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Antiquities Caesars Palace, GFA/Stephen Rocchi and AAU/Drew Max Sued for Autograph Fraud

According to the Courthouse News Service, Mr. Daniel Odobas has filed a lawsuit against Antiquities Of Nevada (Toby Stoffa), Drew Max (Authentic Autographs Unlimited) and Stephen Rocchi (Guaranteed Forensic Authenticators for "Fraud, Deceptive, Trade, Misrepresentation, Unjust Enrichment, Conspiracy, Bad Faith, Breach Of Contract and Breach Of Warranty."

Immediately below are links to the story.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/08/30/vegas-memorabilia-house-ac...

http://www.inquisitr.com/3472565/vegas-antiques-and-memorabilia-dea...

In my opinion, this was a long time coming.

Drew Max of Authentic Autographs Unlimited, gives himself the title of Forensic Document Examiner (FDE).

What in the world does "Forensics" have anything to do with autographs?

Very, very rarely in my opinion.

I don't know of any Forensic Document Examiner who knows sports or music autographs

It is also important to know that COAs and LOAs issued by Forensic Document Examiners or by authentication companies that use them, are much less likely to be genuine.

I have yet to see an authentic autograph of Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio or Ted Williams with a COA from Drew Max (AAU).

Not one.

Just below is a link to a thread I wrote on Drew Max and one of his performances on the Pawn Stores show as he Forensically Examined an FDR "Letter To Clergy."

http://live.autographmagazine.com/profiles/blogs/drew-max-forensic-...

Then, of course, there is Stephen Rocchi and his Guaranteed Forensic Authenticators (GFA) group.

In the six years since Rocchi started GFA, I have yet to see one authentic Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams or Joe DiMaggio autograph with a COA from GFA (Guaranteed Forensic Authenticators).

Also, since when does a Forensic Examination only cost $25.00?

Rocchi does all of the below for $25.00 and still can't get it right.

From Rocchi's website. Seriously?

You do not need "Forensics" to determine if an autograph is authentic or not.

http://live.autographmagazine.com/forum/topics/ebay-mantle-dimaggio...

http://live.autographmagazine.com/forum/topics/joe-dimaggio-forgeri...

http://live.autographmagazine.com/forum/topics/roger-maris-forgerie...

Just below is a typical Mickey Mantle forgery on a baseball with a COA from Stephen Rocchi and Guaranteed Forensic Authenticators.

It can be opined in less than one second as a forgery.

What is Rocchi thinking when he issues a COA for the below Mantle forgery?

Rocchi (Guaranteed Forensic Authenticators) has certed dozens of the below set of Mickey Mantle/Roger Maris forgeries on a reproduced Safe At Home poster.

A real authenticator would laugh and dismiss this garbage in a millisecond, but Rocchi has certed dozens of these as authentic.

These are, at best, laughable.

When will all of this "Forensic" madness finally end?

Tags: aau, antiquities, caesars palace, drew max, forgeries, fraud, gfa, lawsuit, pawn stars, rocchi, More…toby stoffa

9 members like this

Comment by Fuddjcal on January 4, 2018 at 1:27pm: and for the record Michael, I do not necessarily disagree with anyone's opinion in the last few days. All points are clearly valid. I just have my opinions on how I live my life. I take it we are talking about 175 K and not 10K so that changes a little. spending that much and not being able to afford to see it through and getting me to eat my words would not happen to me in any case.
I'm sure you know that by now. LOL For the record, I am currently practicing what I preach with the Gas Company. I can assure you, I aint signing nuttin that says I have to stay quiet or say "there was NO gas Leak" or be Mumbles Magilicuty...for a million cronkites I won't sign that. ever never ever.

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on January 4, 2018 at 1:35pm: This quote by Daniel in the Antiquities press release is one I certainly agree with:

...“in my view Antiquities did not purposely do anything outside the course of its customary and ordinary business respecting the authenticity of the Memorabilia or otherwise.”

Comment by Richard S. Simon on January 4, 2018 at 1:49pm: :), good one Steve.

