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Roger Epperson.... Good Authenticator?

Hello everyone,

Please dont be misleaded by the title of this thread, as i am a huge fan of Roger's. I have bought numerous items from him and have had him look at numerous items. I will continue to buy form him with the utmost confidence. He has earned the reputation of being the best in the world for a good reason, and that is something to be very proud of.

I am a member over at startiger, and recently in a post entitled NE Autographs, located under the general discussion category, someone posted a commnet that i just cant live with. Someone had asked who was a good trusted authenticator and i mentioned epperson. A member their (screenname: hastemail), who i believe is form germany, posted in reply this comment:

"OUCH, I hope you haven't wasted too much money on pieces sold by Epperson. He has a LONG history of purchasing fake items from forgers. He even fooled RR Auction several times in the past by passing through obvicious forgeries which RR Auction had to take back then and fully refund the winning bidders. Roadhouse, stay FAR, FAR away from anything that is sold, reviewed or "authenticated" by Roger Epperson. That will save you a lot of money and trouble!"

I then posted a reply basically asking him if he was off his rocker for saying this, as ive never heard even rogers competition, or haters, say that he is a bad authenticator of forgeries. Even the guys at anl or alert. And thats saying something, even they know that hes the best, even though obviously mistakes are occasionally made.

Here is the reply that was given:

csink, you want me to name an example for Epperson's misjudgements... how about item 791 of the June 2009 auction at RR - a LP cover supposedly signed by all members of The Clash. When informing RR auction about this item, Trish replied with the following e-mail on June 6, 2009:
"Thanks so much for your patience as I researched your concern further. The Clash LP, item 791, in our current June 346 (2009) auction came with good provenance and was approved by our authenticators. It was originally sold by Sotheby’s Amazon in the UK.

This item was also reviewed and accepted as genuine by noted music autograph specialist Roger Epperson. As such, we stand behind this item with our lifetime money-back guarantee of authenticity.

We appreciate your sharing your concerns with us. Please feel free to contact me anytime if I may be of further assistance."

Best Regards,
Tricia

Tricia Eaton
Auction Processing Manager
RR Auction Company, LLC

BUT... a few weeks later another e-mail from Trish arrived and in it she explained they had pulled the item because the autographs were indeed NOT authentic. Read for yourself:
"I am writing in response to the recent post regarding The Clash album we offered for sale in our June 2009 auction. Thanks to one of our astute and experienced customer's concerns, we researched the signatures further.

After re-evaluating the item, we finally came to the conclusion that the autographs were indeed not authentic. As such, RRAuction honored our lifetime money-back guarantee to the winning bidder by refunding his purchase price in full.

Just wanted to let everyone here know RRAuction takes authenticity very seriously. During the rare occurrence that an authentication mistake is made, our company is known for doing the right thing and owning up to our initial oversight.

If you ever have any concerns in the future, please feel free to contact me anytime.

Best Regards,
Tricia

Tricia Eaton
Auction Processing Manager
RRAuction Company, LLC

It's extremely disconcerting that Roger Epperson would authenticate this item in the first place. If a simple collector can call fake on the album why not him, he's allegedly the "expert". That thing was so fake it stank. There's a lesson here for everyone. Educate yourself and trust no expert but one's self.

If you need further examples of Epperson's misjudgements, let me know

A further post went on to say this:

One of the most hilarious misjudgement made by Roger Epperson was when he "authenticated" Metallica's 2008 remastered vinyl re-issue of "Master Of Puppets" supposedly signed by Cliff Burton. The only problem here is that Cliff Burton died on September 27, 1986 which is 22 years before the remastered vinyl re-issue was even released to the public. Nevertheless, Roger Eppeson once again issued his report and certified the signature as authentic.

I can't say it often enough: Educate yourself and trust no expert but one's self.

Now i kindly asked this individual to please post as a topic here on Live about eppersons mistakes and what his issue was with him, that way roger could reply to him, because not everyone is a member at startiger. The member however didnt do this and posted the messages pictured above. I do not think its fair to say these things about roger, they may be his mistakes, but we need to get his opinion on this and the issue can be debated. I have invited this member to this site to debate the issue, although i doubt we will ever hear from him.

Please, will everyone who reads this post your opinion of roger good or bad and your credentials. And responses to the above comments. I dont want some new members at startiger to read the response of one man and get the wrong impression. If your gonna make statements that roger is a bad apple, your gonna have to back them up.

