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Permalink Reply by Darin Harvey on November 30, 2013 at 7:32am

Looks like a typical GFA Mantle by Steve Rocchi and gang..........These crooks destroy the this wonderful hobby

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Permalink Reply by Craig on November 30, 2013 at 2:10pm

Hello this is greatstuffselling thanks for putting my business on the internet before contacting me, I would never try to ruin your business without talking to you first. I had another gentleman text me yesterday and was investigating things and took all of them off today. Then he texts me back that you had already put me on the internet. I had no idea if these were real or not, I put them on ebay as pictures with signatures.  It was never my intentions to defraud anyone, I'm a surplus dealer we deal in everything I don't claim to know everything that's why I give a money back guarantee. I'm as honest as I can be stating all the facts I know about the item. MY LIVELIHOOD DEPENDS ON IT!   This is the listing discription.

MICKEY MANTLE  Hall of Fame- 1974 , this is a very nice hand signed picture. On the back is a certificate of authenticity. The photo is in an 8X10 mat. Here is a link where you can check one of these out. On the back is a auction sticker. Thanks and happy bidding. http://www.nytstore.com/...We bought a bunch of signed pictures of different people mostly sports, at a local estate auction. We will be listing them so make sure you look at all my other things

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Permalink Reply by Carl Ryan on November 30, 2013 at 3:01pm

Kuddos to you Craig for taking them down,

But it still falls on you and you are responsible for this item. When you list an item on ebay, or anywhere else, it is up to you to do your do diligence to make sure the item is legit. And that is something you obviously did not do here. There really is no big investigation that needed conducting.

If you had no idea what authentic Mantle signatures look like, then there are plenty of resources to educate yourself. But lets even put that aside. In order to try and ensure the authenticity of this piece for your customers, all that was required was a several word google search.

Mystograph has one of the worst reputations in the autograph hobby. They are associated with mounds and mounds and mounds of forgeries. Forgeries with there COAs are one of the most common in the entire autograph marketplace. When dealing in autographs, even a novice should know that authenticity is paramount. The first step one would take, even before getting warned the items were fake, is to type in the COA name and see if they have any credibility.

Had you done this one simple simple thing, you would have known instantly that these autograph were at best, highly suspect. The next logical step would to have asked for opinions from reputable authentication companies (which can easily be researched on the net to see who the leaders in the field are). PSA/DNA would have given you a quick opinion for like 7 dollars. Or you could have asked some people on sites like this.

But at the very least, you didnt put any due dilligence into researching these items before listing them. None at all. They dont look authentic to begin with, and the cheap COA from one of the worst in the business is a dead give away. It is your responsibility to make sure your items are authentic before you list, not another customer warning you, nor the members of this site. So if you get called out for selling forgeries, just like tons of others do here every day, it should be no surprise. Why should the members take time out of there day to contact you to let you know of this, when you didnt take the time to research the company that authenticated these forgeries. The excuse of "i didnt know, i run a legit business, or ive never sold autographs and didnt know i was doing anything wrong", really has no merit. Its the sellers responsibility, period.

And if someone took the time to warn you, then more than likely, you were in fact warned by a member from this site. I say that b/c if someone messaged you telling you these were fake, and then days later messaged you back saying that you now have a thread here about you. Then that person is a member here, you can bank on it. Typically the members here will contact the seller and tell them about the item. Almost always the seller either throws insults, threatens to sue, or just ignores it all together. Then a thread is created, and they come here and start throwing insults and threatening legal action. Which of course really just hurts their credibility. So i imagine you were in fact contacted by a member here, and that you didnt remove the items. Maybe you were researching them and were in the process of taking them down, but i imagine thats who contacted you.

But you did speak up and you did take down the items. And that puts you leagues ahead of most ebay sellers. The members here take autographs very very seriously, b/c so many forgeries have flooded the market, and so many companies and ebay sellers make bank off of ripping others off. We try and combat that as much as possible, and some ebay sellers step into the crossfire and never had any bad intentions at all. Hope thats what went on here. Id suggest contacting whoever you bought them from and demand a refund as they are forgeries. Good luck

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on November 30, 2013 at 3:06pm

Well written, Carl.

Remember, Craig, every Ebay auction reads "Seller Assumes All Responsibility For This Listing."

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on November 30, 2013 at 3:28pm

Craig, estate auctions, charity events, and places like AtAuction.com are today's largest outlets of forgeries.   They realize that the people that buy from the aforementioned sites have ZERO knowledge of autographs and that's why the selling of forgeries is a huge business.  They rely on people like you to buy their forgeries.  Once they've made their profit, they don't care what you do with the forgeries you have purchased.

I give you credit for taking down your auctions. 

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