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The Cat Is Out Of The Bag!!!! :)

A possible fake? Jesse Jackson Jr. memorabilia auction canceled

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(CNN) – The U.S. Marshals Service has canceled the auction of Jesse Jackson Jr.'s fraud case memorabilia after revelations that at least one of the items may be a fake.

More than a dozen items had been up for auction, handed over by Jackson to be auctioned off, with the proceeds going towards the $750,000 judgment against him after he admitted to misusing campaign funds for private use. Jackson, a former Democratic Representative from Illinois, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Among the fur coats and movie memorabilia was a guitar purportedly signed by Michael Jackson and Eddie Van Halen. Those signatures may be fake, the Marshals Service said in a release, saying that they had received "legitimate concerns about the authenticity of the guitar."

What do furs, the king of pop, and Bruce Lee have in common?

"Out of an abundance of caution, the Marshals Service will conduct a secondary review of all the assets," the statement said.

"Once the review is complete, a decision will be made whether to repost any assets for sale by auction."

–CNN's Bryan Koenig contributed to this report

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on September 21, 2013 at 5:53am

But wouldn't it be easy to discredit Max as an "expert witness"?

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Permalink Reply by Rick Meyer on September 21, 2013 at 9:02am

I would think it might be difficult discrediting any of these authenticators to folks that are hot familiar to the hobby. Many of them may think all the authenticators are on the same level and just attempting to discredit each other.

No matter which authenticator you use to try and discredit them probably doesn't matter since they all have easily found skeletons in their closets. All have made boneheaded mistakes and these are all over the internet. It would be hard in court I think to use even PSA and JSA opinion on autographs after some of the horrible mistakes they have made. I think courts would take formal training or fellowship training over the opinions of those with years of autograph collecting experience.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on September 21, 2013 at 9:12am

One of the points I have brought up in the past, is that wannabe autograph collectors equate guys like Chris Morales, Frangipani and Drew Max to shows like CSI.

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on September 21, 2013 at 9:55am

so as we all know, it all really comes down to the buyer being responsible for his/her own "authentication" of an item. I trust very few opinions over my own. And the ones I do trust are the contributors to this site.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on September 21, 2013 at 11:16am

Rick, you are dead on.

"On paper" these guys appear to be educated and professional. They would stroll into court and the attorney would have them recite their credentials and then they would testify that the item -- in their opinion -- is within an acceptable range of variation from known authentic exemplars, etc. etc. etc.

As incompetent and/or corrupt as they may be, they would have the upper hand in a court setting against even the most respected and knowledgeable collector or dealer. The forensic credentials are essential to the scheme.

The layperson jury would probably buy it hook, line and sinker.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on September 21, 2013 at 11:18am

And that's the travesty!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Rick Meyer on September 21, 2013 at 6:18pm

I agree with that. We see people buying off on those credentials even today with all the information out there. What these guys are doing is almost the perfect crime. Charging for opinions and never changing their minds or just saying "oops" maybe I need a night class in so and so's signature. Works so well others like GA have adopted the business model.