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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 Jason Charnick on January 11, 2018 at 12:50pm: The clerks didn't get a chance to get into their schpiel with me, but I was bothered 3 times within 10 minutes, and I let them know I was just browsing, but I'm sure they had their eye on me... and if memory serves, the Big poster was slightly different (though the same image)... I can see if I can get it over to my old friend to take a look, but he's on the circuit right now with his own indie film he just directed, so I might not hear back from him immediately!

Comment by Jason Charnick on January 11, 2018 at 12:52pm: Also, funny that *any* clerk with argue with anyone about the authenticity of any item... I'd think if someone walked in with any real knowledge and knew something was bad, whay try to change their minds? All that matters is the ink, and all the back and forth with a staff member about it wouldn't change the facts, so why bother?!?

Comment by Ian Baldock on January 11, 2018 at 6:12pm: Oh they wanted me out of there as they were trying to get their hooks into some unsuspecting people.Would love to see the FBI go through all of those stores and do a round up but law enforcement doesn't really care about autographs.

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on January 12, 2018 at 9:42pm: This Yelp review for Antiquities of California (owned by Toby Stoffa's son Brian Eick) gives us real insight into the minds of people, often innocent tourists, who don't understand the memorabilia marketplace. If you thought their customers were greedy people looking for bargains, this may change your mind:

Comment by Xwiesy on January 12, 2018 at 10:30pm: Had a friend with 5 pieces he showed me. His quote: “You know it’s real it came from Antiquities.”

Comment by CJCollector on January 13, 2018 at 5:21am: When I first began exposing sellers of forgeries a long time ago, one of the first things I observed is that Ebay sellers of forgeries made it a point (and they still do) to use impactful names to induce the impulse buyer and casual collector to purchase their crap and it continues today.

Look at the "Florida" sellers of forgeries; they use names like Boxscorecollectibles, MLBNow, thecleanuphitter, Sportsology2016, Sportsology2017, Homeplatememorabilia-23, etc.

Would you go to a store where the marquee read "Pieces Of Crap?"

But if you observe a storefront that reads "Antiquities," the majority of people are going to at least look inside.

Comment by Xwiesy on January 13, 2018 at 5:37am: Another buyer “frame of mind” identifier: they’ll say “It has to be real, it’s in a mall- any celebrity could walk in there and point it out and they wouldnt be showing fake autographs for everyone to see.”

when in reality this stuff is just hard to prosecute....so yku could do it on a billboard and get away with it.

Comment by Richard S. Simon on January 13, 2018 at 5:38am: Steve, I think your understanding of that Yelp review and my understanding of it are different.

When the reviewer writes about horrendous prices he is not relating to the real marketplace that we know. He is looking at a Jimi Hendrix fake lyrics for $5000 and thinks "well, $5000 is a lot of money, that is horrendous." If he knew what the market for something like that really is, he would be thinking "only $5K? that cannot be authentic."

Comment by CJCollector on January 13, 2018 at 5:57am: I agree with Richard on that.

It's no different than the buyers on Ebay who think "Why would I pay $199.99 for a PSA certed Mantle signed photo when I can buy one for $45.00 without a BAS/JSA/PSA COA"

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on January 13, 2018 at 9:43am: Richard,

Your and my understanding of the review are the same. It shows the perspective of people who don't know the autograph market. They think $5,000 is a lot of money for something even though an example in a respected auction could sell for $50,000 or more, if it existed.

Plus most of the customers are tourists. Not only are they happy and excited and their vacation, often looking for mementos of their trip, they may think that if they don't buy it then, they'll never get the chance again.

There's a reason the galleries are in tourist spots.