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IS INCONSISTENCY IN CELEBS AUTOGRAPHS RUINING GETTING ITEMS CERTIFIED ?

Whats up guys...its been a while since I put up a thread but recently I have noticed this with some discussions with some fellow members and collectors as well in the collecting community that items have been turned away by TPA's...now of course I am not an authenticator...but is it fair to say that because of inconsistency in celebs that TPA's simply turn them down because the auto IS NOT PERFECT...or on the other hand just awful and it passes...I have noticed this recently on things that have failed when I was certain on them being authentic...You guys may or may not remember I purchased a Roger Waters signed photo and it Failed JSA and Quick Opinion from PSA which I was pretty certain was good and was also pretty certain was well from other collectors who collect rock items in particular...now its just going to sit in my closet rotting away to be later exposed as an informational item to be used for side by side comparison...But more importantly I have seen items pass and fail to me that is quite mind boggling...

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Permalink Reply by CEE GEE on July 12, 2012 at 8:40am

I hear you John...I know the feeling all to well...a picture of the signer actually signing the actually piece to me is better then any cert...it does not get any better then that...that is why I always try to get a picture of a signer signing the actual item...a picture is worth a thousands words...

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Permalink Reply by CEE GEE on July 12, 2012 at 10:35am

Great points all around Mike...I know how much in the frenzy of collectors trying to get a piece shoving does occur and if your alone it may be damn near impossible to get a picture off especially when the celeb is bombarded and just at times just initialing items...there is no question about how hard it is..and you most definitely need a partner in crime taking pictures...

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Permalink Reply by DB on July 12, 2012 at 5:05am

the TPAs are doing it to themselves. The GAI/Mike Baker toward the end certs of Mantle/DiMaggio/Williams as so often pointed out by TomTresh2. The exposure of Hestons where there was upward to a 60% error ratio. Oh, that's right they were "all" authenticating this secretarial until exposed by Steve Z. Sorry, they don't get off that easy... as they are in business to know and find bad exemplars (not wait till someone else does!)/ Both PSA & JSA don't stand behind their opinions.

Then what would be the alternative? STAT, TTA, Nicholas R. Burczyk (sometimes i use the "juris" J), ACE or the myriad of fly by night COAs or just bad authenticators.

Or better yet the somewhat informed members here? With some who then claim, "well I'm not an expert" or those who obtain in person and then feel every signature must then purport to the one obtain in-person. It's always easy to be the Monday Morning QB.

I wonder if the treasure trove of 1910 E98 series baseball cards would be more valuable then they already are according to Heritage. Then again those are cards and presuming they are the real McCoy (which is what drives people to opinionators) would slabbing it with a PSA add more value? Most likely.

It wouldn't be such a delemma if the TPAs (& good independents) simply admitted to a mistake, corrected it, then moved on. It might also help if we grabbed good provenance at the time of signing. We are all guilty of not doing that (including me at an event with Tia Carrere).

I muse CeeGee that the problem is that those who collect "real" in-persons are dwarfed by those making similar false claims so if an exemplar being compared to is too far astray or the opinionator perhaps not well versed then we get as u described.

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Permalink Reply by DB on July 12, 2012 at 5:15am

guess I just answered the E98 Card ones;

The company (PSA) grades cards on a 1-to-10 scale based of their condition. Up to now, the highest grade it had ever given a Ty Cobb card from the E98 series was a 7. Sixteen Cobbs found in the Ohio attic were graded a 9 - almost perfect. A Honus Wagner was judged a 10, a first for the series.

Retired sports card auctioneer Barry Sloate of New York City said: "This is probably the most interesting find I've heard of."

The highest price ever paid for a baseball card is $2.8 million, handed over in 2007 for a 1909 Honus Wagner that was produced by the American Tobacco Co. and included in packs of cigarettes. Another similar Wagner card brought $1.2 million in April. (Wagner's tobacco cards were pulled from circulation, either because the ballplayer didn't want to encourage smoking among children or because he wanted more money.)

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Permalink Reply by CEE GEE on July 12, 2012 at 7:40am

I think your referring to the BLACK SWAMP FIND which is quite incredible...PSA claims some could not get 10's because of centering...I feel if there going to be nines and the best was a 7 and chances are there will never ever be another find like this...they should have been 10's in my opinion...those cards are as cherry as they get and seriously looked like the packs where just opened last night 102 years ago...its amazing...also...if I was that guy I would let the hall of fame display them for a little while so people and collectors can see them....I would hold on to those cards for another 30 years before dumping them personally...those cards are quite amazing...