New PSA/DNA Auction House LOA's

[Lokee]

PSA/DNA is changing how they do things. If you do alot of auction buying and what not you might wanna read...

http://www.psadna.com/articles/artic...universeid=314

[buc]

In other words, not enough people were "taking advantage" of sending the items to PSA following the auctions to have the items upgraded (of course, for a fee that was not cheap, not to mention you have to pay for shipping and insurance both ways.) I hate PSA.

[sammy]

PSA/DNA are a bunch of greedy losers whose authentication expertise I often wonder about.

I'll be glad with this company folds up and becomes a distant memory.

[bigtruck260]

PSA/DNA are a bunch of greedy losers whose authentication expertise I often wonder about.

I'll be glad with this company folds up and becomes a distant memory.

Sammy - this is something I have always agreed with you about.

I have autographs that I would NEVER send to PSA because I got them in person and they vary a little from the normal athlete's signature. I've wasted so much money over the years sending stuff to the 'authenticators' only to have them send me back a letter that basically says - "We have no idea about the legitimacy of this signature"...

The conflicts of interest in many of these places is worse than nepotism in regular businesses. Is it OK to authenticate items yourself that you are planning on selling? Should another party do it instead?

I think it would be a neat undercover operation - to get a job inside PSA and see how things are determined to be authentic or fake. Something like that could blow the doors off of the way these companies do business. I still see GAI items on eBay that are obviously bad...and I heard rumors (maybe that's all they are) that at one point, certain employees were selling COA cards and stickers to some unscrupulous dealers.

Justin Priddy is the autograph guy for this website - I would be interested in what he has to say about it now that he's gone from that company. I respect him enough to hear him out.

[trsent]

A company that gives opinions on autographs that is approved by eBay would make many people jealous. I wish I had that business.

I also wish I could tell all auction houses to pay for their service or take a hike with their quick, cheap, opinion service and pay just like everyone else for a full inspection before putting the items up for auction. The auction houses don't want to pay for the certification and this makes the lots listed in their listing approved with a quick approval and not a full inspection. Now the auction houses have to pay for a full approval from PSA/DNA prior to using their service. What a great concept for PSA/DNA to make more money and the auction houses to pay to have fully inspected items in their auctions.

I approve of their staff's expertise and knowledge of autographs better than anyone else in the sports and celebrity marketplace today.

You do not have to use their service. You do not have to use any service, but the leader of the niche of this industry will always have people question their service when they try harder (Avis?) than anyone else in the same part of this industry.

[sammy]

Being as a pre-certified PSA/DNA auction item will ".......notify potential bidders that the autographed lot in question will pass PSA/DNA if they choose to submit the item for authentication.....", can you not get the same authentication on eBay with the PSA/DNA quick opinion for 7.49, or whatever they charge now?

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Just think, you can get a Mickey Mantle photo certified by PSA/DNA at their company headquarters for 100.00 plus 25.00 shipping both ways, for a grand total of 125.00.

Then place it on eBay and sell it for 200+/-.

Isn't it great when the authentication company makes more money, then the actual owner of the photo.

[trsent]

Being as a pre-certified PSA/DNA auction item will ".......notify potential bidders that the autographed lot in question will pass PSA/DNA if they choose to submit the item for authentication.....", can you not get the same authentication on eBay with the PSA/DNA quick opinion for 7.49, or whatever they charge now?

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Just think, you can get a Mickey Mantle photo certified by PSA/DNA at their company headquarters for 100.00 plus 25.00 shipping both ways, for a grand total of 125.00.

Then place it on eBay and sell it for 200+/-.

Isn't it great when the authentication company makes more money, then the actual owner of the photo.

Sammy, so what do you suggest? Do you have a better company to ship items such as a Mickey Mantle photo for $25.00 both ways? I can ship an 8x10 photograph insured for $200.00 for around $6.00 via US First Class Mail or $7.50 via US Priority Mail, which shipping company are you using?

You should visit usps.com to check your shipping rates before inflating authentication prices.

As for the service, you do not have to pay for it, but eBay requires many items of this nature to be certified before selling it on their site these days due to legal issues. You do not have to sell the item if you do not wish to pay for 3rd party authentication.

Other than your friends from autographalert.com who have their own 3rd party authentication service that they do not advertise on their own web site because they like to live as if they are anonymous and do not admit to owning a web site attacking their competition, who do you recommend to authenticate autographs for resale in this current marketplace?

[trsent]

Other than your friends from autographalert.com who have their own 3rd party authentication service that they do not advertise on their own web site because they like to live as if they are anonymous and do not admit to owning a web site attacking their competition, who do you recommend to authenticate autographs for resale in this current marketplace?

