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Forensic Memorabilia

I am interested in learning who is dealer/seller of forensically certified memorabilia. Anyone who collects or sells music/sports memorabilia with letters of authenticity from court certified forensic document examiners would be greatly appreciated!

Hope everyone is having a great day.

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Permalink Reply by Rock G III on June 28, 2014 at 4:32pm

You would be a fool to accept a coa from one.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on June 28, 2014 at 4:36pm

Dan, when I was prepping my thread on Morales testifying in court, I emailed and spoke to numerous Forensic Document Examiners (FDE) and they are not cheap to employ.

I asked one FDE the cost to examine one vintage cut signature of Abraham Lincoln or George Washington and I received an estimate of $750.00 and it would take three weeks. And that was the lowest estimate.

Real FDE's require a lot of time to examine certain signatures and they aren't cheap.

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Permalink Reply by Chwa Harps on July 1, 2014 at 6:21pm

Hi Dan Gregory,

Thanks for the response man! I find that hard to believe since all FDE's are Board Certified and Court Qualified from several years of extensive training. FDE's have the ability to determine questionable handwriting samples especially much more so than someone who has zero training, credentials, or education. Why are these 3rd party authenticators who have no relevant background and skills in such greater demand than forensic experts? It doesn't make sense to me.

Why are there forensic document examiners employed by every CPA firm to determine fraudulent signatures? The courts also trust the word of a forensic document examiner to determine if a check was fraudulent or not as well. FDE's are in high demand in determining whether or not a signature in question is valid because they have several years of extensive rigorous training.

What qualifies someone who doesn't have that background to determine whether or not an autograph is real? It doesn't make sense to me just using logic...

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Permalink Reply by Dan Gregory on July 1, 2014 at 6:37pm

Hi Chwa, the problem is that the phoney FDE's such as Morales all get away with what they do by merely saying it is an opinion. There are many brilliant FDE's that do court work etc and help convict or prove innocence of people and settle many cases.

People such as Morales initially started out as the real deal helping Police etc but then he realised that his ceertificate and signature could earn him millions so he went around rubber stamping potentially millions of signatures without looking at them and using the same letter over and over for years. Even now he still does it and gets away with it as he is not breaking the law due to the law being an ass and allowing people like him to use specific terms to get away with it.

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Permalink Reply by Chwa Harps on July 1, 2014 at 6:47pm

Interesting opinion. Where do you stand on JSA and PSA? Do you get your items verified by them?

I have some pretty good high-end items that I inherited but were I have not submitted to any authenticator.

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Permalink Reply by Chwa Harps on July 1, 2014 at 6:48pm

I have no intention to sell them but would like to know if I were to consider selling, where to go in order to sell?

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Permalink Reply by Dan Gregory on July 1, 2014 at 7:14pm

It depends on the pieces. High end stuff for music and entertainment does very well through the likes of RR Auctions although you pay a premium and for sports you can try Goldin auctions. Outside of those, ebay and try advertising here.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Gregory on July 1, 2014 at 6:51pm

Personally I don't use authenticators unless I am looking on a rare occasion to sell something and if unsure I get opinions here, which have been very helpful.

PSA and JSA have done a great job of getting rid of some of the more obvious forgers and forgeries but since they began mass authenticating they have gone down in my opinion. A lot of people will only buy if items have a PSA and JSA sticker.

If you are looking to sell items I would put them up here and ask for opinions and then if people give the thumbs up you can submit for a sticker, this will probably save you a lot of money

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Permalink Reply by Chwa Harps on July 1, 2014 at 6:55pm

Thanks for sharing

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on June 28, 2014 at 5:03pm

Below is the Certificate Of Authenticity that Chris "I Never Saw An Autograph I Didn't Like" Morales was using when was he was employed by AlwaysAtAuction.com.

A generic COA from a "Forensic Investigator?" Talk about "mailing in the COA."