PSA/DNA Mastro Controversy

[Eric]

This was posted on the collecting website "Zipper's collecting obsession"

Friday, June 16, 2006
The PSA/DNA Plot Thickens


As I have been documenting the ongoing Bill Daniels vs. PSA/DNA and MaestroNet suit...

Bill Daniels reports that he sent five signed photos to Global Authentication, Inc. These are the same five photos that were depicted in the MaestroNet catalog respresenting a sample from the lot he won. Bear in mind, that all of these photos were consigned by PSA/DNA employee Zack Rullo and were alleged to have been signed in-person. They were all authenticated by PSA/DNA. The signed photos were Michael Jordan, Manny Ramirez, Pete Sampras, Shaquille O'Neal and Wayne Gretzky.

Global Authentication, Inc. deemed all of the photos to be fakes.

More news is on the way... and the plot will thicken...

http://zipper68.blogspot.com/

[earlywynnfan]

This whole issue baffles me. Sure, I've always been very un-impressed with PSA and the authenticators, and I know that Mastro isn't perfect, but this lot sounds like outright crap! I'm really surprised they auctioned it off.

Ken

[suave1477]

hey Eric this situtation was posted here on the forum a few months back. Is this updated information as far as the trial proceedings?

[Eric]

I think the fact that these items failed at authentication is the new information.
Eric

[trsent]

I have known Zach Rullo since he was a little boy (now he is a big boy with a big beard) and I know he used to be one of the kids at The Chicago Stadium who would sit there after every game and get autographs (Bulls, Blackhawks and major concerts) plus sometimes obtain game used equipment.

Zach was also known to hang out for endless hours at hotels awaiting rock stars for autographs. I know I have a picture somewhere at home of Zach with Michael Stipe getting out of a taxi cab signing stuff for him.

I do not believe Zach intentionally authenticated not genuine items as he has been accused, but this is just from my relationship with him over the past fifteen years or so.

In the meantime, Global didn't like five autographs of a lot of five they were sent? Only five autographs were hand picked by the customer (who doesn't like Mastro for some reason) of a lot, why did he not have Global authenticate every photo in the lot in question?

Did Global decide to pick on PSA/DNA since they are the competition? This is the same company that left Historic Auctions and their customers hanging without a reply for how they have not authenticated items that they were advertised as authenticated? Is this not the same company that has not replied to Eric of this forum with questions about what happened that they are not authenticating for Historic as advertised?

I am concerned this whole issue is just that, someone causing trouble for others as that is how it looks to me on the surface.

[trsent]

By the way, who wrote the article in The New York Daily News?

What crap that the link doesn't give the author of the article that they reprinted. I think that link possibly should be removed from this site, as how can we give links to an alleged news article on another web site, but the author of the article is not listed with the alleged news article.

Food for thought?

[Eric]

I can tell you that the article was attached to that link yesterday. Here is another, crazy long link to it.

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache...&cd=1&ie=UTF-8

[trsent]

Ok, so Michael O'Keeffe wrote the article. I wonder why he is always picking on Mastro Auctions. Hasn't he every player poker with Bill Mastro? He is really a nice guy.

[ChrisCavalier]

Did Global decide to pick on PSA/DNA since they are the competition? This is the same company that left Historic Auctions and their customers hanging without a reply for how they have not authenticated items that they were advertised as authenticated? Is this not the same company that has not replied to Eric of this forum with questions about what happened that they are not authenticating for Historic as advertised?

Hello Joel,

In case you haven't seen them (which I would find hard to believe), here they are the responses on the forum regarding Global's situation with Historic Auctions:

http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_f...?t=2954&page=4 (posts 34-43)

http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_f...ead.php?t=3177

What exactly are you trying to accomplish with your post? It seems to me that you are trying to unjustly paint a bad picture of one company in an attempt to justify another company whose credibility has been questioned. Further, not only have you unjustly accused a company of leaving "Historic Auctions and their customers hanging without a reply", you have also claimed the same company was involved in some form of conspiracy that is clearly unsubstantiated.

Maybe you can clear things up for me because as of right now your comments above seem to me to be both misguided and inappropriate. I look forward to hearing your reply.

Sincerely,
Chris

[trsent]

My comments are based on the fact that a New York Post article shows that Global authenticated signatures as not genuine while PSA/DNA authenticated them as genuine.

I was just asking if maybe there is an issue there where the autographs were looked at with crooked glasses because they had a chance to put PSA/DNA on the spot.

I also am sorry that you find my comments about the Global - Historic are in the wrong. I know a major member of this community does not feel his questions were answered from the posts you linked as he emailed them ex post facto and did not receive a reply about the confusion.

I know you have a strong alliance with Global, and I am not trying to pick on them. I am confused that The New York Post elected to pick on Mastro and PSA/DNA with only using Global as an authenticator. My comments were unfair, yes, because for all I know the autographs in question may not be genuine. My comments were based on speculation, which was wrong, but at the same time I jumped to the Historic Auctions issues which again, a major member of this community has not had his questions answered from Global, which was misplaced in my post above.

I do find it odd that the five random samples were all found not genuine and only one authentication company was mentioned. If it was any other company I would have made similar comments.