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Mickey Mantle I NEED OPINION Quickly Please

Alright I was in a card store today and asked the guy if he had any autographed items. He then led me over and pulled out two Mickey Mantle photos. Both photos have a hologram with number that looks like it came from the same authenticity company. However the "secondary" mantle photo has the hologram AND taped on the back is the COA.

On the main photo, only the hologram is on the front.

The store owner was up front and honest. He said that he was not sure about the company and did not know if the signature was authentic or not. He said that the company used to be reliable but in the later years they went "rogue" and lost their credibility. Who knows?

First do you all know anything about the Autograph Legends LLC company?

Second, is the signature authentic?

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on November 24, 2013 at 5:31pm

Lately, they have changed their "Mantle," but it looks worse than ever.

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Permalink Reply by Null on November 24, 2013 at 1:31pm

Common fakes.

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Permalink Reply by Tyler Johnson on November 24, 2013 at 5:23pm

wasnt morales named in operations bullpen? did he not do serious jail time?

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on November 24, 2013 at 5:25pm

Morales was not involved in "Operation Bullpen."

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Permalink Reply by Tyler Johnson on November 24, 2013 at 5:27pm

oh ok.

Then where did he come from> why is he so well known, infamously, by the collectors circle and nothing being done about it? Is he still producing fakes and selling them? I thought all of these fakes were the old ones he produced and they were still just circulating..

I just looked him up. THIS GUY GRADUATED FROM THE FED CRIMINAL JUST TRAINING CENTER ON FORENSICS?????! HE WORKED FOR SECRET SERVICE FORENSICS.

This is the guy? You have got to be kidding me?

I am reading up on some of his stuff right now.. wow what the hell really...

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on November 24, 2013 at 5:54pm

Below is one of my many threads on Morales.

I address him by the name Chris "I Never Saw An Autograph I Didn't Like" Morales.

I have deep disdain for Morales, as I do Ted Taylor and Drew Max.

http://live.autographmagazine.com/profiles/blogs/chris-morales-appe...

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Permalink Reply by Carl Ryan on November 24, 2013 at 7:44pm

Yeah Tyler,

Morales is about as infamous as anyone can get. I really dont think there is a worse name in the hobby, even the bullpen guys probably have more credibility. If everyone else fails your item, the forgery community knows to send it to Morales, he will cert anything in my opinion. There are even a few vids taped on utube where people go in with forgery after forgery and Morales certs them all.

He gets out of it by saying its all in his opinion. And b/c its his opinion, its kinda like a get out of jail free card. In my opinion, and i think others will agree, there is not one Forensic Document Examiner out there that has any credibility in the collecting community for authenticating autographs. Generally all FDEs are avoided like the plague to an autograph collector. Morales may have done good work for the FBI, but a forensic document examiner and an autograph expert are worlds apart. They share some common authentication techniques but in order to be good at autographs, you have to study them, constantly. FDE's are just not equipped to do that. There day to day job does not equip them to handle autographs on a general basis in my opinion. In my opinion Morales just found he could make loads of easy money using his FDE title by certing any item sent to him, and if confronted, he says its his opinion.

The autograph game is crazy strange, and sometimes the ones who sound the best are the worst. I can think of many like that. But once you get familiar with things, you will find the good ones pretty quick. Also, alot of once good autograph collectors and dealers, and authentication companies have turned bad. And ocassionally vice versa, but not often. There are many who use to sell legit stuff, and then found they could make loads more money by selling and promoting forgeries. Many names come to mind.

Its a crazy field