Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Scott W. Arnold on January 16, 2015 at 6:30am

I got to agree with you Paul, I have learned more about autographs in the last two weeks then I knew from 30 years of collecting. I have close to 450 albums from Pink Floyd and some 45 50 cd's Dvd's. But from the most part I stayed away from autographs because I did not know them. I am so happy I found this site and all the great people here willing to teach. Again Much Thanks to N.Steiger for all the lessons. Scott

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Permalink Reply by michelle on January 16, 2015 at 8:45am

+ 100. 

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Permalink Reply by Scott W. Arnold on January 16, 2015 at 9:41am

For what ever reason I keep thinking about my collection and the one I keep coming back to is my Pristine UHQR Copy of the Dark Side of the Moon. Its the way it was meant to be heard. Scott

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Permalink Reply by Jason Charnick on January 16, 2015 at 1:15pm

here here! what a wonderful resource this site and its contributors are. so glad to have found it!

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Permalink Reply by Paul Hakimian on January 16, 2015 at 4:29pm

I so agree.

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Permalink Reply by Charles Krejci on January 17, 2015 at 8:59pm

I am at a crossroads with the Wall signed item from RR auction

I cannot say or have any validation that it is not legit, the fellow paid a premium price of 5k for it from RR

I would be pissed if it was not legit

the sig that bothers me is the Richard Wright as it usually goes up after the big R and then a trough and trough not as in this example as a crest and crest

unless its a early sig and it looks like "Rick"

the great thing about this thread it has made me realize that if it does not match

the items I have, I will not buy , the  David Gilmour sigs around 2006 and after look like jiberish   and I am having a real hard time trying to figure out if they are legit

so I will stick to what I know, as in my collection,  I would love to see what Grieg McArthur opinion is on that piece as he knows his stuff.

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Permalink Reply by James McCay on January 19, 2015 at 9:13am

I agree, this is DISTGUSTING and shows how bad Steve Grad is.

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Permalink Reply by N.Steiger on January 19, 2015 at 9:36am

Thank you James. It is one of worst PSA blunders I have ever seen.

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Permalink Reply by James McCay on January 19, 2015 at 10:52am

I've been a HUGE Pink Floyd fan since I was 10-years old (1977)! I've been looking for Pink Floyd autographed Album items as cheap as I could afford once I was a fully trained Forensic Document Examiner in 1999. I never found any REAL ones I could afford. But it did give me a clear understanding of exactly what real Pink Floyd autographs look like.

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Permalink Reply by Paul on January 19, 2015 at 11:09am

What do you think of the wall album being discussed being familiar with Floyds autograph. Thanks

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Permalink Reply by James McCay on January 19, 2015 at 9:02pm

 I've been extremely sick the last 6-weeks or so (very severe pain & weakness from MD and MS symptoms), but I felt it was important for me to do some investigating regarding this issue because it is a VERY important one. Roger Epperson used to be one of the good music authenticators in the business. This was the impression I had from many years ago. I heard about all the work he was doing to fight fraud in that sector of the hobby (music) which is just what I was doing in the sports card area since 1992 and sports autographs by 1999. But there was always one important thing that set me apart from EVERY authenticator in any genre: I NEVER CHARGED A FEE, AND I NEVER SOLD AN AUTOGRAPH (other than Certified Card Company Autographs). When Epperson joined PSA/DNA it made me question his ethics. But if someone had asked me for a music expert who gives reasonably priced opinions, I might have given them Epperson's name. NOW I WILL NEVER DO THAT AS I NO LONGER TRUST HIM AND I WILL EXPLAIN WHY.  

I had a friend ask the seller of this DEFINITE PINK FLOYD FORGED "autographed" album who the "other" LOA was from that he mentions in the eBay listing (that was changed three times since he listed it by the way). The seller said it is from Roger Epperson. Then I did what I always do, I Googled- "Roger Epperson forgery" and started reading page after page of seemingly true stories about how Epperson used to be a decent music authenticator and fighter for the truth, but how that had changed. People go bad, no matter how good they may have once been. There is a saying "You die young as a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.' I must say that I have seen this to be true more times than I'd like to admit. Nut I can tell you one thing, I will donate every collectible I own the day I think of doing ANYTHING corrupt to make money from a fellow collector and will never think about collectibles ever again. I often though of collecting worthless rocks made of different minerals. This will be my next hobby if need be as we all need a hobby.  

Sadly those who rely on making money from our hobby can be easily swayed when their livelihood is put on the line. Many ignorant people decided that they were going to make this hobby their one and only business way back in the 1980's mostly- and many of these people had decided to "go bad" sending LOA's for autograph forgeries simply because they had no other way to continue to live the lifestyle they had grown accustomed to and many had no other skills at all so minimum wage was their option, or be a crook- especially when the economy bottomed out by 2010. I've seen countless businesses in both autographs and trading cards go bad since 2010. eBay is FULL OF THEM!!! I once said (in 2011 I think) on a message board that most eBay FULL TIME Sports Card dealers are doing something illegal or crooked in order to stay in business- and I still stick by that statement as harsh as it is. I've opened over (100) factory sealed boxes since 2011 that I was given to add to my yearly card donations from sources who work directly with the card companies. So these boxes were some of the most popular boxes in the hobby and they were absolutely not searched boxes either knowing their source. Out of the (100+) boxes I opened I'd be lucky to have gotten half of my money back if I had sold every single card I pulled from every single box. I think over 100 boxes is MORE THAN ENOUGH to get an accurate assessment from as to resale value. I don't think it is possible for direct buy sports card sellers to make enough profit anymore by just buying boxes, breaking them all honestly and selling the singles anywhere. Plus card companies still have rules as to what you have to buy in order to get the boxes you REALLY WANT making it even harder to break even. Those who were 100% honorable got out of the businesses they were in and found other jobs. Some honest sellers still sell sports cards, but they work other full time jobs as well: this is the only way to continue to stay in this hobby as a sports card seller for profit. Most honorable card dealers with stores that I knew got out of this hobby by 2007 the latest. That's when sports cards started bottoming out for long periods of time. But as a collector that was the BEST time to buy ON CARD Certified Autographs as I was buying like crazy at that time (I was spending $1,000 a month).  

