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Autograph Authenticating

I have a number of items that I am trying to get LOAs or Letters of Non-Authentication for. GAI in Carlsbad, CA, is significantly less expensive than PSA or JSA. Would you recommend GAI as a place to start? Autographs include, JFK on a baseball, Al Capone, Mark Twain, Sid Vicious, Muhammad Ali, Al Pacino, Ben "Bugsy" Siegel, the Rat Pack, and Prince. Appreciate any and all comments.

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on April 11, 2014 at 1:20pm

Bob, are you looking to just determine if the items you have are authentic? If so, I would save the money and just put them up here.

if you are looking at reselling, PSA and JSA are both good. GAI is not around any longer, but GA is.

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Permalink Reply by Rock G III on April 11, 2014 at 1:20pm

No avoid GA at all costs There is a reason they are less. They are no longer considered reliable, and the items authenticated by them sell for far less than the other 2. Run do not walk away from them.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Westmoreland on April 11, 2014 at 1:34pm

Rock and Terrier,

The reason I asked about GA is that they are only one of three that eBay approves. Yes, I could put the items up here for your review, but, like the Beatle rugby ball and the Ted Williams bat, if the overall opinions support fake, that doesn't give me the documentation I need to get the item(s) back to the seller to get my money back (or more). That;s why I need either an official LOA or Letter of Non-Authentication. GA says they will provide one or the other. I know I can get the same from PSA or JSA at 4-10X the costs. Thanks for your replies, any further thoughts??

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Permalink Reply by Mike Kaminski on April 11, 2014 at 2:31pm

GA won't give you the added value or the assurance you'd be looking for from an authenticator.

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on April 11, 2014 at 2:34pm

GA passes a lot of items that are not genuine, more than the others. you may not get the accuracy you will need to be able to go back to the seller. post them here and at least you will get an idea which ones, if any, are authentic.

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Permalink Reply by Rock G III on April 11, 2014 at 4:17pm

And what i am telling you it devalues an item. So regardless if ebay "approves" of them the majority of informed collectors do not approve of them. Their rate of forgeries authenticated is staggering.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Westmoreland on April 11, 2014 at 2:04pm

I have given this a bit more thought and, if you guys don't mind, I will go ahead and post some of these items for your consideration. If PSA or JSA are really my only options for reselling, it would be good having your opinions before I spend the money on them.

Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Carl Ryan on April 11, 2014 at 3:14pm

On some of the music items Bob, i would suggest a quick opinion from Roger Epperson for 15 bucks. Roger is the best in music, and if the seller wont honor his opinion, they wont honor PSA or JSA either. Plus, if Roger can tell from a scan if its no good, then there is probably little question over its authenticity, and an actual item send in, would probably not be warranted.

But yeah, i would suggest posting some here. I am fairly knowledgeable on Prince autographs, and would be glad to help.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Westmoreland on April 11, 2014 at 3:33pm

Great, I will start with Prince. Thanks for your advice.

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Permalink Reply by Xwiesy on April 11, 2014 at 3:19pm

i don't think PSA and JSA are the only ways you can sell on ebay.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Westmoreland on April 11, 2014 at 3:38pm

X, This is the link that you click on Allowed eBay Authenticators. If there are others, please let me know who they might be. Thanks for your reply. http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/authentication.html#authentication