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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 Charles O'Brailey on August 15, 2013 at 4:58pm

Steve,

That ball that Aaron purchased was an Andrew Luck forgery that your company authenticated. You say we love to hate? I like to see it as us helping people realize the dirty truth about Global Authentication. You guys are a total fraud.

Let me ask this Steve. If your staff is this bad at authenticating why don't you fire their sorry tails and get some new authenticators? Steve, I don't think anyone hates you. I think we hate the fact that so many forgeries get by you and your staff. I have seen PSA authenticate forgeries but they are far and few between. I think about 80% of the stuff with your Cert is garbage. If the truth hurts, i'm sorry......but the truth is the truth.

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Permalink Reply by Randy on August 15, 2013 at 7:22pm

This forum should be used to try and add value to the collecting community and not for personal attacks. I certainly cannot justify mistakes made in authentication of autographs and I agree that Global Authentics has a less than stellar track record but I also know they do not just rubber stamp every item submitted. They likely have an inexperienced staff who make mistakes and as Steve says one person cannot personally look at every autograph submitted. I will relate a personal experience with Steve and Global about a year or so ago. I recently posted a GH Ruth endorsed check here for authenticity opinions. I already knew it was bad but the forgery was good enough to fool me and at least one member of this forum before it was exposed by a collector who recognized the forgery but could not find a tell that made it a forgery. I submitted this item to Global through their online opinion service a year ago figuring they would say authentic. It was a test to see what level of competence they had. I received a call back from Steve in about an hour and he said that it looked like a forgery he had encountered and they could not certify it. Keep in mind that if they had said authentic on the opinion, they would have expected me to submit it at the $100 level for full authentication which I would have never done but they had no way to know that. If they were interested in just rubber stamping everything that came in, why didn't they try to get the $100 fee? The fact that he admits they make mistakes although troubling on the one hand, is refreshing because you will never see the top 3rd party authenticators admit to mistakes for credibility reasons. I submitted a Mickey Mantle cap to a major 3rd party authenticator at a show and the hologram was placed under the bill of the cap and the item was fully authenticated except the LOA was to be sent through the mail. After a few weeks, it never came so I called and was told the item was bad and would not receive the LOA. I was told he wasn't even close although at the show it was authenticated. Just goes to show the major authenticators are way from perfect. Try to help the collecting community, please.

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Permalink Reply by Charles O'Brailey on August 15, 2013 at 7:33pm

Randy, I am trying to help the community. Look at the FLOOD OF GLOBAL FORGERIES ON EBAY. Perhaps Sipe traded in his morals for the dollar since you submitted the Ruth autograph. The only thing that I know for a fact is that this guy and his company pass thousands of fogeries in to the marketplace and if you think me posting about that is a bad thing, i must question you as a collector.

How can I not call out this guys company when i see ebay destroyed by his crappy certs? Should I just sit back and pretend nothing is wrong? What about people like Aaron who are putting his life on the line for his country? He uses his hard earned money to buy a forgery. What about him? What about the single mom who got her son a forged Derek Jeter ball for his birthday. Your logic is non existent. You are defending a man who is a know approver of forgeries. To me, that is odd

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Permalink Reply by Randy on August 15, 2013 at 8:08pm

I don't have a problem with you posting whatever you want to but you have made it a personal attack. I did not defend the mistakes made. I said at least on some of them he admitted they made mistakes and on the others he defends his opinion. Remember, it is also only your opinion on previously signed material. Believe it or not, you could be wrong on some of your opinions. I related my only experience with them in which they were correct. I certainly think they make more mistakes than the top authenticators but your inference is that they intentionally do it. As far as I know, they get the same fee for a rejection as for a pass so why would they intentionally pass bad material when they make no more money for passing than they do for failing an autograph? To me, that would be odd.

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Permalink Reply by Carl Ryan on August 15, 2013 at 8:14pm

Well what your neglecting Randy, and i really hope this is a real customer, and not a made up name to defend GA, is that Charles worked for the defunct GAI. According to him, he was told to pass anything that was close to authentic. He stated this is why he quit, but he also stated that due to his insider knowledge that the same practice continued when the companies switched. So actually Charles would know.

You also are neglecting the fact that Charles apparently worked as one of the professional sports authenticators for GAI, meaning that if anyone would possibly know the ins and outs of what was going on it was him.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on August 15, 2013 at 8:26pm

Randy has been has been an active member of this site for at least a year and I've never seen any sign that he's anything but an honest, great member.

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Permalink Reply by Rock G III on August 17, 2013 at 9:32am

I have heard of bulk dealers who pay $3.00 if denied $20.00 if legit. So while the general public pay the same the bulk dont.

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Permalink Reply by Jason D on August 16, 2013 at 11:39pm

Must have been JSA that did that with the Mantle cap because they did the same thing to me on a Pujols ball that I got in person, they put the sticker on it then 3 weeks later called me and said they needed to see the ball again because they needed to take the sticker off of it.

No one is 100% correct but as many times as they pass a fake signature they fail a real one and charge for it.. It goes both ways and neither way is better than the other..

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Permalink Reply by Rock G III on August 16, 2013 at 12:33pm

I have seen over 200 bad Jeter forgeries with your name on it and ebay removes about 15 a week now for being forgeries. Thanks for your service.

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Permalink Reply by Jason D on August 16, 2013 at 11:33pm

Is that a promise? are you gone for good? I doubt it and would be willing to put a bet on that one.. You'll be back.. Who is this staff you speak of?? Why don't they send you photo's of the items that they authenticate? After all the coa has your name on them not anyone elses.. Maybe your authenticators have cataracts, do you offer health insurance? If not that may be an option..

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Permalink Reply by Dan Gregory on August 15, 2013 at 6:46pm

I wonder how many staff are employed by Global Authentics? Do you have more than WalMart and Microsoft by any chance? I only ask as you seem to have far too many staff making mistakes or is it just you and Mike Baker employing people for minimum wage to stamp and record each item as authentic and issue your worthless certificate?

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Permalink Reply by Charles O'Brailey on August 15, 2013 at 8:19pm

Randy,

It is true that Sipe charges the same for a fail or an authentication, BUT............what is he starts failing all of these forgeries? If he does they stop sending them in and Global goes belly up. I know Steve is well aware that his authentication of forgeries is the only thing keeping him in business.