must be an expert.  The moment the seller behind the table hears this it goes to his head and forever proclaims himself an expert because he then believes his own publicity from one or two people. .  I will never forget doing a show with 1/2 inventory and the guy next to me having twice what I had that day.  Customer comes along and sees his table and then says to me that I have a lot of good stuff and that Im Almost An Expert as he is looking at all the items at the table next to me.  Just goes to show you what goes on in peoples minds and how people perceive things.

Permalink Reply by James McCay on September 28, 2014 at 5:29pm

Jeff Schmidt,

Your point is taken, but there are many of us who have been professionally trained in one skillset or another that enables us to spot forgeries far better than the biggest autograph collector out there. For instance, I was an EKG Interpretation Technologist for 16-years. I make it a point to learn everything there is to know about anything I put my time into or I don't do it at all. Quality EKG Interpretation requires exceptional pattern recognition skills which took me years to perfect. Hospitals think they can send their Cardiac Care nurses to a basic EKG Interpretation course and then follow-up with a few hours worth of classes each year, but they know less than 10% of what I know because I read EVERY EKG book made (and many have ridiculous errors) and asked questions directly of the authors of the accurate books. I became friends with Henry J.L. Marriott (the Godfather of EKG Interpretation) and he answered questions I had accumulated over years that no one else could. I even taught him a couple of things that he was humble enough to admit to not ever thinking about.

Giving opinions on autographs is very similar to EKG Interpretation as the same pattern recognition skills are used. Then I interned for over 200-hours in 1999 with a Forensic Document Examiner which was the first step to qualify me to be a Forensic Document Examiner. I never planned to charge anyone a fee (and never have) so I didn't become court qualified as an autograph expert which would have been Step #2 before I could charge a fee for my opinion. So I am professionally trained to give my opinion on my specialty autographs which are mostly current (1970's-present) baseball stars and superstars, some football stars/superstars, and some non-sports autographs as well (especially celebrities who are available on Certified Autograph card company autographs like Inkworks (now out of business) and Rittenhouse).

I'll say it as I've stated since 2001: ON CARD Certified Autographs from established/trusted card companies are 99.9%+ authentic! Plus they almost all have the authenticity statement or embossed logo right on the card. This adds a level of authenticity that no other type of autograph has. If you get an autograph in-person, you know it's 100% authentic; but no one else does.  I'd say that Authenticators (Spence, PSA/DNA) are 95% correct (and that's being very generous). I've proven several forgeries from Spence and PSA/DNA and others who specifically went after one or the other found MANY, MANY errors and both were busted more than once by Investigative Journalists on TV. As for Forensic Document Examiners I'd say are 99% correct, but they are generally much more expensive. Only two ON CARD Certified Autograph Insert card sets were made without autograph authenticity statements right on the cards: 2012 Leaf Originals Wrestling and 1996-97 Pinnacle Be A Player Hockey. Card companies went above and beyond to make sure the autographs they released were authentic because if they weren't- we'd be right there to bust them quickly and destroy their reputations which could easily cause them to lose their licensing. Once a card company loses just one license in one sport that usually means bankruptcy, at least before Upper Deck lost nearly all their licenses and kept making cards in those sports anyway. Someone (or many) got bribed big time in that case. 

I have at least (100) exemplars of certified authentic autographs of the players (most are On Card Certified Autograph Inserts from big autograph trusted card companies) that are most frequently forged and sold online as in-person obtained autographs as I busted forgery sellers for free from 1999-2008. After that I continued, but far less than before because I am very ill. I have a disease that is effecting my eye muscles and nearly every other muscle in my body, and my nerves as well (severe Myasthenia Gravis and Fibromyalgia, plus five ruptured disks in my neck and low back). I also have Hyperthymusism which started from the Myasthenia Gravis and blocks medications from working in me. I have severe pain and weakness all day/every day, so I'm a shadow of my former self.

