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THE AUTOGRAPH AUTHENTICATOR REPORT

I would like to share with everyone a major problem I have been seeing around Florida for the past few years. For a while you would only see these signature on photos or on multi signed 500 Home Run or 3000 hits baseballs. A year or so ago P.A.A.S. starting receiving these Autographed White Panel Baseballs, "Official League Baseball" , signed in blue ink on the sweet spot. They would be submitted one or two at time, and mostly from collectors that obtained them at local Florida shows or Flea markets. In the last 4-5 months we were receiving these almost exact signed baseballs for autograph authentication from around the country. Last month a local Florida dealer brought in 70 of these pure white single signed baseball for autograph authentication. I held the submission for a few days, so we could document and photograph the signatures for our files. When the dealer returned for his baseballs, I asked him where he had obtained these signed baseballs? He explained with a straight face that he has had them for over 7 years. He said that he waited on lines at autograph shows and sent some of the baseballs to autograph shows around the country to get signed. I then explained to him that they are not authentic and that I have been aware of these forged signatures for years. I also showed him enough proof that he had nothing further to say and admitted that he purchased the baseballs at a Miami Flea market for $10 per baseball. The scary part is he told me that a sports memorabilia dealer friend of his from North Carolina purchased over 300 baseballs and a dozen Muhammad Ali signed gloves. This is becoming a wide spread problem and I have been seeing these same baseballs on many websites and auctions. Please take note of these examples and study the signature patterns. You may notice a few different variations of the same signature, this is done by increasing or decreasing the size and width of the autograph. Besides not being authentic I am sure some of the readers will see some interesting similarities with these signatures. I would like hear some opinions and receive some input. There are additional names and signatures and we will continue to post them.

Thank you for your time,

Michael Frost of P.A.A.S. can be reached at specialagent711@aol.com

Tags: Authentication, Autograph, Frost, Michael, P.A.A.S., PSA/DNA

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on September 11, 2012 at 4:37pm

When new forgery styles emerge, if they a "close enough," sometimes the first ones get through credible authentication. But good authenticators quickly pick up on the pattern of the "off" style and tag it as a forgery.

Richard Simon, PSA or JSA may get fooled once in a while. But it's a safe bet they would not be fooled by someone with a mass quantity submission of near identical forgeries.

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on September 11, 2012 at 4:50pm

I'm fully aware of this! This is why I obtain my NASCAR exemplars MYSELF. In-person. so that I can have a 1st person record of the actual authentic material.

However, the fact is that these items were certed by these companies ... as well as other companies that I didn't mention.

GAI came in and certed way too many. In the end, it bit them. As far as I know, even Sipe agrees that these items are no good.

We simply can't play both sides of the coin here.

I am willing to bet that there are far more examples with Simon, PSA, and other coas than I have shown here.

The GAI items from Podsada caused the downfall of the company. That's fair in my book. I know for a FACT that Sipe helped eBay remove GAI certified items from this authentication when they appeared. Even though they were not authenticated under his watch.

Also, thanks to new information and ways to transfer the info, the same type of situation probably wouldn't happen again in today's hobby.

I'm sure Steve can let us know when and how PSA became suspicious of the "hoard" of items and hopefully, how many were passed. I know that this was the "early days" of authentication as we know it today. Still, the data should be there.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on September 11, 2012 at 5:23pm

Brandon,

I know little of the goings on at PSA, how many of these they missed and when. We know they missed that Williams in 2000 and I imagine they missed others since then. I did ask someone at PSA/DNA about the hoard though, when I first heard about the fakes, and I understand that by the time Podsada was shopping authentication of the hoard in 2007 or so, they had figured out they were fake.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on September 11, 2012 at 4:59pm

You hit the nail on the head, Mr Zipper. First of all, PSA/DNA certified the Williams in 2000 and Richard Simon the two Williams and Mantle in 2002...and we don't know if they saw them in quantity, one after another, or not.

Global certified the Mantles, Williams and DiMaggios in 2007 or 2008 by the thousands. How could you not see how identical they are?

I understand that JSA considered authenticating the hoard, but wanted to examine a quantity of them first. After they did, they passed.

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on September 11, 2012 at 5:07pm

Right, That's exactly what Sipe said too.

It's really going to be hard to be fair about this until we know how many the other companies ( PSA, Simon, etc. ) "authenticated". Still, it shows that these items did fool the "experts".

GAI took the biggest bite and paid for it. Just as they should have.

As far as we know, there may be only a few examples "authenticated" bu Simon & PSA... There could also be THOUSANDS, who knows. Podasada created a MESS! That's for sure. The point is, it looks like he still is.

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on September 11, 2012 at 5:12pm

Steve, Please refer to GAI as it was, You were the one worried about causing "confusion".

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on September 11, 2012 at 5:26pm

Brandon, I called GAI "Global" since it opened in 2002, so it's hard to remember to call it GAI.

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on September 11, 2012 at 5:32pm

I know. I just feel that it is fair in this situation.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on September 11, 2012 at 5:11pm

Brandon,

Thanks for filling things in. You were authenticating NASCAR for GAI then, right? Who authenticated Sports at Global in 2007-8 after Justin Priddy left?

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on September 11, 2012 at 5:23pm

Yes, I was. NASCAR only. Like I have said before, I had to stay on top of Priddy, Rocchi, and Baker to ensure that all NASCAR items came to me and were not opined on by anyone else.

Gryder was there. I have no idea who else they used.

I wanted to make sure that the info got out to everyone. Since Podsada seems to be still at it... So, I asked Steve Sipe to explain what information he had. He was more than willing to.

It's fair for us to note that Steve Sipe's Global Authentics LLC., was not the company that did this mass authentication. It was GAI ( Rocchi ) who issued the coas for these Podsada items.

This whole thing is deeper than anyone realizes I believe. I have other examples of "certified" Mantle Williams, etc. items by other companies. It looks to be a major black eye for the whole hobby.

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Permalink Reply by Richard S. Simon on September 11, 2012 at 5:23pm

I would not authenticate those items now. 10 years ago I made a mistake on these. I admit it.

As Steve Zarelli said sometimes new forgeries get into the market and it can be missed initially as these were by PSA (Jimmy Spence signed the PSA COA) and myself.

Tony Podsada has mentioned that after I turned down his request to be his full time authenticator, and make lots of money, he sent me (under another name) a few of these items (I don't know what he meant by a few) and that I did pass them.

My question to you Mr Mysinger (we don't know each other at all) is how did you get 10 year old COA's of mine?

They are my COA's, no question, but Brandon how did they turn up with you when the only person who allegedly had them was Tony Podsada?

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on September 11, 2012 at 5:32pm

Richard, You will have to ask Steve Sipe if he knows. He sent them to me after he said that Rocchi had left large a file of Podsada items that were authenticated by all of the other experts and companies.

Do you think Podsada used your opinion(s) to try to sway other experts opinions?

This seems to be something he would do I would think.