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PSA/DNA Certification

All,

How do we feel about PSA/DNA authentication of autographs - sports and non-sports? At least in the sports world, they seem to be the standard, with the certification making all good, but you guys are the experts.

If PSA is not the way to go, who would you recommend?

Thanks
DT
Allen, TX

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on November 1, 2010 at 8:52am

In the case of Pacino (more of a loop usually) and other stars who squiggle, you can tell what he for sure didn't sign...which is a high percentage of the material out there--including the thousands of secretarials. And others look stone on or you're just not sure, but like you said there's not much to the sig, so you have to compare them to the thousands you have seen that you know are good or bad.

Keep in mind that these autographs are rarely look at in a vacuum. They often come in groups, or you can compare them to other that come up or are on the seller's site (I don't know if PSA and JSA do that, but dealers and smart buyers do), or to other suspicious or genuine ones you've been seeing. They often can tell if several different autographs were likely signed by the same hand and learn to recognize the characteristics of a particular forger.

We got a deal of 100 autographs from a new source we were checking out, and noticed that the 'K' in Katherine Heigl looked way too close to the 'K' in Kate Hudson for comfort. Then a lot of other letters started looking too similar as well. This was even before we started comparing exemplars.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Badwey on November 1, 2010 at 7:48am

I agree with Bill that John is an expert at his field. Not only have I not seen anything suspect in the areas I know, but he discloses any type of restoration work that others may neglect. Bill is also honest and is an expert at Military History.

If you have anything suspect, pay one of these guys to look at your stuff

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Permalink Reply by Anthony Bautista on November 1, 2010 at 12:46pm

Do you own that card or did you get it off ebay. Cause a friend of mine bought over a 200 of those cards and got them all slabbed by psa , they came from muhammad ali's daughter.

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Permalink Reply by Anthony Bautista on November 1, 2010 at 2:45pm

I dont know if psa even knows they came from his daughter. Im telling you thats where they came from cause if those are the cards from my friend . You can tell its ali's signature . To me what matters is that the autograph is real. Im sure psa is impartial . Wether we like or not every company is impartial in every line of business. No matter what everyone complains about it isnt gonna change a thing. They only offer an opinion , we just gotta respect them for that . There opinion isnt set in stone .

I don't know about anyone else but if I practiced for a day or two I could make one letter like that look spot on.
You shouldnt write stuff like this . People who are new to autograph collecting or people who dont know anything get the wrong idea and they think negatively on the hobby .

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Permalink Reply by Anthony Bautista on November 1, 2010 at 3:19pm

I guess you can say its an educated guess. I know what you say is true and makes sense but I just dont see Psa changing anything they ever do.

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Permalink Reply by Roger Furr on November 3, 2010 at 4:31pm

We all know that all of the authenticators have made mistakes and alot of them. I took 2 items to JSA a few weeks ago that were signed in person a Jimmy Buffet LP and a Bill Clinton fl yer . I know these were authentic autographs cause I was the person who got them. JSA failed them both cost me $80.00 and I looked at the way the were authenticating the items they were just looking at photos on a computer. I was very disappointed as I thought they were alot more work put into someone collection that just looking at photos for a minute or two.