sicollector1954@insightbb.com
01-16-2008, 02:40 PM
I hope that this is the right place to discuss this and I get a lot of responses back. Here is my story. Recently, I consigned items to an fairly large auction house for an upcoming sale in a couple of months. The items were sent to be "slabbed" in California. Several had a COA done in 2001 from a major authentication company--let's call them the United State of America. One of their "former" employees--a current owner and member of the Boy Scouts of America looked and passed the item when he/she was an employee of the first company. I was contacted by the President last week of the auction house that one item being reviewed a second time has been deemed no longer as the "real deal". Since the "boy scout" no longer works for the U.S. company currently--the U.S. feels it has the right to not slab the item as legit signature. This happened previously one time in the past with an item I sent in to be graded as well. At that time-they had the COA and the item and an agreement was worked out to "tear up" the COA and return the item with several free future COA's as payment for their mistake. There stated they would not return the item plus their COA for any reason.
This time, however, the COA is with the auction house and will not be released without my say-so to anyone. The authentication company has offered to buy the item to sort of "make it go away". Naturally, they wanted a figure from me first. I refused and asked for them to make an offer first. At this point, I have heard nothing back for several days and everything is in limbo. As far as I know, there are no other known authenticated items of this type made by this company in the sports collecting world.
My questions are--has this ever happened to anyone else with vintage collectibles and if so--what stories can you relate? Also, what would you do if you were in my shoes--
1) Take whatever offer comes from the authentication company no matter how low.
2) Say you want a ridiculously high amount and see what happens.
3) Try and get the item returned from the company and sell at a later date in a different auction. OR----if there are any good lawyers out there who think I have a case----
4) Hire an attorney from somewhere and go after the big "U.S.A." authentication company and seek damages since the COA which was purchased and printed in 2001 now has had the ink on it disappear 7 years later.
Thanks for any advice or stories anyone out there in the sports collecting world would be willing to share. I will read them all!
This time, however, the COA is with the auction house and will not be released without my say-so to anyone. The authentication company has offered to buy the item to sort of "make it go away". Naturally, they wanted a figure from me first. I refused and asked for them to make an offer first. At this point, I have heard nothing back for several days and everything is in limbo. As far as I know, there are no other known authenticated items of this type made by this company in the sports collecting world.
My questions are--has this ever happened to anyone else with vintage collectibles and if so--what stories can you relate? Also, what would you do if you were in my shoes--
1) Take whatever offer comes from the authentication company no matter how low.
2) Say you want a ridiculously high amount and see what happens.
3) Try and get the item returned from the company and sell at a later date in a different auction. OR----if there are any good lawyers out there who think I have a case----
4) Hire an attorney from somewhere and go after the big "U.S.A." authentication company and seek damages since the COA which was purchased and printed in 2001 now has had the ink on it disappear 7 years later.
Thanks for any advice or stories anyone out there in the sports collecting world would be willing to share. I will read them all!