Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Fuddjcal on January 21, 2014 at 12:24pm

and I believe the Easter Bunny is going to be hiding eggs this April

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Permalink Reply by Randy on January 21, 2014 at 12:51pm

I agree with you that the buyer has some responsibility when determining authenticity, but obviously the vast majority of the buyers at a small auction house in Nevada are likely to be relying on the provided letters of authenticity.

If they think a forensic document examiner is an expert in autograph authentication, they will feel comfortable buying items with a LOA from them.

The auctioneer has a responsibility to assess the reliability of the LOAs provided. In this case, the owner of the auction house has accepted them at face value which should not be done.

While it is true that even the mega auction houses like Sothebys, Christies, Heritage, etc. are ocassionally fooled, they reject tons of autographed items and I guarantee they would never sell an item with an LOA from only Christopher Morales.

Again, there may be some authentic autographs in the auction but certainly not any of the extremely valuable ones. A beginning collector can easily make that assessment. Some forgeries are tough to discern. These are not.

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Permalink Reply by wascher on January 21, 2014 at 1:42pm

Mike, why are you really here?  To say that an auction house is not responsible for every piece they sell when they clearly tout that "we evaluate EVERY piece for authenticity" is bull----.  You know it, and so do all of us.  Especially when you both came in and said you called someone to authenticate the items, but it was too expensive.  Then the auction of forged/fake items is a sham, and your friend is a fraud.  Plain and simple.  Its not meant to be MEAN.  Its the truth. 

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Permalink Reply by Mike Miller on January 21, 2014 at 2:15pm

The main reason I came on here was to stop the character assassination of people I know personally, by people that don't know them.

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Permalink Reply by David Wright on January 21, 2014 at 3:26pm

Mike, if you go back through the postings here you will see that I'm the bloke who (hopefully) respectfully asked Mr McManus to remove the items from his auction that carry "signatures" that I do have a great deal of experience with - namely the golfers.

I posted, NOT to assassinate the character of Mr McManus but to point out that, IN MY HUMBLE OPINION, it does his long-term business a great deal of harm to be associated with items such as this.

I don't know Mr McManus at all, have no wish to see him or his business harmed but I feel that I must point out to you that it really is only right, fair and proper that ANY business be held accountable for the manner in which they trade.

As I said in my earlier posting, Mr McManus would take a short-term "hit" on his business if he pulled these items and\or cancelled the auction BUT - if he did that then, in a single stroke, I hopefully believe he would have all the members who are currently so vociferous in their postings coming back here to congratulate him for taking such a public step to protect the autograph business, the autograph hobby and all collectors.

Now, this is Mr McManus's business to operate how he likes but I think long-term profitability goes hand-in-hand with being seen as a reliable, trustworthy, honest supplier of QUALITY items.

Finally, I am a great believer in speaking about people as you have found them from personal experience and in your dealings with Mr McManus you clearly point to a good relationship. Goodonya :)

However, after many, many years I also have to admit that when so many people are "crying foul" it is probably because there is usually no smoke without fire .... IN RELATION TO THESE, SPECIFIC ITEMS .... with no bearing on all the other aspects of his auctioneering.

Mike, you may not care to believe this but the members who post right across this site have several things in common and a couple of those would be : (1) the protection of fellow autograph collectors, (2) increasing the knowledge of their fellow collectors. It is these two points that make this thread so, so forceful.

The members here may appear mean and heartless but, in my neck of the woods "down under" they are simply "calling a spade a bloody shovel" - calling it as they see it :)

Finally, I will give you a personal undertaking that if Mr McManus were to remove these items\cancel this auction then I would be posting here and e mailing all the fellow collectors that I have in my address book to let them know what transpired and what a reputable auction house McManus appears to be.

I hope all of that makes sense and that this post will be read by you and Mr McManus in the spirit in which it was written - I am genuinely trying to be constructive rather than destructive but ultimately the final hit of the ball with be with Mr McManus.

We do tend to reap what we sow.

Cheers

David

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Permalink Reply by Mike Miller on January 21, 2014 at 4:24pm

I appreciate your comments and the fact that you can express yourself without being disparaging. I did read your prior post and thought you were well spoken and well meaning, same with this post. I wish I had the power to change the situation to make everyone satisfied, but I don't. I just felt the need to defend people that were being attacked unfairly. Apparently, I don't have the power to do that either.

Permalink Reply by Randy on January 21, 2014 at 4:29pm

Very well stated.

However,  I'm very doubtful of a change of direction by Mr. Patrick McManus and I think it is highly likely Mr. Mike Miller will defend him to the grave.

All Mr. Miller has really managed to do is throw gasoline on a fire that was already raging.

I doubt if Mr. McManus wants the additional attention but perhaps he will decide to delay the auction until he can do more homework on these awful autographs.

I agree if he does so, he will reap in the praise from this forum.

I place the down under odds at 95/5 against such a reconsideration.

Permalink Reply by Mike Miller on January 21, 2014 at 4:45pm

This is my last post as it has become obvious to me that trying to create a simple civil discussion can't be executed on this board without "Just throwing gasoline on a fire that was already raging". Re-read my posts. All I ever did was try to stop people from attacking others that they do not know. Everyone is all big and scary and their opinions and morality are an unimpeachable fact behind a keyboard. Everything is absolutely black and white, right or wrong. No doubt anywhere when dealing with the self righteous. Enjoy your day. 

Permalink Reply by Randy on January 21, 2014 at 5:02pm

People who knowingly sell forgeries to unsuspecting collectors deserve to have their character assassinated.

We don't need to know them personally.

In fact, we rarely know who the sellers of forgeries actually are. In this case, we do.

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Permalink Reply by Erich Jerozal on January 21, 2014 at 2:25pm

Its quite odd to me....that Mike Miller shows up to defend his good buddy McmANUS.   It makes me wonder who Mike Miller really is........just observing this whole thread.  I know I have seen this kind of behavior before....as well have others on this site. 

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Permalink Reply by Carl Ryan on January 21, 2014 at 2:57pm

Exactly Wascher, everyone here knows that this is either McManus or an employee. This guy claims to collect sports entertainment autographs yet he cant identify these as blatant forgeries. lol. He states that he is even concerned aobut the items, yet he still is backing up McManus sellign these horrid forgeries. A true friend/customer would simply tell McManus they are obviously fake. Yet somehow, Miller is trying to defend McManus. lol. How many times have you seen this from the forgery industry this month Wascher??? 8, 9 10??? Never gets old i guess

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Permalink Reply by Mike Miller on January 21, 2014 at 4:13pm

Trust me, I'm not Patrick. I'm not an employee either. I'm exactly who I said I am. I'm a customer that doesn't like keyboard commandos going all batshiit crazy and disparaging people I know and respect. Hell, I even used my Facebook account to sign in to this. Look me up. You think I made up my Facebook account 5 years ago just so I could use it to post on this thread? Please...

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