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Global Authentication Autograph Concerns [Title Edited]

[Moderator Note: This member, who is not using his actual name (which is not required), apparently has never been an authenticator for Global, which he claimed to have once been. While his opinions on the authenticity of the autographs he discusses may be correct, no consideration should be given to his other statements without verification.]

I decided to stroll through ebay and look at some autograph certified by the new Global Authentication. I don't know of any one single autograph collector that actually looks as a Global COA as worth anything. As a matter of fact, if I am looking at a higher end piece with a Global COA I double study it because I question the fact of why the seller would send it to Global instead of a real authenticator.

Here are a few forgeries with a Global COA. I know Steve Sipe is a member on this board and if this post gets me kicked off of here, than so be it. I am just about sick and tired of Global aiding these criminal forgers by giving them a pretty sicker and cert. to go along with their forgery. If you guys want to be treated like real authenticators, how about act like it.

Forger #1 ( listed on ebay for nearly 1000 dollars ) Make no mistake. This is a forgery.

What is even more confusing about this particular situation is you also authenticated this REAL TOM BRADY JERSEY BELOW. How can you authenticate the real autograph shown below and also say this obvious forgery is real?

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Permalink Reply by Rick Meyer on August 21, 2013 at 4:44pm

I have the opposite view of Randy. I have never met the guy but apparantly he is out here in AZ somewhere. Bob was an authenticator for GA. He has since disappeared from the GA website. I believe he was good with the major names(Mantle, Koufax, Ali...etc) but I have seen some horrible junk he has authenticated for a guy I know. Guy buys junk off the street and sent to him for review. Most of this junk was through email and he did not see in person. He was friends with the seller. He issued letters on the lesser names or they just used the email he sent back as proof. Many times it may have just been falsely claimed that he authenticated something acting as GA but the seller had 0 proof of it. Good chance the seller was just using their name in his sales speech.

The whole deal looked very shady to me so I asked the question on here before that if Bob does sidework like this does GA back it but never got a reply. At the time I was looking at two horrible Tillman forgeries that he said were good.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Frost on August 21, 2013 at 5:01pm

Do you know for a fact that Bob Gryder had excess to the GA Certs? Do you know if he worked as an authenticator with any other companies besides GA or GAI. Can you post a cert that he has signed?

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Permalink Reply by Randy on August 21, 2013 at 5:20pm

I have no idea if he had access to their certs after he left but obviously did while he was employed there and that was at least until January 31, 2013 because that is the date on the LOA on the Ebay item I referenced.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Meyer on August 21, 2013 at 6:23pm

I might have something. I've known of him for a couple years. On way home. Will look when I get there.

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Permalink Reply by Randy on August 21, 2013 at 5:18pm

I have known about him for years. I have no idea if he knows anything or not but when he was with GAI, he only authenticated current era players and was specified on their web site as their expert for current players.

After Justin Priddy, who handled all of their vintage autographs left the company, Bob's name started showing up on their full LOAs for vintage autographs as well as he was really the only authenticator listed on their web site after Justin left until they went belly up.

Most people don't remember that originally GAI employed Mike Guiterrez who is well respected as their vintage authenticator. If you find a vintage GAI LOA with Mike's name on it, it is as solid as JSA or PSA/DNA. Mike has been around forever and authenticates for Antiques Road Show and works for Heritage as well as consulting for JSA.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Frost on August 21, 2013 at 4:34pm

Can you please post a full certificate with Bob Gryder name on it. I have spoken to Steve Sipe and he told me that Bob Gryder does not work for him and is not part of Global Authentication. If there is any additional information available about Bob can you please post it.

I have been around for many years and know most of the people in this industry but this is one name that I have never heard until yesterday.

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Permalink Reply by Randy on August 21, 2013 at 5:00pm

Check out Ebay item 161081928774. It shows an LOA from January 2013 with his and Steve's signatures. He has been around for many years as an authenticator. Looks like he may not work for GA now as I see a Mickey Mantle autograph baseball which is also authentic listed on Ebay with a more recent full Global LOA signed by Sipe and Steve Widgerson who apparently has now replaced Gryder as their top authenticator besides Steve Sipe.

As I said, Gryder was the GAI authenticator of current players. I have no idea how he came to work for Global originally but Steve Sipe definitely knows who he is and he worked for him from probably the time he took over Global until fairly recently. We know from this LOA he was still there 8 months ago.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Meyer on August 21, 2013 at 7:52pm

Here are a couple. One from 1 Jan 2013 and another from April 2013.

I'm trying to find examples of the email opinions I've seen him do. Similar to quick opinions but very generic and the photo's sent in where very poor. I know I made copies of them just trying to find where I filed them. I'll post them when I find one.

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Permalink Reply by Carl Ryan on August 21, 2013 at 10:26pm

Mike,

I feel your being led astray. Should you really put any faith whatsoever in what Steve Sipe says????? You give people the benefit of the doubt, and thats a good quality morally. However, it seems to me that Sipe is telling you and Steve a line of B.S., but thats just my opinion. As i stated i will never support Sipe, even if he appears with stigmata. But thats neither here nor there.

