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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 Carl Ryan on September 9, 2014 at 6:58pm

Can you post a clear COA sticker pick of that Bird/Magic piece. You cant read it. Also, that PSA sticker on that Ali glove, looks like it has been peeled from something else. That could just be the way the light is hitting it or the way it was applied though. Also J32257 (psa number of the glove) doesnt show up in the cert database. And it really does look like that sticker was peeled off something else.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on September 9, 2014 at 6:59pm

Carl, I, too, noticed that peeling of the sticker.

I would love to see photos of some of the Mantle, DiMaggio, etc. autograph items if there were any.

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Permalink Reply by Mike White on September 9, 2014 at 7:04pm

The left hand side of that PSA sticker on the Ali glove is definitely peeling--you can even see the shadow underneath it. That's not a trick of the light.

Doesn't mean it was pulled off or anything nefarious, but it is a cause for at least slight concern.

That said, I had no problem pulling up the Cert Verification:

http://www.psacard.com/DNACert/J32257

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Permalink Reply by Brett Hansen on September 9, 2014 at 7:18pm

Response to Wilt comment:

Reply by Dom Vito Castiglione on Friday

If the Wilt is authentic, it's the first I've ever seen with "The Stilt" in 40+ years in the hobby.

Common sense.

Permalink Reply by Steve Kahldon on Friday

I have a Wilt the Stilt signed in person. So I know there is at least one of them.

Permalink Reply by Dom Vito Castiglione on Friday: You better hold on to it cause it has to be very rare

_______________________________________________________________________

Belligerent and combative? No. Just informative!

Pointing out that individuals who have trashed this reputable auction company have obviously made a mistake regarding pieces. The very pieces I have posted. I did this for the truth to be told. And for the wrong accusations to come to light.

I am including close-ups of the stickers of the 2 pieces. The other pieces, which also have PSA/DNA certs are at my office.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on September 9, 2014 at 7:20pm

I'd still like to see photos of the Mantle, DiMaggio, etc. autograph items that were being sold at the show.

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Permalink Reply by Mike White on September 9, 2014 at 7:39pm

RE: "Response to Wilt comment:"

Yes. And, like all other rare pieces, they're saying that there's a higher chance of it being fake, as in 40 years doing it, they haven't seen one. Again, that doesn't say anything close to what you've claimed.

RE: "Belligerent and combative? No. Just informative!" They aren't mutually exclusive. It is possible to be both. As I said, there are better ways to say what you have to say while getting taken seriously. You have a much better chance of getting people to listen to what you're saying and entertain a reciprocal discussion with you if you don't come off so angry and, well, belligerent.

Logical fallacies aren't your friend.

You have the right to make your point however you wish, but if you do so in that way, knowing full well that it will cause people to tune you out, you have only yourself to blame if and when they do.

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Permalink Reply by Null on September 10, 2014 at 7:02am

Brett I know myself as well as several others here do not take any authentication as "gospel". I have exposed several forgeries that JSA and PSA/DNA has certified, including this Mickey Mantle "autograph" that ended last night:

http://live.autographmagazine.com/forum/topics/mantle-forgery-on-js...

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Permalink Reply by Rich on September 9, 2014 at 7:31pm

Yeah, there are a couple different cert verification pages. One does not bring up those numbers, the other does.

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Permalink Reply by Mike White on September 9, 2014 at 7:44pm

Ah.

Frankly, I haven't trusted the PSA Cert Verification system after finding one of my items had no picture and them inviting me to take it and add it myself.

And, as I've said, I don't take any authenticator's word as gospel, nor should I (or any other serious collector). I've seen them all screw up--it's the nature of the job.

The question in choosing one isn't whether they're right or wrong; it's whether they're usually right. Speaking of, I can't look right now and I don't know if such things exist, but does anyone have an official PSA accuracy percentage? We all know it's not 100.

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Permalink Reply by Brett Hansen on September 9, 2014 at 8:00pm

Mike,

You said it very well! I do not take any authentication as gospel. This is a speculative business and NO ONE is going to get it 100%. This is exactly my point.

However, it does appear there is a bias to the certification here. And I think it is very wrong to have such accusations towards a company, or someone, when it can damage a very reputable company.

Permalink Reply by Dom Vito Castiglione on September 9, 2014 at 9:41pm

Why don't you explain to us why EVERY Mickey Mantle autograph on your site seemed to suddenly disappear?

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Permalink Reply by Steve on September 9, 2014 at 9:58pm

Brett,

Bring it on. I will gladly expose all that I have stated. I knew from the beginning that when you posted your questions about your items that you were going to claim that they were all good and all authenticated by reputable authenticators. Every item, except for two that I saw at the charity auction was fake. 100 % fake, in my opinion. You don't have to believe my opinion, you don't have to trust my opinion. Who the hell cares what you think. Go buy all the crap you like, put a spin on it, change the sticker, use a fake number to look it up, peel a sticker off another item and put it on something else. You are very transparent and that tells us all we need to know. Trying to set up people by falsifying information is the wrong way to go about it.