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Permalink Reply by Charles O'Brailey on August 18, 2013 at 11:01am

I'm all for making sure autographs are authentic, but it is hard to believe that someone paid 20 dollars plus shipping to have this autographed photograph of Danny Wuerffell authenticated.  Yikes.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Gregory on August 18, 2013 at 3:13pm

It amazes me how some sellers pay $20 + shipping and then end up selling an item for less than $20

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Permalink Reply by Brick Hunter on August 18, 2013 at 4:21pm

They don't.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Gregory on August 18, 2013 at 8:35pm

Yes they do, I've known a few who've done it or why would I say it?

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Permalink Reply by Charles O'Brailey on August 18, 2013 at 8:53pm

I have to agree with Dan.  I had a friend who submitted an Eric Davis 8x10 to JSA and paid the fee to get it authenticated.  He then listed it on ebay with a starting bid of .99 cents and .................it sold..............for 1.04 with 2 bids.

Brick, you'd be surprised at what people THINK their autographs will bring.  They think an autograph of Bobby Doerr will rake in the hundred and it will......but only hundreds of pennies.  

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Permalink Reply by Brick Hunter on August 19, 2013 at 1:15pm

By and large they're people who go to shows and get them authenticated in bulk. Sure you'll have some people send in low value items and spend more on the authentication than what the item is worth. You'll also see plenty of people send in terrible forgeries thinking they'll come back genuine. A lot of people on the fringes of the hobby have no clue what they're doing. 

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Permalink Reply by Dan Gregory on August 18, 2013 at 9:47pm

I had a friend who got 4 autographs of golfer Bob Charles, paid shipping of around $55 to the US and back to New Zealand plus around $80 for authentication. He listed the photos on eBay and got just over $53 for all 4 photos.

After insertion fees and selling and PayPal fees the came out around $100 USD down and now only sends for authentication if it's not going to cost more than it will sell for

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Permalink Reply by Rock G III on August 19, 2013 at 5:34am

There are bulk dealers who get bulk prices which are far less. Besides if he is at a show/convention if psa they authenticate for $6.00. 

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Permalink Reply by Charles O'Brailey on August 19, 2013 at 5:58am

Very true Rob, and I get alot authenticated at shows, but even at 6.00 it has to be a person worth authenticating.  No point in getting a Lenny Dykstra 8x10 authenticated because it probably wouldn't sell for more than 6 dollars.

Also, it would be hard to imagine that someone would forge Lenny Dykstra on a photo instead of someone who would command more money (i.e. Lebron james )

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on August 19, 2013 at 8:57am

Agreed that many dealers gets bulk pricing on low value items at a show. No postage costs. So it **may** make sense for a $20 autograph.

That said, there are also collectors who don't know better, pay full retail on the cert and take a bath on final price.

I see the same thing with comics all the time. Someone pays $40 to CGC slab a comic. If the condition is not as good as anticipated, they take a bath or sell for a NET profit of less than if they sold it raw.

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