But and please understand i am not picking on you or Steve C or anyone else, but why in the world are you guys talking to GA??? I can understand trying to get people to convert to the good side of the industry, but cmon guys. I simply dont believe in giving 2nd chances in this case, even though its more like 1000th chance. Why should the community here try and communicate with GA in any way when we constantly see what has infected our hobby. When we see excuses given, when we see valid questions asked, and all that is given back is name calling. I think your a good guy Mike, and it has taken me years to accept that you are a decent guy who is now running a legit business. Your authentications have improved 100 fold in my eyes. And like i said in other threads, when you make a mistake, you admit it, and correct it, actually often going overboard in correcting it, to the point that the original buyer is probably in the positive instead of breaking even. Which is a very nice thing to do and your basically the only one who does it. But i have never seen responsibility taken from GA other than accepting returns and issuing refunds. And the quality of the authentications hasnt changed one bit in my opinion. And thats the key issue for me.

According to what Sipe himself has said, he has a fairly large staff who, from his statements, seem to be ever evolving. Over the years i ahve been here, i have heard these phrases many many times: " i will talk to the staff member who authenticated it", or "The staff member who authenticated this has been fired". I have heard each of those phrases at least probably a dozen times. So based on that alone what would me, you, or anyone else do if you have staff that are authenticating items that are being brought up constantly on AML and other sites as being dubious. And its not like Sipe hasnt been aware of it, as he often comes here in response to the threads and reads about it. And to his credit he does respond. So you have these huge threads like Mr. Zippers, and then this one, and the many others on this site where people are posting hundreds and hundreds of examples. Obvious, the response by most would be, weve got a major problem here. So once that is realized, and obviously it should have been long ago. Then what should you do as an authenticator who owns a business. Well you can do exactly what Steve claims he did, which is reasonable. Talk to the employee who did it, find out why it was authenticated, reexamine that employees past history and current knowledge, make sure they are competent in the fields they are being asked to cert on, quiz them, test them, train them on their mistakes, and get rid of any employee who certs forgeries on a regular basis. And on regular basis, im not talking hundreds per month, but if they are making more than say 6 a month, their is a problem in that area. And Sipe may have doen all that i just said at first, but obviously something has now changed.

It may be very hard to find good staff who are knowledgeable, but you would think after the first 2 or 3 staff that Sipe had to let go for their bad authentications, that he would make absolutely sure his current employees are up to snuff with little exception. It may cost extra money, but their are people out their with that knowledge, and it would pay off in the long run i would think. But again, thats not what i have seen from examples online. Instead year after year, members continue to post items in the gobs here on AML. And each time they are posted and STeve comments, he always gives the excuses we all know about. And they may be true. But the problem is, if this is happening how can you possibly let it continue. Its damaging your companies reputation at the very least. If the staff member doing these things are regular being fired or talked too, then their should only be good employees their. The ones who get the talking too's, should be gone, and the extra effort spend finding staff who wont make these mistakes. One example of an amazing authenticator that Sipe has is Brandon mysinger. Probably the best nascar guy in the world, and id trust him far more than PSA, JSA or anywhere else. So why not find the guys in the others fields who are like him. Its obvious GA's Nascar items from Brandon are good b/c they never get brought up. Its for this reason i hold such a grudge, and just cant forgive. And hes not asking me too, so no big deal. But i digress.

Back to my original comment, why in the world is any trust being given. I know that Steve C and Sipe arent friends, i think thats safe to say. But Charles did nothing wrong other than maybe wording titles harshly. And he now is gone. But if Charles did work for GA, which i believe he did, then how is this going to play out? If it should play out that Charles did work for GA and he shows that, then we would have chased him off for nothing. As Charles pointed out, why would he lie about working for the defunct GAI. No offense to Charles, b/c he seemed to know his stuff, but bragging that you were an authenticator for GAI is not something you are going to make alot of friends with in the autograph field. In fact you may get alot of aggression. So that would seem to be a very stupid lie if it was one. And if Charles worked for GAI quite a long time ago, i wouldnt have proof either at hand. I dont have paystubs from my old jobs, id have to call to get records. You guys may have info i dont, but i just dont see why their would be any merit given to the statement that he never worked for GA. Was Mike Baker contacted or something to double check and see if Charles was. Is Mike Baker still working for GA? If not, then would mike Baker readily know if Charles was a former employee???

I look forward to what Charles posts one way or the other. But i just dont see why anyone is believing this story when considering where its coming from.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Frost on August 21, 2013 at 10:39pm

I understand totally what you are saying and I have nothing at all to do with GA or Sipe. I have spoken to him and we have exchanged some e-mails but that is all I know of Sipe. I just thought he had something to tell and I thought he should get a fair chance to try to explain some of what is going on in the industry. Steve Sipe does not need me to help him nor pave the way to for his explanation, that is all up to him. I wish him well. I always like to here 3 sides to a story before a make a judgement. I am not taking any sides and I was just trying open up a fair conversation.

Thank you