I am very eager to read responses, so that i can share with the community at startiger as to what rogers real reputation is.

Thanks so much

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by CJCollector on July 25, 2012 at 10:40am

DB, have you ever considered starting your own website? That way the floor will always be yours.

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Permalink Reply by roger epperson on July 25, 2012 at 10:57am

I think that was tried by someone not too long ago but after a few months they only had 6 members and it shut down.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on July 25, 2012 at 10:59am

That is funny, Roger!!!!

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on July 25, 2012 at 2:47pm

Lol

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Permalink Reply by Lou reves on July 25, 2012 at 12:42pm

Thank you roger for the reply! I was just curious and am more then satisfied with what you said! I check R&R every month for goodies!

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Permalink Reply by Trapper9990 on July 25, 2012 at 8:25pm

Thanks for being a great help to this site Roger. I probably should have never posted this thread, but their were people over their at Startiger who were listening to what this guy was saying. When that guy first posted those metallica photos and the thing about clash, some other dude popped up with the reply of " Well when hastemail says something, he always backs it up". And that was the straw that broke my back. I was almost positive that you never even saw that metallica item and i felt like it was unfair for someone on a pay for site to be trashing someone who cant defend himself. What was really funny, is that after this dude posted these examples, he included the sentence,......... should i post more?.

Well after you cleared the air on the items and he was left with egg on his face, i asked him in about 8 more posts to please show more examples. And low and behold not one more showed up. This guy was just an all around creep and i told him that i believed he was at least associating with the group of individuals that have made it their job to smear roger. He of course denied it. But i still let him know and everyone else their, that only these creeps try and post stuff like this. He didnt just get some bad info, he was claiming this as common knowledge that he had first hand.

Well the thread down their is closed now and all the argument for the most part was taken out. The administrator sited me for being argumentative and the other guy too, but it was worth it. And he did leave up the information roger posted as to the truth about the items. So basically it now shows this clowns images on the ablums, and then rogers post clearing it up and showing how stupid he is. I am satisfied with that, because both sides were shown, and the truth was easily seen. I dont mind speaking up for the companies and people i think are good when it comes to music.

PSA, JSA, Roger, JG Autographs, BP Autographs, autographpros, autographsale.net, and a few others are all great guys, and ill defend them when i can. But Chris definetly had a point, i did fall into the trap i guess of then starting this thread. Its easy to see that the community all had Rogers back, but maybe i should have just let it go from the start and let people do their own reasearch. I apologize Roger if it called you any conflict or annoyance.

Chris

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Permalink Reply by Geoff LaVeine on July 25, 2012 at 8:53pm

This thread just makes me ask the question- "Why not ask Roger yourself about the allegations?" I would think making a public example of things you've heard from another source without perhaps doing any research should be a last resort. Not saying you did anything wrong, but I think If I had questions about someone's integrity, I would take it up with them first.

My two cents

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Permalink Reply by roger epperson on July 26, 2012 at 6:22am

I'm always available to answer

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Permalink Reply by S Brant on February 9, 2021 at 10:08am

I just want to say THANK YOU Roger Epperson. I trust you and your skills. Your service is invaluable and extremely helpful. I highly recommend anyone use you for authenication of Music memorabilia authenication and feel relieved that another member recommended you.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on February 9, 2021 at 10:20am

+1. Roger is one of the two authenticators the forgery industry hates most. That says it all.

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Permalink Reply by Trapper9990 on July 26, 2012 at 8:28pm

The reason i did this Geoff was to attempt to be a show of force. I didnt just want Rogers opinion on it, if i did i would most def have just emailed him, i actually did email steve talking about it before much was said. But in addition to Roger chiming in on it, which i knew he would, i wanted every collector, every dealer, and every person with any opinion of Roger to speak up. Its easy for this creep to have just said something about how of course roger would try and explain it away. But when you have the backing of just about every dealer and autograph expert, than thats a whole different ball game to argue. And that was the need for posting it here. I posted back every reply that this thread got over their to make certain people would see this was just one loan creep trying to smear roger. Granted all that part has now been taken down because of the arguing that ensued, but it proved the point while it lasted. And believe me, i try to do my research before i speak on anything controversial. But you couldn't get the answers to these items he posted from the net, and only Roger really knew the truth. I would have just asked him, but my intent was too blow the fish out of the water so to speak and let the community over their know for certain what the truth was. So thats the reason for everything hope it clears it up for all. I feel like i keep going over this so ill leave it at this and hope everyone understands it.