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Is JSA now authenticating forgeries?

I am a new member although I do frequently read articles and forum posts from this site because they populate in Google search when I do research on various autographs.

Let me say first and foremost that this post is not to cause drama or ill feelings. I realize that there are a lot of people who are partial to TPA's and in all truthfulness, I myself prefer items that are certified by major 3rd party authentication companies.

I frequent eBay and make the majority of my purchases from ebay and like many of you, I usually add PSA or JSA to the search bar with whatever I am looking to buy. For instance, If I am looking to buy a Mickey Mantle signed baseball, I might query ( Mickey Mantle baseball PSA ).

While I am very capable of telling whether a Mantle is real or fake, I realize that should I ever want to resell the item that having a TPA on it will certainly help me. So, typically I buy items that are already certified. At the very least, it is a second opinion on what I already feel about the item. I don't buy simply based on the sticker, because I have seen a lot of items that I disagree with TPA's on.

My reason for this post is to call in to question James Spence ( JSA ) on some very questionable items I have been seeing as of late. Most of the items that I have seen have been Music and Entertainment. Has anyone else noticed that JSA is seemingly giving blanket authentication to items as of late. This concerns me as someone who has a large portion of my collection authenticated by JSA. While, I know that my JSA authenticated items are real, if they ruin their reputation, the resell value of these items will tank. This is very concerning. I wanted to get some opinions as to what is going on here? Is JSA going the route of Global? As a long time collector I remember when Global was actually a legitimate authentication company but in no time seemed to turn in to a blanket authentication company.

I am not trying to bash JSA but from what I've been seeing the last few months, I feel about 500% more confident in PSA when it comes to Music and Entertainment autographs. What made me decide to make this post was a conversation I had today with a guy I met at a show a while back. I would occasionally get him to have stuff authenticated if a major TPA was at a show he was going to. Well, he called me tonight out of the blue and said that James Spence and his son were going to be at his house and asked me if I had any items I needed authenticated.

This conversation made me feel that perhaps Spence is a bit to chummy with people he is authenticating for. I don't like that one bit. I don't want the authenticator drinking an ice cold beer with the person selling the autographs. It seems to be a serious conflict of interest and in all honesty, I have felt a serious decline in my level of trust in JSA.

Another interesting thing I want to touch base on is a company called GFA. There is one specific seller who is using about 5 different ebay ids to pump out countless amounts of forgeries from this supposed forensic expert.

This seller has used 5 names to sell well over 75,000 dollars in forgeries all certified by GFA. I have reported his items to eBay but because he is a power seller they seem to never pull the listings. I decided to do a PSA quick opinion on several of his offerings and all 4 of the quick opinions failed. I notified him that the items failed PSA Quick Opinion and this was his response

" It's not even worth dignifying this with a response but if the stuff I've been selling is fake, then I've been ripped off for the past year by my merchandiser. I gave up on those idiots at the "big authentication companies" when I sent them items that I had personally witnessed being signed and they came back as "likely not authentic". Why is it "likely"? Because it's their opinion..

As you can see, GFA is another company that gives blanket authentication and should absolutely be added to eBay's banned COA list.

Here is a few active auctions with GFA certs.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mickey-Mantle-Signed-8x10-Photo-Autographed...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dale-Earnhardt-Richard-Petty-Signed-8x10-Ph...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mickey-Mantle-Signed-8x10-Photo-Autographed...

In closing, I sincerely hope that I haven't offended anyone with my first post. It just bothers me to see JSA authenticating so many questionable entertainment items. It would be horribly sad to see them sell out for the quick buck.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rick Meyer on October 22, 2014 at 8:55am

Sometimes collecting autographs you get things like this. It happens. I've seen messes from celebrities that I knew were authentic but could no way be authenticated. I just call them keepers.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Roberts on October 22, 2014 at 1:14pm

yup.. :)

Mark

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Permalink Reply by Ryan Maxwell on October 22, 2014 at 3:28pm

Everyone has an opinion on JSA and PSA's ability on sports and entertainment, but what about historical? I have seen plenty of Obama's that I can't believe passed from both companies. Who is the goto in Historical signatures?

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Permalink Reply by wascher on October 22, 2014 at 3:44pm

http://www.historyforsale.com/ has good historical material usually. However, be prepared to shell out a lot more than anywhere else.

-w

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Permalink Reply by Ryan Maxwell on October 22, 2014 at 3:48pm

I was referring more to who does the best job at authenticating historical signatures, not who sells them. If I have a presidential auto and want an LOA, who do you think does the best job?

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Permalink Reply by Mike Shepherd on October 22, 2014 at 4:15pm

Unfortunately, the most reliable authenticators of historical autographs are the most reliable dealers of historical autographs. They typically would rather have you purchase from their inventory than be in the business of authenticating something that you acquired from someone else.

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Permalink Reply by Bear on October 22, 2014 at 4:24pm

Yes thats right i myself would not go with PSA / DNA or JSA i have seen them pass fakes before and have not passed ones that are in person autos.

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Permalink Reply by Ryan Maxwell on October 22, 2014 at 5:03pm

Well, for $6000 I can get a Bill Clinton signed baseball from historyforsale. I think I'll stick in the $2-300 range I've purchased on eBay or locally and submit to JSA if I have concerns. Mr. Axelrod may be very respected, but I don't think his opinion carries a 20X premium over the typical going rate for an item.

I was just wondering what everyone's opinion was on the major TPA's ability to authenticate historical items. Most say JSA is great at sports, but weaker with entertainment. Do you think PSA does a better job with historical items? Or vise versa?

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Permalink Reply by Randy on October 22, 2014 at 5:15pm

John Reznikoff is the history consultant for both PSA/DNA and JSA.

However, as is the case with Roger Epperson being the music consultant for JSA, who knows if either actually use Reznikoff because we know that Epperson is apparently not consulted that often by JSA based on his own admission.

I personally trust Jimmy Spence on any full LOA submissions for sports or historical but I'm sure there are others who prefer PSA/DNA or their own opinions.

I have no idea on Music/Entertainment if he is as bad as is presented on this forum but there are obviously many collectors here who have no confidence in him in these areas.

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Permalink Reply by Ryan Maxwell on October 22, 2014 at 5:19pm

Interesting. I do use JSA and have been pleased by the most part. I've submitted some presidential items that I was pretty confident were legit and they did not issue a LOA. And in other cases I've seen items with LOA's I would never buy. But in the end, I trust JSA's opinion over my own. It's a fun hobby for me. For the staff at JSA, it's what they do everyday. As a career. I have to respect their opinion over my own, but that doesn't mean we will agree every time.

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Permalink Reply by Randy on October 22, 2014 at 5:29pm

I agree completely with your assessment.

I have studied autographs for years but have neither the advanced tools nor exemplar file that the full time authentication companies have and I would always trust Spence or Grad over my own opinion. Doesn't mean they are always right because we know they are not but I believe they would be correct more often than me and I certainly don't think it is a coin flip when they give an opinion.