What's new in your collection?

How about an ongoing thread to highlight the new additions to your collection?

Whether it's a through-the-mail freebie or a big buck acquisition... it's all good. Show us what you got!

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Permalink Reply by Rick Meyer on February 28, 2014 at 9:15am

Until they get much better outside the sports area I think that would be a bad call.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on February 28, 2014 at 9:17am

While they would wipe out a good number of forgeries, there'd be an enormous amount of authentic material blocked from Ebay as well. PSA and JSA would then be the authority, despite their laundry list of flaws. No thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on February 28, 2014 at 9:16am

I'm sure PSA would like to float the idea and continue the discussion. Not so sure the eBay stockholders would be as interested.

Considering the trends over the past year, eBay is heading in the exact opposite direction and taking a more laissez-faire approach toward autograph authenticity.

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Permalink Reply by Null on February 28, 2014 at 9:20am

Yup it's certainly a "give or take" situation...

On one hand, undoubtedly far less forgeries would get dumped to unknowing buyers on eBay. BUT, this could lead to even more corruption IMHO. And would ruin all of our "great finds" that are unauthenticated...

So it's:

1. Free for All: tons of forgeries sold, great deals for people with great eyes

2. eBay approved authenticated items only: Less forgeries sold, prices increased probably, no more "diamond in the rough" finds...

I vote for "Free for All" with better monitoring.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on February 28, 2014 at 9:26am

Agreed.

Bear in mind that a huge portion of autographs are not even worth the cost to get them authenticated -- authentication fees + postage. Unless you are dealing with a bulk or in-person submission, it has to be a $100+ autograph to be worth getting something authenticated and still being able to turn any sort of a profit on it.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on February 28, 2014 at 9:26am

There are WAY more autographs that PSA and JSA don't know than ones they do. That's a common sense call. If they get the entire market share of Ebay autograph sales, how many more authentication misfires are we going to see? What will this do to the legit in-person collectors who sell on Ebay? Items with a Favre, Brees, Marino, Radtke, MM, Steiner hologram are now blocked? Sellers of authentic material will call foul and/or will jump ship. Scoring a deal will be much more difficult.

Ebay needs to do a MUCH better job of policing with the money they rake in, not just resort to the easy call.

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Permalink Reply by Null on February 28, 2014 at 9:33am

Yeah he never implied that it would be PSA/DNA and JSA ONLY, others could be "approved", but definitely that any item on eBay would have to have some sort of authentication that is 100% approved by eBay. I would assume Steiner and some others would be on that list.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on February 28, 2014 at 9:54am

You think things are messy now? I can't begin to imagine the chaos of companies scrambling to get their COAs added to the approved list. Plus all the skullduggery of dishonest people trying to torpedo competitors.

I'd be shocked if it ever came to be.

Permalink Reply by Dane on March 2, 2014 at 1:13pm

If this is true (that Joe has time to discuss corporate actions before they're implemented, with individual collectors), I'm selling all my shares in CU.

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Permalink Reply by Carlos on March 7, 2014 at 11:35pm

They are moving in that direction.
I had an item removed and said the only way it could be listed, and any other subsequent autographed items, was with psa or jsa