Many interesting pages came up including Roger Epperson's own page near the top on page #1, which means he knows he's one of the most highly accused recent forgery authenticators (in the music field certainly) and he put "Epperson forgery" or something VERY similar in his page tags on his website so that whomever Google's "Epperson forgery" will find his own page near the top of the list. 

I read this entire story which was very enlightening (I suggest ALL of you do the same):

http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_forum2/showthread.php?p=3725

And if true (as it seems to be) puts Epperson in a very bad position.

YOU CANNOT GIVE AN OPINION ON AN AUTOGRAPH ON AN ALBUM OF A PERSON WHO HAS BEEN DEAD 22-YEARS WHEN THE ALBUM WAS RELEASED! Epperson did and on a Metallica album which is supposed to be his specialty like Nolan Ryan is one of my specialties. He did this with Cliff Burton on a Master Of Puppets album!

YOU DO NOT ISSUE AN LOA AND NOT MENTION TWO AUTOGRAPHS THAT ARE ON THE ALBUM! Epperson issued a LOA for a LYNYRD SKYNYRD One more For The Road Album never mentioning on the LOA that it was signed TWICE by Artimus Pyle???

YOU CANNOT GIVE AN OPINION ON AN AUTOGRAPH HAVING ONLY SEEN ONE POSSIBLE AUTHENTIC EXAMPLE! Yet Epperson said he only saw Johnny Thunder's autograph once before and authenticated the one on a New York Dolls Too Much Too Soon Album. I personally do not think that you can give an accurate opinion on an autograph unless you have or have seen over (100) exemplars. Now I realize that it is far more difficult to find as many authentic examples of certain music autographs as compared to sports autographs. However I DO NOT believe that 15-25 exemplars are enough to give an opinion on a music autograph. Yet this is the number Epperson quotes as being the number he goes by and sometimes less, but definitely none. Which brings me to my next point.

YOU CANNOT AUTHENTICATE AN AUTOGRAPH THAT THERE ARE NO EXEMPLARS OF!!! But Epperson did... There were two Johnny Thunder autographs that he authenticated as there were two New York Dolls Albums signed that he gave letters for. One of the autographs was "nearly invisible' which happens fairly often on album covers due to the gloss on the albums and the lower quality of ball point pens going back to the 1970's on back. Now I personally would not call that autograph nearly invisible as it is mostly visible and I cannot tell from the picture, but in hand it's possible that there was pen pressure marks for the entire signature which can be given an accurate opinion for. HOWEVER, any light signatures or parts of signatures that are authenticated should be noted on any Letters of Authenticity and Epperson DID NOT DO THIS! In fact there is nothing describing characteristics of any autographs he gives opinions on and I think that is 100% wrong, lazy and shows how much you care about your work (YOU DON'T).  

There more but I'll let you read it yourself. I think I made my case clear that Roger Epperson authenticates obvious forgery autographs with less than half of the examples on the one page that I linked above. Plus there are dozens of more stories on dozens of other websites telling similar stories of mistakes that ARE NOT MADE BY SOMEONE WHO IS NOT BRAND NEW TO AUTHENTICATING!  I can't spend anymore time on this tonight, my pain is getting far too severe again, sorry.

YOU CANNOT SAY AN AUTOGRAPH IS REAL ON AN ALBUM MADE OVER TWO DECADES AFTER THE PERSON DIED!

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on January 19, 2015 at 10:13pm

James,

The story you're referring to mentioned in the Game Used Universe discussion appears to be a complete fraud. The submittor to Epperson was Dave Wakefield, who was later discovered to be a major supplier of high-dollar rock forgeries to American Royal Arts, Rock Star Gallery and others. He worked, and probably works, with Christopher Morales. I imagine you know who Morales is.

They never made the auctual albums available for inspection, even though they said they would.

Here's an actual email that shows Dave Wakefield, Christopher Morales and Stephen Koschal conspiring to destroy both Epperson and JSA:

From: SKoschal@aol.com
To: Whoodee711@aol.com
Sent: 1/14/2011 3:47:52 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
Subj: Phone call

Just had lengthy conversation with Dave Wakefield. During the conversation he made it a three way call with Chris Morales.  Interesting!  They want us all to get together for lunch and talk a game plan of putting Epperson/Spence to rest.  What they say makes sense and Wakefield is full of good info.

Stephen Koschal
P.O. Box 311061
Miami, FL 33231

Earlier in your post you said this:

But there was always one important thing that set me apart from EVERY authenticator in any genre: I NEVER CHARGED A FEE, AND I NEVER SOLD AN AUTOGRAPH (other than Certified Card Company Autographs). 

What is wrong with a professional charging a fee? How can they not in most cases?

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