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Part 2 Howard Thompson (Help Me Howard) Pix11 Reveals True Story About The Forgeries Sold By Bergen County NJ’s Baseball Memorabilia Auction Drew Max COA AAU

Following my original thread (link below) on the forgeries sold by the Bergen County Prosecutor (and Caspert Auctioneers & Appraisers), Howard Thompson (Help Me Howard) of Pix11 Channel 11 here in New York produced a two-part follow-up on the forgeries and how they were made available to the public.

First, the link to my original thread:

http://live.autographmagazine.com/profiles/blogs/forged-autographs-...

Two, links to Parts 1 & 2 of the Investigative Report produced by Howard Thompson of Pix11:

http://pix11.com/2014/11/19/prosecutor-auctions-off-bogus-sports-me...

http://pix11.com/2014/11/20/nj-prosecutor-used-false-document-to-se...

The forgeries sold by the Bergen County Prosecutor and Caspert Auctioneers & Appraisers were authenticated by Authentic Autographs Unlimited (Drew Max).

The Bergen County Prosecutor paid Drew Max and Marc Goldman (Authentic Autographs Unlimited) $10,000 to examine the confiscated memorabilia.

Unfortunately, the Bergen County Prosecutor did not reveal that the majority of the autographs were "deemed not authentic" years before.

Mr. Howard Thompson does a great job revealing the true story behind the autographs being "deemed not authentic" with true documentation.

The  majority of the autographs that were sold at the auction obvious are forgeries.

These are forgeries that we see on Ebay being sold (and exposed by the autograph collectors here on AML) every day.

One of the winners of some of the forgeries were Mary Byrne and John Slokovitz.  When you watch Parts 1 & 2 you will see the ugly and poorly-executed Mickey Mantle forgery they purchased.

Below is a photo of the Advertising Poster for the Bergen County Auction.  It is a typical Joe DiMaggio "Operation Bullpen" era forgery.  An obvious forgery.

http://www.bidspotter.com/en-us/auction-catalogues/bsccasp/catalogu...

Part 2 of the Investigative Report done by Howard Thompson is very revealing.

The people who purchased that garbage are people who have no knowledge of autographs.  They based their purchases on the confidence that the Bergen County Prosecutor was selling authentic autographs.

http://pix11.com/2014/11/20/nj-prosecutor-used-false-document-to-se...

The sad and disappointing aspect of all of this is that we have a difficult time enough fighting the sellers of forgeries and phoney authenticators and now this.

It is also interesting to note that according to the Investigative Report by Howard Thompson, PSA would have examined the autographs for half the amount ($5,000) that the Bergen County Prosecutor paid Drew Max ($10,000) and those forgeries would have never made it to auction.

I have yet to see a Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio autograph authenticated by Drew Max that is authentic.  Not one.

Think about that.

Views: 1041

Comment by CJCollector on November 24, 2014 at 4:06pm

The truth is, if PSA had examined those items the auction would have never taken place.

Therefore, Drew Max was chosen to "examine" the items.

Comment by terrier8HOF on November 24, 2014 at 5:33pm

at a significant premium

Comment by Dom Vito Castiglione on November 24, 2014 at 7:03pm

He probably bought Drew Max some Wendy's for lunch and slipped him a hundred dollar bill

Comment by Richard S. Simon on November 24, 2014 at 7:51pm

Can't they just nail the prosecutor because he failed to exercise due diligence by only getting one bid for the job. 

Comment by CJCollector on December 31, 2014 at 12:45pm

Good news!!!

Again, a great job done by Help Me Howard of Pix11 News.

Below is an update:

http://pix11.com/2014/12/31/bergen-prosecutor-refunds-money-for-bog...

Comment by Richard S. Simon on December 31, 2014 at 12:50pm

Hopefully the prosecutor will now be brought to justice. Make him take an oath and explain why he chose who he did to authenticate those crappy items.

At least people got their money back. That does not happen often enough in the autograph biz.

Comment by Rick Meyer on December 31, 2014 at 12:58pm

Awesome ending.

Comment by CJCollector on April 6, 2015 at 3:27am
Comment by Chad B on April 6, 2015 at 8:50am

Thanks for the update. It seems people getting ripped off is not important to the State.

Comment by Michael Frost on April 6, 2015 at 3:58pm

More great work by Christopher Williams. Thank you again,

He will never surrender.+1

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