The Gavel Chat article about the Auograph Alert site:

Thursday, June 05, 2008
Hard-hitting autograph website lacks credibilty
Posted by Chris



I recently stumbled upon a website called autographalert.com, and I must say, it really touches on some hard-hitting issues in the autograph world. The one problem I have with it, however, is that (from what I could see) there was no author's name on who wrote these articles and many of the stories use anonymous and/or one-sided sources in the stories.

For those of you who have been longtime readers of Gavel Chat, you'll know that we are big on credibility and standing behind what we write.

I did a website lookup to see who autographalert.com was registered under (considering I searched their entire site twice and couldn't even find a contact name, just a generic email address) and this was the info that I turned up:

Registrant:
Autograph Alert

PO Box 297167
Pembroke Pines, Florida 33029
United States

Registered through: Broadband National, LLC
Domain Name: AUTOGRAPHALERT.COM
Created on: 16-Mar-05
Expires on: 16-Mar-09
Last Updated on: 16-Mar-08

Administrative Contact:
Mike Frost, Steve Koschal steve@paasaa.com
Autograph Alert
PO Box 297167
Pembroke Pines, Florida 33029
United States
(561) 582-4439



Now, from what I remember, Frost and Koschal are considered autograph authenticators. I also really think there is some interesting reading on their site, but I have little respect for any entity that writes nearly all negative articles, with many anonymous and/or one-sided sources. Also, I can't respect or seriously acknowledge a story that doesn't include a byline...

Makes no sense to me. If all this information is so important to the hobby, and they stand behind it, why on earth wouldn't they want credit for their findings?

[bigtruck260]

Joel, of course - I respect your opinion of PSA, and when I speak, I should say that I am talking about all of the authentication companies, really.

I have had bad experiences all around with them. Not authenticating good sigs, and taking my money (even though the item failed)...

Help me to understand the logic of charging me $50 for a Pujols autograph authentication and failing it only to keep the entire fee. It would make much more sense to only charge the full fee if the item is deemed genuine, then at least everyone wins. By failing a legit sig and keeping my money - well, it's agitating. I read the poilcy beforehand - I knew the rules, but I also knew my sigs were the real deal. When they were deemed not genuine by the anonymous 'staff of experts'...I stopped using them. I sent the same sigs to JSA and all three were passed. After I sold them, I should have had made a tidy profit. Unfortunately, I was out $150 in fees from PSA plus another $150 from JSA - so I basically sold them to pay for the authentication services.

As for auction house letters...I'm glad that they are improving them - or trying. I won a lot of 50 Cards autographs a few years ago thinking that they all would have had a PSA sticker on them (at least). Nope, the letter listed the photographs as recieving a 'cursory' examination. Kinda funny that during the cursory exam, they decided that a rare Jim Bottomley sig was the clubhouse variety...the auction house stated that the Bottomley sig was signed by a clubbie...and that led me to believe that the sigs had been looked at better than with just a cursory glance.

Now, when I list my autograph photo on eBay (from that lot) and I put PSA in the title - it should be able to add a little premium to my sale. Not with an auction house letter. I have to tell the potential buyer that they will only recieve a COPY of the actual letter. That was always frustrating.

Joel, if PSA is going to move forward and set a precendent with auction house protocol - that's terrific. However, I guess I will believe it when I see it. It's just my opinion, and PSA is allowed to make money as a business. I just don't advocate or use them anymore.

BTW, thanks for the courteous email Joel. No hard feelings - I know you are a stand up guy. I appreciate that.

[trsent]

Joel, of course - I respect your opinion of PSA, and when I speak, I should say that I am talking about all of the authentication companies, really.

I have had bad experiences all around with them. Not authenticating good sigs, and taking my money (even though the item failed)...

Help me to understand the logic of charging me $50 for a Pujols autograph authentication and failing it only to keep the entire fee. It would make much more sense to only charge the full fee if the item is deemed genuine, then at least everyone wins. By failing a legit sig and keeping my money - well, it's agitating. I read the poilcy beforehand - I knew the rules, but I also knew my sigs were the real deal. When they were deemed not genuine by the anonymous 'staff of experts'...I stopped using them. I sent the same sigs to JSA and all three were passed. After I sold them, I should have had made a tidy profit. Unfortunately, I was out $150 in fees from PSA plus another $150 from JSA - so I basically sold them to pay for the authentication services.

Ok, I agree with you on this one - It is rough when you mail in an item and they fail it with an "unable to authenticate" (even if you got it in person) and then you get stuck with the authentication fee.

I guess if they send you a full letter explaining their decision this can be accepted, but it is rough when you get your autograph in-person and they cannot match it up to anything they have on file as known examples.