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Is JSA now authenticating forgeries?

I am a new member although I do frequently read articles and forum posts from this site because they populate in Google search when I do research on various autographs.

Let me say first and foremost that this post is not to cause drama or ill feelings. I realize that there are a lot of people who are partial to TPA's and in all truthfulness, I myself prefer items that are certified by major 3rd party authentication companies.

I frequent eBay and make the majority of my purchases from ebay and like many of you, I usually add PSA or JSA to the search bar with whatever I am looking to buy. For instance, If I am looking to buy a Mickey Mantle signed baseball, I might query ( Mickey Mantle baseball PSA ).

While I am very capable of telling whether a Mantle is real or fake, I realize that should I ever want to resell the item that having a TPA on it will certainly help me. So, typically I buy items that are already certified. At the very least, it is a second opinion on what I already feel about the item. I don't buy simply based on the sticker, because I have seen a lot of items that I disagree with TPA's on.

My reason for this post is to call in to question James Spence ( JSA ) on some very questionable items I have been seeing as of late. Most of the items that I have seen have been Music and Entertainment. Has anyone else noticed that JSA is seemingly giving blanket authentication to items as of late. This concerns me as someone who has a large portion of my collection authenticated by JSA. While, I know that my JSA authenticated items are real, if they ruin their reputation, the resell value of these items will tank. This is very concerning. I wanted to get some opinions as to what is going on here? Is JSA going the route of Global? As a long time collector I remember when Global was actually a legitimate authentication company but in no time seemed to turn in to a blanket authentication company.

I am not trying to bash JSA but from what I've been seeing the last few months, I feel about 500% more confident in PSA when it comes to Music and Entertainment autographs. What made me decide to make this post was a conversation I had today with a guy I met at a show a while back. I would occasionally get him to have stuff authenticated if a major TPA was at a show he was going to. Well, he called me tonight out of the blue and said that James Spence and his son were going to be at his house and asked me if I had any items I needed authenticated.

This conversation made me feel that perhaps Spence is a bit to chummy with people he is authenticating for. I don't like that one bit. I don't want the authenticator drinking an ice cold beer with the person selling the autographs. It seems to be a serious conflict of interest and in all honesty, I have felt a serious decline in my level of trust in JSA.

Another interesting thing I want to touch base on is a company called GFA. There is one specific seller who is using about 5 different ebay ids to pump out countless amounts of forgeries from this supposed forensic expert.

This seller has used 5 names to sell well over 75,000 dollars in forgeries all certified by GFA. I have reported his items to eBay but because he is a power seller they seem to never pull the listings. I decided to do a PSA quick opinion on several of his offerings and all 4 of the quick opinions failed. I notified him that the items failed PSA Quick Opinion and this was his response

" It's not even worth dignifying this with a response but if the stuff I've been selling is fake, then I've been ripped off for the past year by my merchandiser. I gave up on those idiots at the "big authentication companies" when I sent them items that I had personally witnessed being signed and they came back as "likely not authentic". Why is it "likely"? Because it's their opinion..

As you can see, GFA is another company that gives blanket authentication and should absolutely be added to eBay's banned COA list.

Here is a few active auctions with GFA certs.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mickey-Mantle-Signed-8x10-Photo-Autographed...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dale-Earnhardt-Richard-Petty-Signed-8x10-Ph...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mickey-Mantle-Signed-8x10-Photo-Autographed...

In closing, I sincerely hope that I haven't offended anyone with my first post. It just bothers me to see JSA authenticating so many questionable entertainment items. It would be horribly sad to see them sell out for the quick buck.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Gregory on October 20, 2014 at 12:57am

A very good article and interesting points you raise Jason and welcome to the forum. GFA are terrible and eBay has made millions and tens of millions allowing crap like the ones shown be sold and thousands of people have many forgeries due to buying from power sellers that are allowed to get away with it.

In terms of JSA, I don't believe they are allowing mass fakes to be authenticated but they have made some serious errors, many of which have been highlighted on this site.

The big issue I have with both PSA / DNA and JSA is that both allow mass authentication by big companies or power sellers, which is destroying the name of the TPA's and the hobby. I get sick of the same sellers having every item with JSA or PSA cetifications when they are clearly fake or preprints and yet they get away with it.

I think unless mass authentication is stopped it will only get worse and more and more fakes will flood the market with shiny stickers attached to fool the sticker buyers to buy them thinking they are real

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Permalink Reply by Mike Shepherd on October 21, 2014 at 2:42am

It always concerns me when high-volume dealers do business with third-party authenticators on a regular basis. That is a great point Dan.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Poulos on October 20, 2014 at 1:03am

Here is an example of a JSA authenticated forgery. I have about 20 or so Ed O'Neill autographs as I have always been a huge fan. I actually had the pleasure of meeting the man in person and got him to sign a MWC cast photo to complete the photograph. This is not authentic and i'd stake money on that

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ED-ONEILL-MODERN-FAMILY-SIGNED-AUTHENTIC-8X...

Here is a few authentic examples of Ed O'Neill who is actually a very hard autograph to get

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ED-ONEILL-AL-BUNDY-MARRIED-WITH-CHILDREN-AU...

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Permalink Reply by Kit on October 20, 2014 at 1:56am

Below is Michael Jackson signed certified by JSA, do you think this one is authentic?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/151417283402?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&a...

Attachments: No photo uploads here

MJ1.JPG, 378 KB
MJ2.JPG, 28 KB

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Permalink Reply by A.B. on October 20, 2014 at 1:59am

No way imo

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Permalink Reply by Kit on October 20, 2014 at 2:16am

Yes, I almost bought this one last time, fortunately, other authenticator informed me that it was not real. I think the best way when I want to buy one expensive autograph is to

- Do initial research

- After that do quickopinion check with at least 2 authenticators