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Is everything from GAI fake?

I was thinking recently about the amount of fakes that are authenticated by GAI, so I went through my items and located 5 pieces authenticated by them. I looked up the corresponding number on their website (what's left of it anyway) and found that two items aren't even listed. The database shows no item exists. Two of the three items I know are legit as they were from a private Willie Mays signing a few years back and included the Say Hey authentication plus the MLB authentication. The other three I believe are bad. Two are Stan Musial 8x10's and one is Bart Starr 8x10.

What I find interesting is that you would assume that people who have legitimate authentic photo's used the GAI service. There should be a quantity that are real! But, it appears that almost everything I come across is FAKE! Did they authenticate anything real, or did they have a network set up where they had people produce known forgeries and then they authenticated them? It seems to be the latter. I wish I could remember who I bought these three from and contact them. You wouldn't think they would spend their time on Musial and Starr. Any opinions on this?

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Permalink Reply by Jason D on March 26, 2012 at 8:57pm

For the price these companies charge to authenticate an item they should put a picture of every item in the database. Do the math, they charge anywhere between $20-$200 and maybe even more to look at an item and put a $0.50 sticker and a $0.75 cert card with it. Sure there are other costs with running a company but look at the profit and what you actually get for your money. Authentication is good for collectors that have no or little knowledge of a certain signature that they want but simple homework is all a buyer/collector really needs to feel comfortable with a signature. although we all try to get rid of the bad signatures out there it just simply will never happen, it has been going on for years and will just keep going on as it seems like more and more people are selling and penning bad signatures. As much as it may piss some people it almost isn't worth the time and energy to point them out anymore because you just cant keep up any more and people just keep buying the crap.

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Permalink Reply by DB on July 29, 2012 at 6:05am

how do non guaranteed "opinions" create any sort of legal implication? They don't. unfortunately it is also a major issue of dealers, "because it's certified it must be authentic".

if it were simply removed it is more likely that whoever has the cert would then send "something" in for them to add it as is typical of a missing psa/dna one. In this instnace removing it might be as simple as - this certificaiton has been voided due to authenticity concerns.

Having said that does anyone think any TPA would simply make that statement? Putting a recall notification might allude to the same problem but again it would be an admittance by the TPA that they have made the wrong call and that in some camps also can be blown out of proportion.

However, leaving them visible while giving the impresion that non-authentic items are "authentic" is not the right answer.

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Permalink Reply by DB on April 27, 2012 at 12:59pm

saw this post by Mike Aring on William's GAI Jeter and didn't realize ZZ Top played for the Yankees. Since it's a moderated blog it would be better to have non-jeter items here so I have brought it over -

Comment by mike aringon Wednesday

how about this bad boy... zz top authenticated by GAI... not one autograph is real!!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BILLY-GIBBONS-DUSTY-HILL-FRANK-BEARD-SIGNED...

& just in case it disappears ~

and this claim by this seller is what causes all the friction when they get it wrong.

SIGNATURES HAVE BEEN AUTHENTICATED BY GLOBAL AUTHENTICATION INC. (GAI) - THE LEADER IN THIRD-PARTY AUTOGRAPH AUTHENTICATION. THIS ITEM HAS BEEN MARKED WITH A TAMPER EVIDENT SERIAL NUMBERED LABEL AND IS ACCOMPANIED BY A MATCHING GAI CERTIFICATION CARD. THIS ITEM CAN BE VIEWED IN GAI'S DATABASE BY CLICKING

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Permalink Reply by Mike Shepherd on July 22, 2012 at 3:20pm

I fully understand that GAI has damaged the industry tremendously. I can, however, tell you that at least one GAI authenticated item is legitimate. I was at a sports memorabilia convention in Long Island quite a few years ago where Monte Irvin was signing. I didn’t even know what GAI was at the time but after people had their memorabilia signed GAI were there with a sticker and COA authenticating the items for free. The name on the COA was Justin Priddy.

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Permalink Reply by Null on April 2, 2013 at 6:59am

Here's a horrific Rivera GAI on the bay right now:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Autograph-Mariano-Rivera-8x10-Yankees-W-coa...

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Permalink Reply by R T on May 26, 2014 at 8:41pm

Too many that are fake being a 3rd party authenticator that charges money for there opinion! However there are a lot of genuine examples authenticated by GAI and if we know what to look for in signatures then I've been seeing that we can purchase GAI authenticated items for less money than an item that's not Authenticated at all. This is due to there reputation late in there existence and then filing bankruptcy. I also believe a couple of there employed Authenticators may have been scammers in known forgeries because I've seen too many Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, and Joe DiMaggio that are clearly bad and all the signature's look the same. Very suspect in my opinion!

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Permalink Reply by Brandon on August 2, 2014 at 9:12am

So tell me this, this Ted Williams autograph has a GAI certificate and is on your website does it mean it's real or fake? http://www.ebay.com/itm/301257879901