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What are your opinions about Roger Epperson?  Is he a legit authenticator of music autographs?

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who the heck is drew max???..lol

it makes no sense to you how a competitor in the industry competing for sales business would say other peoples autographs are bad and mine are good come buy from me!  

What Paul M has written makes sense no matter who the authenticator is.

If they sell and they authenticate then there is always the opportunity to do the right thing or the opportunity to do the wrong thing.

I am not defending or maligning any specific authenticator.

IMHO second opinions are always a very good idea.

I will say this. Around 1/2 of my rock collection came from Roger, the other half or so came from elsewhere. The ones that didn't come from Roger I ran by him to get his opinion on. Never once did he say that something didn't look good, but hey I have one! I can see where others may do this. He's questioned many, and many he said look great that I've bought.

Agree terrier 

Mark

Paul M Lover is Chad Baldwin, a twice convicted felon from Oregon. He was convicted in the 1990s for armored car robbery, and convicted in 2012 for selling forged sports and Beatles autographs:

http://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/index.ssf/2012/10/gresham...

Hope he didn't go to prison with that hair style. He was a prison yard punk for sure.

No doubt he enjoyed many nights as Bubba's live blow-up doll

I think it's kind of sad really. Probably could have been a movie star with hair like that. Probably got tangled up with the wrong crowd.

In theory, I can understand why a well-meaning person would say that an authenticator shouldn't, at the same time, be a dealer. This is the conflict of interest inherent in competing with your own clients. However, there are conflicts of interest everywhere, in many types of businesses and industries. The law sometimes requires complete written disclosure of conflicts of interests. Sometimes not. Ever watch Antiques Roadshow? Seems to me that every one of the expert appraisers has a business selling antiques. Same thing? I have a couple of basic carpets around the house I bought when in Istanbul a few years ago. Where did I go to have them appraised? A carpet dealer. How about the real estate agent compensation scheme? Motivation to get the seller to accept a low offer to generate a quick commission. Representing the other side, encouraging the buyer to pay a higher price because it means a bigger check. But that doesn't mean your real estate agent is corrupt. It's just not a great system; your agent is financially compelled to work against you on both sides of the transaction. But that doesn't mean he/she has to. That the conflict exists in the autograph business, as with many other types of businesses, is not a debatable point. The conduct of the professional is the critical issue. Working directly with Roger, I have never experienced even a hint of dishonesty when it comes to rendering an opinion about an item. And he certainly has never encouraged me to buy from him instead of from another source. Its about trust. If someone you do business with violates your trust, find another provider. If the person you're doing business with is competent and honest, even within a somewhat flawed system, then what's the problem? Apologies for the long-winded post. This is basically what Michael T said yesterday, and I agree.

Well said.

Great post Christopher!

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