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Battle of the Experts: Grad vs Epperson; Who's the Better Authenticator?

Hi,

I was wondering who I should ask for a quick opinion in deciphering if a signature is authentic or not. So, here is my choices, Steve Grad of Beckett Authentications or Roger Epperson of JSA Spence. Who's better for rock signatures?

Tags: Authentications, Beckett, Epperson, Grad, Jim, Spence

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Permalink Reply by nicholas pansini on July 16, 2020 at 5:42am

Big thank you Whuffman.

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Permalink Reply by Overseas on July 16, 2020 at 2:56am

Roger Epperson is the best for music autographs without a doubt.

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Permalink Reply by nicholas pansini on July 16, 2020 at 5:43am

Big thank you Bono.

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Permalink Reply by Joe W. on July 16, 2020 at 6:13am

Here is the good thing about Roger. He specializes in music. When you get an opinion from Roger you know he personally looked at it. Steve Grad has good credentials and I'm sure he is very good at a number of autographs but when you submit a signature to Bickett there is no guarantee he actually looked at it.

That is the drawback with big TPA companies. They don't reveal exactly who is doing the authentication. It could be Steve or it could be their latest new hire. Who knows?

And when TPAs gets it wrong they rarely admit to their mistakes or have any real accountability for their opinions. Quick opinions are a real crapshoot.

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Permalink Reply by nicholas pansini on July 16, 2020 at 7:25am

Very clever analogy Joe and thank you. So you don't think going with the "quick opinion" from places say PSA or James Spence is good. Same with Autograph COA and Beckett? I have paid the $15.00 for Roger's expertise and found he's really good but expensive compaired to the traditional $10.00 for the companies I mentioned above.

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Permalink Reply by Joe W. on July 16, 2020 at 7:39am

Nicholas, on rock musicians I would only quick opinion Roger. As for any other TPA service I would only quick opinion from them if my plan was to submit my item to them because they deduct the $10 off a full authentication which is what I would want anyway.

My course of action is to ask people I trust first. Then decide to take something to the next level of a full authentication or not. Personally, I am planning on using AutographCOA primarily with Bickett as my second choice. I like the process ACOA is developing.

I have found that quick opinions work well when dealing with Roger or some other individual person who specializes in specific genres or signers. For instance, Phil Sears on Walt Disney.