Comment by BallroomDays67 on January 4, 2018 at 1:49pm: I agree that we shouldn't blame the victim, but only up to a certain point. I can understand someone ending up with something on the order of a fake Rolling Stones signed guitar. Everything's in place for that to happen. What seems unusual is someone purchasing what would amount to a museum of rock and roll history for a large amount of money, but a small fraction of the value of the items had they been authentic.

Comment by Adam Halloran on January 4, 2018 at 2:24pm: Education is the BIGGEST key. You will never eliminate all forgers. You can't. There is too much money involved from buying, selling, authentticating etc...

There are just not enough people willing to do the research needed before they make a purchase. I don't even necessarily mean buy things with PSA, JSA, Epperson. I mean take the time to study the graph. Get to know the signing style.

Whether they are gifts or people with their head in the clouds, these new collectors fall into a trap. Don't trust every story thrown at you and just because someone has a homemade coa it doesn't make it real.

I am not victim blaming, because these people are criminals. They should be locked away, but we have to hold ourselves accountable for our own mistakes to learn from our mistakes.

Comment by CJCollector on January 4, 2018 at 3:46pm: Unfortunately, and I've stated this dozens of times, 80% of the autographs sold are purchased by either the casual collector (who has no desire to learn autographs and thinks that a piece of paper called a COA is the end-all) and impulse buyers.

Those two groups will never do research on the autographs they are interested in owning.

And as for Mr. Odobas I can't fault him for accepting the settlement to get his money back.

Comment by Jason Charnick on January 4, 2018 at 3:47pm: I too, think it's extremely important not to victim-blame, especially when it's those people who need our help the most. Antiquities and other "stores" like this, just LOVE it when we squabble amongst ourselves. Makes us look bush league. petty and childish.

It's not about the actual dollar value, a grand to some of us is half a mortgage payment, and to others it's pocket change. Neither here nor there. This guy was taken by a criminal enterprise, plain and simple. And while I'm not a fan of him signing a document doing a complete 180, it was his choice to do so, and also let's not forget, it's a small potatoes press release that probably no one saw. I mean, this all happened months ago, and we're only talking about it now!

I haven't been to the store in LV (though I may try this weekend, as I'm heading out there for the hockey game on Sunday, but knowing how many high end stores are in these Vegas hotels, I can't blame someone for putting faith in that fact alone. You walk into Best Buy, you expect quality, name-brand merch, and if they for some reason were caught selling gray-market goods, we wouldn't blame the buyer for that.

Facts matter. Much like Chris Williams and his WONDERFUL blog on GFA, if we ever wanna take these big boys down, we need to figure out an organized, scientific, and most importantly - unified - front against them. They bank on the fact that questions of authenticity often come down opinions, but we can gain the upper hand if we use the facts we have to our advantage.

But again, most importantly - and though I do understand the anger - we can't blame those who get taken by these guys. They're the ones that need our help the most, and if they get harangued when turning to AML for assistance, it only makes the good guys look like internet crazies, of which I know the participants in this thread are not.

Comment by Jason Charnick on January 4, 2018 at 3:51pm: oh, and also on the press release front, it's pretty obvious that his "quotes" weren't actually his words, but something THEY wrote, and made him sign his name to in order to get his money back. I know we all have our integrity, but if someone said to me that I needed to sign off on that quote in order to get SIX FIGURES worth of money back, I know I would be hard pressed to say no. All that dude wanted was his money back, he never set out to bring these big boys down, and he never aligned himself with our fight. Plus, his "opinion" on the authenticity of the items doesn't ever matter in the grand scheme of things, and like I said, the verbiage was pretty obviously not coming from his mouth.

Comment by CJCollector on January 4, 2018 at 4:05pm: That was well-written, Jason.

Comment by Michael on January 4, 2018 at 4:51pm: The Federal Trade Commission investigates criminal fraud and they have a link on their website to report criminal fraud.

If a few dozen people reported what's going on and named the parties involved (they are all in the complaint which Steve posted a couple of days ago) that would get the ball rolling. They are fleecing people out of millions of dollars per month!