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Permalink Reply by JXE on June 5, 2012 at 4:51pm

Which ones do you feel are underpriced? In some cases I've found them to be overpriced if you aren't using a coupon code. They're almost always higher than what Autograph World puts in their catalog updates. 

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Permalink Reply by Mike P on June 6, 2012 at 4:11pm

That's a different perspective and probably true mike. Red flag just pops up for me because when i see people listing a piece for 250-350 but then see same piece from another site 100-200 lower it raises questions. No complaints if it's authentic though haha, but that is a big if. They have nice looking pieces for the most part. I wonder how much they pay their ip workers. Probably by the photo?

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Permalink Reply by Mike P on June 6, 2012 at 7:39pm

Wow, that explains a lot.  On my way to work, I see these groups of people stand in front of the yankee hotel on the upper-east side all of the time, so I guess they would be working for a dealer who then wholesales his supply to a larger company.  That must be a pain though, like you said sitting on your stock until it sells.  It's bad enough you have to actually get the celebrity to sign, only half of the battle; then comes the selling which I can see would take forever.  I know you probably though about this, but wouldn't working out a discount agreement with a 3rd party auth. company speed the selling process/increase profits?  I could see it being a loss, especially depending on the signature but then again some people simply dont buy unless they see some sort of major COA smacked on an item so it could probably help.  I would only do  that for the more expensive items (albums, more popular celebs etc).  The other items probably wouldn't be worth it. 

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Permalink Reply by Mike P on June 7, 2012 at 8:40am

well, you couldn't work everyday depending on getting big celebs 

Yeah this is obvious, i was just saying that with regard to authentication; I wouldnt bother getting small-ticket items authenticated.  

That "Coa slapped on it" was directed to people who buy via ebay etc.  There's a lot of authentic items on eBay that dont have a coa but wont sell since there is no documentation haha.  

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Permalink Reply by Rich on June 7, 2012 at 9:25pm

I really appreciate the insight here.  I've been among those scratching my head over the years, wondering how a business model like Autograph World works the way it does while still being a solid source for authentic material.

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Permalink Reply by Michael T on June 7, 2012 at 9:31pm

AW definitely goes with the low cost 'turn and burn' philosophy. Which keeps their inventory very fresh. Not a bad idea at all in this short attention span world we live in.

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