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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 Richard S. Simon on January 5, 2018 at 5:02pm: She sounds like the typical con artist. There is a special place in hell for those people.

Comment by Fuddjcal on January 5, 2018 at 5:18pm: great comment Don, I've been in that shop dozens of times in the past 30 years. 15-20 Years before I ever bought my first fake Mantle Autograph. Maybe that's why I'm so cynical and not pulling any punches

My first instinct back then was that they were probably forgeries. I never was tempted in the least to spend 1$ there. And that was in the 80's when I played high stakes 7-card stud with Pugsy Pearson, Doyle Brunson and Amarillo Slim as a 19 year old with a fake ID. I was comped at Caesars Palace every month and was in that store many times. No, I didn't get the fake ID from Antiquities.

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on January 5, 2018 at 5:19pm: Toby Stoffa blogged here back in 2010: 6 posts. Read them and you may see why she’s so successful.

https://live.autographmagazine.com/profiles/blog/list?user=1dp39bex...

Comment by Richard S. Simon on January 5, 2018 at 5:26pm: Her patter is classic con artist.

Comment by Richard S. Simon on January 5, 2018 at 5:30pm: She claims to have learned from Tom and Cordelia Platt. If she really did learn from them, well they are now rolling over in their graves. Those two would never want anything to do with someone selling the items she sold.

Comment by Richard S. Simon on January 5, 2018 at 5:32pm: And Fuddj was not even an autograph collector when he walked into her store and he could suspect that most of the items were forgeries. Mr. Odobas gets no empathy from me, sorry. But I am glad to see that he got his money back.

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on January 5, 2018 at 5:44pm: Forensic document examiners are an extremely important part of the equation. They are convincing proof to the uninitiated that they're buying real autographs.

Frank Caiazzo was sued by Jerry Gladstone of American Royal Arts in 2007 for calling a signed Revolver album ARA sold to a customer for $14,000 fake. Frank actually told it to an auction house that used him. He didn't know they'd send the email to the collector.

When Roger Epperson told me that Frank had been sued, I went to the American Royal Arts website. They proudly proclaimed that every autograph they sold was authenticated by "a court approved forensic document examiner," Christopher Morales.

I was shocked. I was confused. Morales was a court-approved expert. I pictured him raising one hand and putting the other on a Bible, swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

How did ARA make him believe that those autographs were actually genuine? Or were all their autographs really not as bad as I'd heard, and the Revolver was only a rare mistake by Morales?

Once I was convinced that everything vintage that ARA sold was fake, I actually considered calling Morales up, introducing myself, and warning him that he was being misled.

And I published Autograph Collector magazine at the time.

That's why I'm so sympathetic to collectors who think that they must be getting the real thing.

Comment by Richard S. Simon on January 5, 2018 at 6:38pm: I still remember that courtroom scene where ARA was exposed on camera. I loved it.

Comment by CJCollector on January 5, 2018 at 6:40pm: I remember that, too, Rich.

I also recall the judge admonishing him when Gladstone says "Don't you ever......"