Authentication, Who to trust?

[suave1477]

GAI letters where Mike Gutierrez is listed as expert are reliable, as he's top notch. He left the company early on, so later LOAs won't have his name.

Well actually that is not necessarily true. Guittierz name may be on the LOA does not mean he was present at ever or examining every item that walks in the door. So the person who is actually doing the authenticating can still be wrong.

As far as GAI they have passed many bad items in my opinion, and it has been noted here in past threads that items that come form the have been questionable.

I have seen them at card shows and hand out LOAS like they were toilet paper anybody and everyone seemed to be getting an LOA didn't not a one fail.

One of there reps once was or still is a member of this forum and every time one of there items was in question and he was called upon he never answered.

I personally believe PSA/DNA & JSA are more trustworthy sources.

Also JSA was once apart of PSA/DNA

[David]

The early version of GAI was very conservatives with autographs. During this this time it was tougher to get an LOA for an item than PSA or JSA. It was in recent times that they became lax. Whether or not Gutierrez was the personal authenticator, the Gutierrez name indicates the LOA is from the early, extra-careful version of GAI.

[sonic]

Autograph authenticators aren't particularly reliable...or scrupulous. Both PSA/DNA and JSA have made some really stupid mistakes. At one point a TV station caught JSA authenticating bogus autographs through a sting they did at an autograph show.

http://www.autographalert.com/news.html chronicles some of the exploits of autograph authenticators. It's a good, eye opening read.

As an autograph collector, I believe that you have to become your own expert if you don't want to get ripped off. Get your items signed in person, or pay a little more and get them through sources such as UDA, GTSM, TriStar, Mounted Memories, Steiner, etc. if you want to be sure that they're authentic. If you have to go through some other source, do your homework.

[yankees.stub]

From my experiences, I trust no one except when I get the autograph myself. Old school authentication is having a picture with the person who signed the stuff AND a picture or two of that person holding onto the item he signed.


You need this just in case you want to SELL your item with hope that you will make some extra bucks for your time and effort.


Now moving to the present, I can rank the following authenticated company as follow:

1. PSADNA - top of the line but take too long to get your items back. Sometimes I sent them stuff to be graded and I completely forgot about them until I get a package three months later. If PSADNA can have a quicker turn around without costing an arm and a leg, I know more collectors will send in their stuff.

2. Steiner - I like their stuff but the pricing can be a little better. Because of Steiner, you will NEVER ever see a YANKEES FANFEST so this forum members can fight over the stuff they get. I like Steiner better also when they have shows when you can meet your favorite athletes in person and have your items authenticated on the spot - which is every collector dream!

3. Beckett - same as PSADNA but a little less expensive.

4. JSA - I like them since it run by a former member of PSA but I really really dont like the GENERIC certificate. It's just too simple in my eyes. Full certificates are very nice to look at and it's do-able but again, if you are going to spend a decent amount of money to have your item verified - you might as well go with the best out there.


5. Dont trust GAI because some of the stuff they authenticated - I was like are you serious? Maybe Jeter signature looked like that when he was drunk and just got out of accident .... come on!

[xpress34]

I posted this earlier in another thread about Grading cards, but it also covers the 'authentication' and auction houses:

Just some FYI:

Currently, any Sports card ca. 1977 and before fall into the VINTAGE category for most dealers.

Me personally - I would NEVER use BGS/BCGG as I find it a great conflict of interest to put out the leading 'guide', while also grading cards AND listing cards that your company grades as more valuable than any other graded cards.

SCG - I have never heard a bad word one about them and - as was stated earlier - they are the KING among Vintage collectors when it comes to grading.

GAI - I didn't even know they ever offered Grading, just authentication services for autographs.

PSA/DNA - I've had my issues (like many others) with them over Autos I personally received from players being sent back as inconclusive, etc while they kept my $100+, BUT after reading this book:




I will NEVER use PSA/DNA or many of the Auction houses named within.

If you want to read the dirt about what goes on at these places, READ THIS BOOK, you might rethink what Auction Houses, Authenticators, Graders, etc that you trust.

Just my .02

- Chris

P.S. - That being said, I do have a 1951 Berk Ross Panel Set that is slabbed and graded by PSA/DNA, but it was purchased that way. I am considering sending it in to SGC to have the entire set regraded and re-slabbed.

