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Fake charity items from PSA Productions.....Jordan, Lebron, DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Aaron Rogers, etc.

I mentioned this here last year and nobody responded. There is a company here in Phoenix called Mountainside Fitness, to which I belong. They are again setting up a charity auction from a company called PSA Productions run by a guy, Jim Johnson (pretty sure that is his name). They set up inside the health club and have bidding sheets. Just about everything is fake, with the exception of a PSA Magic and Bird and a JSA Cincinnati Reds signed photo with Rose, Bench.

All of the fake items are certified by GA, yes, Steve Sipe. Everything is elaborately matted and framed to throw off any suspicion.

The banners at the tables all have large PSA lettering so it appears that PSA is the company offering the goods, when in fact it is someone taking advantage of the PSA name recognition.

I of course asked to speak with the general manager. No surprise, he isn't available. They offer me their corporate number, nobody answers and they ask you to leave a message. Again, no surprise, no return phone call. This really p***** me off. I went up to every person I saw looking at the items and warned them to not bid. My first inclination was to write "fake signature" on the bidding sheets. My daughter talked me out of it, because she thinks we will get kicked out.

They were offering Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Lebron James, Aaron Rogers, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, and Ted Williams. Just about every item was around $400 in the bidding.

Any suggestions? I was thinking about contacting the local newspaper, not really sure of anyone cares besides us. If you live in Arizona and have a Mountainside Fitness near you, go in and see if they have the same set up. Maybe if more people called to complain, they would do something.

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Permalink Reply by Dom Vito Castiglione on August 22, 2014 at 11:28pm

This exact same thing happens in at least a dozen confirmed Lifetime Fitness locations. Same deal as you have reported. 95% of their items are fake with a couple thrown it to make everything look good. I complained to the right people and then my friend Robert, who is a professional dealer, also got involved. Lifetime Fitness has been notified and shown in detail why certain items they auctioned off to their members are forgeries, and not only do they not do anything....they threaten to terminate your health club membership if you don't keep quiet! A former gym member I knew personally, Michael, bought a forgery at one of their many silent auctions while he was still going there. It was a basketball piece he had planned on hanging in his son's room. I asked to see the piece he had "won" and right away saw it was a forgery. Michael explained to Lifetime Fitness the knowing fraud they committed and demanded a refund. Lifetime said they were not at fault as it technically was not their auction, that it had just taken place on their property. They told Michael that all sales were final and if he wanted a refund, maybe hiring a lawyer would help. They then cancelled Michael's membership a week later, claiming they had the power to do so based on the gym contract and accused Michael of giving the club a bad reputation. Eventually after a lot of personally time, Michael was given a refund on his forgery, once it was returned. Do NOT buy anything from these silent auctions at any health club!! They are loaded with crap and most items end up selling in the high hundreds and even break over a thou$and! Lifetime Fitness covers up their scam that the money will be going to Children's Charities ect. These auctions are held usually twice a month at higher end upscale locations. The last auction I saw recently had the usual Jordan/Lebron/Kobe dual signed trash, Mantles, Williams, DiMaggio, Ali. Cast signed movie posters from Game of Thrones, Twilight, Star Wars and what seemed like every Robin Williams movie poster with full cast signatures. Everything was beautifully framed and came with a fake COA.

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Permalink Reply by Fuddjcal on August 23, 2014 at 10:31am

Not that I would give a RATS HINEY END if a stupid fitness club terminated my memebership....wooooohhhhh , they really got him on that one. LOLOL

Personally, Fudd would take out a FULL PAGE AD in the local newspaper, letting everyone know what kind of Cheater Fers run that stupid health club.

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Permalink Reply by Dom Vito Castiglione on August 23, 2014 at 12:56pm

I agree with you to a point, but he had already gotten used to going there and made a lot of friends. Mike had been there for a couple years and had already gotten into a cardio routine Monday-Thurs after work. He joined pretty heavy and had lost close to 100 pounds by the time he left. Lifetime's way of punishing him for not keeping quiet about the forgery he bought, was to terminate his gym membership & stop his workouts.

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Permalink Reply by Brett Hansen on August 29, 2014 at 4:12pm

I have a friend in Minnesota who runs a charity organization which has used these guys who came across this blog. He suggested I take a look at the site as I have bought quite a few items at the auctions. I am including some close-up images of the signatures of some of my most prized possessions and I would greatly appreciate any feedback as to whether these are authentic or not. The Wilt Chamberlain and the Magic and Bird have certificates from GA Global Authentics and the Nicklaus flag has a GAI certificate (I’m not sure if GA and GAI are the same company or not, but they appear to be). The Muhammad Ali has a certificate by ACE and says Autograph Authentication Experts on the card. Any direction you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on August 29, 2014 at 4:17pm

ACE (Justin Priddy) is deservedly on Ebay's Banned COA list. See link below.

http://live.autographmagazine.com/profiles/blogs/ace-justin-priddy-...

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Permalink Reply by Brick Hunter on August 22, 2014 at 11:48pm

All in the name of charity, right? It's sickening. And people buy this stuff expecting it's real after being portrayed as such.

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Permalink Reply by Dom Vito Castiglione on August 23, 2014 at 3:37am

It is sickening. I would bet each gym location sells between 200-250 fake items every month. The members salivate just thinking what goodies could be in the next silent auction. A few years ago, a woman who was a nurse & worked out there stopped by the tables and was looking around at the display of forgeries. She said she missed out on a Godfather item they had earlier and was hoping to find another one for a gift for her father. I told her not to bother cause they fake. She said they call came with COA's and already talked with a manager at the club about giving her the heads up if another Godfather piece was to surface. Well, you guessed it, the next silent auction, there was a Godfather movie poster with the whole cast signed in silver sharpie. Brando, Pacino, Caan, Cappola, Puzo, and Richard Conte. Problem with that is, Mr. Conte died in the mid 70's before silver sharpies even were invented! Even after I told Joyce the nurse this, it still did not stop her putting in a winning bid. All because it was framed up professionally and came with a COA!

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on August 23, 2014 at 5:01am

Sadly, these scammer criminals know the winning formula. To a lot of people, fancy framing + COA = must be real.

Their target sucker isn't educated collectors -- it's casual browsers and gift buyers. Sounds like setting up at a gym is a great spot to get those kind of victims.... especially for sports related fakes. Back in operation bullpen days, they had kiosks in movie theater lobbies. Same concept.