kingjammy24
05-06-2008, 06:00 PM
June 20, 2006
In Sports Memorabilia, Let the Buyer Beware
The sports memorabilia business has long been plagued by scandal and fraud, and law-enforcement officials have periodically investigated allegations of counterfeit cards, forged autographs and phony icons (The FBI’s Operation Bullpen has resulted in dozens of convictions since 1997). Many collectors and dealers dismiss the industry’s problems, saying they come from the fly-by-night operators who peddle bogus items on the Internet and then evaporate into the anonymity of cyberspace. If you do your homework and stick to reputable dealers and auction houses, they say, you shouldn’t have any problems.
But in recent months, three separate cases have raised questions about the hobby’s most prominent players – and the integrity of the sports memorabilia business.
In Georgia, collector Goodman Espy has accused Tony Cocchi, a memorabilia dealer who has worked with the hobby’s most prominent companies (Mastro Auctions, Lelands, Geppi’s Memorabilia Road Show, Memorabilia Evaluation and Research Services), of selling him a fake Ty Cobb jersey for $85,000. Cocchi is under investigation by Marietta, Ga., police for felony theft by deception. If Espy – a respected doctor and community leader – is correct, then it raises questions about whether Cocchi had provided bogus memorabilia to other collectors, dealers or auction houses.
In Indiana, dealer Bill Daniels’ lawsuit against Mastro Auctions and PSA/DNA, the hobby’s top autograph authentication service, also raises questions. Daniels spent $20,000 for a lot of autographed photographs at a December 2004 Mastro sale; when he received the photos, most were damaged, with bent corners, creases and smeared signatures. During discovery, Daniels and his attorney S. Andrew Burns say they learned that PSA/DNA authenticator Zach Rullo, whose signature was on the letter of authenticity that accompanied the photos, was one of the consigners. "That's a conflict of interest, absolutely," Burns says.
The quality of that authentication is also an issue; Burns says records indicate a three-man team that included Rullo spent 16 hours over two days poring through the 56,000 items offered in the 2004 auction. That's just a few seconds per item, the attorney says. "That's not enough time to move the photos from one stack to another, never mind compare the signatures to exemplars or review the quality of the photos," he says.
Daniels says when he sent some of the photos to a rival of PSA/DNA, the company informed him the autographs were forgeries.
As the Daily News reported on Sunday, Ohio authorities investigating coin dealer Tom Noe, the Republican Party fund-raiser accused of stealing millions from the rare coin funds he managed for the state’s Bureau of Worker Compensation, say they have discovered what they call questionable transactions between Noe and Mastro Auctions.
Would-be whistle-blowers in sports memorabilia must feel like they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. It must be infuriating to think you’ve been sold a forged autograph or bogus collectible. But if one piece is bogus or improperly authenticated, doesn’t that suggest other pieces may also be no good? Will people who thought their card or game-used memorabilia collections were worth thousands of dollars wake up one morning and learn they have nothing but old cardboard and ancient baseball gear?
By Michael O'Keeffe on June 20, 2006 4:00 PM
In Sports Memorabilia, Let the Buyer Beware
The sports memorabilia business has long been plagued by scandal and fraud, and law-enforcement officials have periodically investigated allegations of counterfeit cards, forged autographs and phony icons (The FBI’s Operation Bullpen has resulted in dozens of convictions since 1997). Many collectors and dealers dismiss the industry’s problems, saying they come from the fly-by-night operators who peddle bogus items on the Internet and then evaporate into the anonymity of cyberspace. If you do your homework and stick to reputable dealers and auction houses, they say, you shouldn’t have any problems.
But in recent months, three separate cases have raised questions about the hobby’s most prominent players – and the integrity of the sports memorabilia business.
In Georgia, collector Goodman Espy has accused Tony Cocchi, a memorabilia dealer who has worked with the hobby’s most prominent companies (Mastro Auctions, Lelands, Geppi’s Memorabilia Road Show, Memorabilia Evaluation and Research Services), of selling him a fake Ty Cobb jersey for $85,000. Cocchi is under investigation by Marietta, Ga., police for felony theft by deception. If Espy – a respected doctor and community leader – is correct, then it raises questions about whether Cocchi had provided bogus memorabilia to other collectors, dealers or auction houses.
In Indiana, dealer Bill Daniels’ lawsuit against Mastro Auctions and PSA/DNA, the hobby’s top autograph authentication service, also raises questions. Daniels spent $20,000 for a lot of autographed photographs at a December 2004 Mastro sale; when he received the photos, most were damaged, with bent corners, creases and smeared signatures. During discovery, Daniels and his attorney S. Andrew Burns say they learned that PSA/DNA authenticator Zach Rullo, whose signature was on the letter of authenticity that accompanied the photos, was one of the consigners. "That's a conflict of interest, absolutely," Burns says.
The quality of that authentication is also an issue; Burns says records indicate a three-man team that included Rullo spent 16 hours over two days poring through the 56,000 items offered in the 2004 auction. That's just a few seconds per item, the attorney says. "That's not enough time to move the photos from one stack to another, never mind compare the signatures to exemplars or review the quality of the photos," he says.
Daniels says when he sent some of the photos to a rival of PSA/DNA, the company informed him the autographs were forgeries.
As the Daily News reported on Sunday, Ohio authorities investigating coin dealer Tom Noe, the Republican Party fund-raiser accused of stealing millions from the rare coin funds he managed for the state’s Bureau of Worker Compensation, say they have discovered what they call questionable transactions between Noe and Mastro Auctions.
Would-be whistle-blowers in sports memorabilia must feel like they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. It must be infuriating to think you’ve been sold a forged autograph or bogus collectible. But if one piece is bogus or improperly authenticated, doesn’t that suggest other pieces may also be no good? Will people who thought their card or game-used memorabilia collections were worth thousands of dollars wake up one morning and learn they have nothing but old cardboard and ancient baseball gear?
By Michael O'Keeffe on June 20, 2006 4:00 PM