James Spence Autographs

[cjclong]

Is anyone familiar with James Spence Autographs reputation for reliability as to certifying autographs. There is a seller on Ebay who has a number of 1961 Yankees autographs on baseballs that James Spence Autographs has certified as authentic. I am not that familiar with the autograph business and would appreciate opinions. Thanks

[arminter1989]

Yes, JSA is one of the more reputable authenticators for sports signatures.

[ChiBosox05]

I trust JSA and PSA. No company can be 100% accurate, but they're the only 2 I would trust, personally; they have good reputations.

[danesei@yahoo.com]

JSA has been known for having problems with vintage autographs in the past. If you're talking about the Mill Creek Sports baseballs, I'd generally trust those to be legit, as Mill Creek is a pretty good business. If you had concerns after your purchase, you could always ask Richard Simons (richardsimonsports.com) to verify the autographs. The problem with JSA has been a lot of fake certificates and stickers hitting the market over the last six months or so.

[Billy77]

As stated in previous post. