Hello everyone,

Please dont be misleaded by the title of this thread, as i am a huge fan of Roger's. I have bought numerous items from him and have had him look at numerous items. I will continue to buy form him with the utmost confidence. He has earned the reputation of being the best in the world for a good reason, and that is something to be very proud of.

I am a member over at startiger, and recently in a post entitled NE Autographs, located under the general discussion category, someone posted a commnet that i just cant live with. Someone had asked who was a good trusted authenticator and i mentioned epperson. A member their (screenname: hastemail), who i believe is form germany, posted in reply this comment:

"OUCH, I hope you haven't wasted too much money on pieces sold by Epperson. He has a LONG history of purchasing fake items from forgers. He even fooled RR Auction several times in the past by passing through obvicious forgeries which RR Auction had to take back then and fully refund the winning bidders. Roadhouse, stay FAR, FAR away from anything that is sold, reviewed or "authenticated" by Roger Epperson. That will save you a lot of money and trouble!"

I then posted a reply basically asking him if he was off his rocker for saying this, as ive never heard even rogers competition, or haters, say that he is a bad authenticator of forgeries. Even the guys at anl or alert. And thats saying something, even they know that hes the best, even though obviously mistakes are occasionally made.

Here is the reply that was given:

csink, you want me to name an example for Epperson's misjudgements... how about item 791 of the June 2009 auction at RR - a LP cover supposedly signed by all members of The Clash. When informing RR auction about this item, Trish replied with the following e-mail on June 6, 2009:
"Thanks so much for your patience as I researched your concern further. The Clash LP, item 791, in our current June 346 (2009) auction came with good provenance and was approved by our authenticators. It was originally sold by Sotheby’s Amazon in the UK.

This item was also reviewed and accepted as genuine by noted music autograph specialist Roger Epperson. As such, we stand behind this item with our lifetime money-back guarantee of authenticity.

We appreciate your sharing your concerns with us. Please feel free to contact me anytime if I may be of further assistance."


Best Regards,
Tricia

Tricia Eaton
Auction Processing Manager
RR Auction Company, LLC

BUT... a few weeks later another e-mail from Trish arrived and in it she explained they had pulled the item because the autographs were indeed NOT authentic. Read for yourself:
"I am writing in response to the recent post regarding The Clash album we offered for sale in our June 2009 auction. Thanks to one of our astute and experienced customer's concerns, we researched the signatures further.

After re-evaluating the item, we finally came to the conclusion that the autographs were indeed not authentic. As such, RRAuction honored our lifetime money-back guarantee to the winning bidder by refunding his purchase price in full.


Just wanted to let everyone here know RRAuction takes authenticity very seriously. During the rare occurrence that an authentication mistake is made, our company is known for doing the right thing and owning up to our initial oversight.

If you ever have any concerns in the future, please feel free to contact me anytime.

Best Regards,
Tricia

Tricia Eaton
Auction Processing Manager
RRAuction Company, LLC


It's extremely disconcerting that Roger Epperson would authenticate this item in the first place. If a simple collector can call fake on the album why not him, he's allegedly the "expert". That thing was so fake it stank. There's a lesson here for everyone. Educate yourself and trust no expert but one's self.

If you need further examples of Epperson's misjudgements, let me know

A further post went on to say this:

One of the most hilarious misjudgement made by Roger Epperson was when he "authenticated" Metallica's 2008 remastered vinyl re-issue of "Master Of Puppets" supposedly signed by Cliff Burton. The only problem here is that Cliff Burton died on September 27, 1986 which is 22 years before the remastered vinyl re-issue was even released to the public. Nevertheless, Roger Eppeson once again issued his report and certified the signature as authentic. 










I can't say it often enough: Educate yourself and trust no expert but one's self.

Now i kindly asked this individual to please post as a topic here on Live about eppersons mistakes and what his issue was with him, that way roger could reply to him, because not everyone is a member at startiger. The member however didnt do this and posted the messages pictured above. I do not think its fair to say these things about roger, they may be his mistakes, but we need to get his opinion on this and the issue can be debated. I have invited this member to this site to debate the issue, although i doubt we will ever hear from him.

Please, will everyone who reads this post your opinion of roger good or bad and your credentials. And responses to the above comments. I dont want some new members at startiger to read the response of one man and get the wrong impression. If your gonna make statements that roger is a bad apple, your gonna have to back them up.

I am very eager to read responses, so that i can share with the community at startiger as to what rogers real reputation is.

Thanks so much