Read the book and you will definately come away with a sour taste in your mouth... also, as Sammy said earlier - READ AutographAlert .com . Great dirt on what is going on in the industry.

[legaleagle92481]

From my experiences, I trust no one except when I get the autograph myself. Old school authentication is having a picture with the person who signed the stuff AND a picture or two of that person holding onto the item he signed.


You need this just in case you want to SELL your item with hope that you will make some extra bucks for your time and effort.


Now moving to the present, I can rank the following authenticated company as follow:

1. PSADNA - top of the line but take too long to get your items back. Sometimes I sent them stuff to be graded and I completely forgot about them until I get a package three months later. If PSADNA can have a quicker turn around without costing an arm and a leg, I know more collectors will send in their stuff.

2. Steiner - I like their stuff but the pricing can be a little better. Because of Steiner, you will NEVER ever see a YANKEES FANFEST so this forum members can fight over the stuff they get. I like Steiner better also when they have shows when you can meet your favorite athletes in person and have your items authenticated on the spot - which is every collector dream!

3. Beckett - same as PSADNA but a little less expensive.

4. JSA - I like them since it run by a former member of PSA but I really really dont like the GENERIC certificate. It's just too simple in my eyes. Full certificates are very nice to look at and it's do-able but again, if you are going to spend a decent amount of money to have your item verified - you might as well go with the best out there.


5. Dont trust GAI because some of the stuff they authenticated - I was like are you serious? Maybe Jeter signature looked like that when he was drunk and just got out of accident .... come on!

Since when does Steiner authenticate autographs/gu items or Beckett for that matter? I know beckett authenticates/grades cards but that is it. And do you seriously rate PSA over Steiner? Steiner sells autographs from their signings only and G/U items that they obtain from their team partnerships. PSA sometimes witnesses signings but most of their business is rendering an opinion on items that were signed previously. Here is my two cents when it comes to autographs:

Get it signed in person, mail order it from a signing if you want your item signed and have no other way of getting the autograph or buy items that originated from Steiner, Mounted Memories, Upper Deck Tristar, GTSM, Superstar Greetings or Collector's Showcase of America. Or that are MLB authenticated. Other than that don't waste your money because you can never be sure it is real. Personally after 20 years of autograph collecting I have concluded that modern autographs are like baseball cards made in the 1980's, there is an overabundance of them for every modern player and the only people who will make money off of them are the players, big signing companies and the dealers.

[obpercent1]

Count me as another person not in favor or PSA. I sent in a Dice-K autograped sweet spot ball that I personally got signed directly in front of my eyes on fathers day 2007 at Fenway Park before the gates opened and they rejected it, charged me the full price and when I asked them how they could possibly reject it their excuse was that they did not have enough of his exempliaries on file to autheticate it. I simply went off and asked them how in good faith they could advertise then that they could authenicate one for him and they had no response. So now the clowns as PSA have in their data base a real Dice K autograph that they in fact say is a fake.

Part two of the story: I brought the ball to a show where JSA was and they said it was 100 % real(of which I knew already). Like previous folks have said the only true way of knowing is getting it front of your own eyes. After that point everything is simply a "matter of opinion". By the way it really is a sweet Dice-K autograph that he took his time to sign boldly across the entire sweet spot and put his # on as well.

[xpress34]

OBP -

Like yourself, I sent in my Pujols ROY inscribed ball that I had personally signed in 2002 and they rejected it because they didn't have enough early examples AND, they had never seen a ROY inscription by him before.

I have been told NUMEROUS times that if you aren't one of their 'big-time' dealers, they will NOT authenticate your auto the 1st time, but if you turn it right back around, it will come back authenticated. In other words, pay twice as much and they will give it their stamp of approval.

In the book I referenced below - 'THE CARD' - it discusses how at one point in time, they 'graded' and authenticated so many items (the # is in the book) with a staff of 16 people that in order to do so, those 16 people would have had to have worked round the clock 8 hour shifts with no lunch break and only minimal bathrooms breaks in order to give as much as 5 seconds of their time to each item! In other words, they would have barely had time to move an item from one stack to another! And that does NOT include anytime for checking in items or packing and shipping items back out, much less writing the LOAs or slabbing the cards they were grading! (I may be a little off in my paraphrasing, nut you get the gist of it.)

Just another blight on the hobby IMHO...

- Chris