HGA authentication - ever heard of them?

While tooling around ebay, I happened upon a "new" authentication company, Historic Grading and Authentication out of Whitehouse, OH. So, I google searched them to see what I could find and found their website. They offer a much cheaper authentication service than do PSA and JSA, and either encase your item or take a photo of your item and give you a LOA with your item's picture on it. The name of who signs the letters look like Matthew A. Moore (the print was too small for me to read clearly and I could not figure out a way to make the picture bigger.) I know Sportscard Guarantee Corporation has gotten into autograph authentication recently, and has done a good job at a lower cost so far, as I have not heard anything bad coming out of that camp, but what do you guys think of this group? Anybody had any dealings with them?

Tags: HGA, authentication

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Permalink Reply by Rock G III on July 20, 2015 at 6:24am

I think its worthless and adds zero value to an item.It means as much if I guy online and buy 1,000 holograms and place them on my items. As a matter of fact i am going to say it decreases the value if they sticker said item.

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Permalink Reply by Jeffery Kite on July 20, 2015 at 12:41pm

Thanks, Rock. I am not too big on stickers now like I use to be. I use to think that was the way to go, but I think differently now.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on July 20, 2015 at 12:24pm

This is the first I have heard of them. Judging from their web site, it looks like they do sports autographs and cards, which is a bit misleading, because judging from their name, I had thought it may have been a company that specializes in history-related autographs.

The fact that they do not have any real company background or information regarding who actually does the authenticating does not inspire confidence.

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Permalink Reply by Jeffery Kite on July 20, 2015 at 12:44pm

Steve, I got that feeling, too. PSA, JSA, and SGC lists their staff, with pictures and bios as to who authenticates the autographs. I tried looking further into these guys, but came up with nothing.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on July 20, 2015 at 12:50pm

In my view, hobbies are built on trust. Whether it be a trusted and respected dealer or a third party expert, you know the names of people that have track records and have shown themselves to be credible. It's not just autographs, the same applies to comic books, coins, cards, etc.

There are actually a surprising number of "authenticating companies" if you search online. The common thread running through most of the "unknowns" is just that - you don't know who they are!