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Steve Sipe Global/GAI: Are these Mariano Rivera fakes?

I thought Steve Sipe was supposed to clean up Global Authentics (formerly GAI)?

These highly suspect signatures are flooding eBay and they all look like they came from the same hand and I'm betting it wasn't Mariano Rivera's. They seemingly almost always have a Global COA.

Who is submitting these? Where are they coming from? Why are they always listed at a fraction of Steiner, JSA or PSA prices? Doesn't that lead one to believe the sellers know they are suspect items?

This junk is what i found just browsing this morning. Repeat this every day and week and there are hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of this style Rivera with Global COAs.

What is going on here?

Tags: GAI, Global, Mariano, Rivera

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on January 23, 2013 at 5:42pm

EBAY was a little slow on the draw but they finally pulled the baseballs in question.

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Permalink Reply by Jay on January 23, 2013 at 6:22pm

To make things easy ebay should just put Global on there ban list.

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Permalink Reply by James McKnight on January 23, 2013 at 8:03pm

Putting GA on the banned list is a little extreme. I doubt any of the Rivera autographs questioned in this blog were authenticated in the past year. In Steve's defense he does go way beyond JSA or PSA to correct mistakes or even acknowledge the people on this website. I've never seen Orlando or Spence address their mistakes, and to be clear I am not trying to defend Steve but I think it's cool that he actually responds to the issues and concerns of myself and the fellow collectors on this site.

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Permalink Reply by Jay on January 23, 2013 at 8:28pm

I still stand by my opinion : )

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Permalink Reply by Null on March 7, 2013 at 7:32am

Piece of crap listed by eBay seller 78cobras

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MARIANO-RIVERA-SIGNED-AUTOGRAPHED-BASEBALL-...

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on June 18, 2013 at 8:46am

More of these hideous blatant Mariano Rivera fakes, this time served up from Power Seller probstein123.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mariano-Rivera-Single-Signed-2009-World-Ser...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mariano-Rivera-Signed-New-York-Yankees-Mini...

Unfortunately, Power Sellers appear to be beyond the reach of having their items taken down.

For a period, eBay was running very clean and the vast majority of Mariano Rivera fakes were being removed quickly.

However, it appears that there have been eBay policy changes and they are now slow or hesitant to remove GA items -- even if they are mass-produced obvious fakes. These same style fakes were promptly removed in the past.

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Permalink Reply by Null on June 18, 2013 at 8:54am

Ugly forgeries. probstein123 has been brought up here before, they do sell a ton of authentic items. The problem is GA is allowed on eBay, so this is perfectly acceptable. eBay is as bad as I have seen it right now.

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Permalink Reply by Null on June 18, 2013 at 8:56am

Just noticed the bottom one is GAI which should NOT be allowed.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on June 18, 2013 at 9:00am

probstein123 is a mass seller who takes consignments. My sense is he doesn't know good from bad.

The problem is he provides cover for people who consign fakes.

Has your fake autographs been booted from eBay or rejected by a real auction house? No problem... just consign it with probstein123... eBay will let him sell anything!