I will still try to help on this website (and only on this website) when opinions are needed on autographs. If you want my opinion, it's best to e-mail me directly with a clear scan and I'll do my best. Remember scans or digital pictures ARE NOT by far the best way to give an opinion on any autograph. Autographs are 3-Dimensional and all that can be seen from a scan is 2-Dimensions. I can spot a bad forgery or even most pretty good forgeries, but no one can give an honest accurate opinion on a good forgery from just a scan. I like to gather as many particulars about the seller as well: if they've ever been accused of selling a forgery before, have they sold far too many of the same player who has a rare autograph, and many other details that I won't divulge to enlighten forgery sellers. It's my opinion that you don't ever pay a penny for an opinion on a scan/digital picture like eBay offers. That's a waste of money as there's so many indicators of forgeries that simply cannot be seen from a scan.

Stay away from sticker Certified Autograph Insert cards. Finally their value is less than On Card autographs, and the value will continue to fall. Plus players have to shrink their natural autograph to fit the stickers which often causes terrible quality signatures. These days most card companies are losing money, so they release more sticker autographs than anything else. So be patient and buy pre-2006 Certified Autograph Inserts. The most sought after On Card Certified Autographs are from 2001 on back- before most companies even made sticker autograph cards. 

Best of luck,

James McCay

cardcop04@gmail.com

 

    

Permalink Reply by Rick Meyer on September 28, 2014 at 6:26pm

Good read. Disagree with accuracy rate though. No chance PSA and Spence authenticate at a 95% rate. They nowhere near that good.

Permalink Reply by David S on October 1, 2014 at 8:20pm

Agree with most of what you say except that Forensic Document Examiners are 99% correct.

Drew Max - court qualified since 1990 according to his website

Christopher Morales - "court qualified forensic expert"

Both authenticate forgeries all the time and are scam artists...I'm sure they give forensic scientists a bad name, but you certainly can't claim anyone with that title is 99% correct.

I'm sorry to hear of your diseases...I hope you are able to manage your pain

Permalink Reply by Guadalupe Chavez on October 1, 2014 at 1:16am

I've talked to him at kbmacrodeals and questioned his pieces because a lot of them don't look like mine and I've gotten a lot mine from the people themselves. He has told me that he got his from the Vinny Gonzales collection. You'll notice that many of them are of the group Kiss which I personally think, they are all fake but because Peter Criss swears that everything that Vinny has is authentic and real. So he uses Vinny's name behind his autographs. I know that Peter Criss will not sign anything that has the other drummers signature on it and visa versa with the now drummer. And that person has some items with both of their signatures on the some items. I don't know Vinny Gonzales but this guy says his stuff came from Vinny. I don't think anything he has is authentic. I don't know how he can be removed from ebay but his buyers should be warned of all his fakes he is selling.

Permalink Reply by James McCay on October 1, 2014 at 2:21am

It really is sick how eBay now blocks the ID's of all winners of auctions/Buy It Now. In this past this way the only way to educate people that they were buying nothing but fakes, now we can't notify buyers AT ALL! eBay simply doesn't care anymore. I've literally spent hundreds of hours on the phone with eBay Specialists since 2009 alone. By early 2011 they completely stopped caring about honor and integrity on their site. It's not ever worth the effort contacting eBay anymore, and I rarely say that about anyone who will at least listen to you.

Probstein123 is one of the biggest sports autograph & card sellers on eBay for MANY YEARS. Recently he's sold several Nolan Ryan balls that I'd NEVER give my approval on just from seeing a scan. You've just got to see this one- NOLAN RYAN FORGERY. Look at his other Ryan autographs as well, even ones he's sold recently. HORRIBLE!!!

Permalink Reply by James McCay on October 1, 2014 at 2:34am

Please don't buy autographs on eBay unless you want to own forgeries.

Permalink Reply by Rick Meyer on October 1, 2014 at 9:53am

Probstein123 has had a ton of questionable signatures. I wouldn't buy from the guy. He makes his money banking on idiots. Look at these two laughable auctions and prices.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ivan-Rodriguez-Detroit-Tigers-Signed-8x10-C...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jim-Thome-Cleveland-Indians-Signed-8x10-Col...

Permalink Reply by Dom Vito Castiglione on October 1, 2014 at 12:51pm

If those are no good, then why is JSA passing them? Why does Probstein have them for $5,000 OBO? If the Ryan is a forgery, how did they get the foundation sticker from Nolan's company?

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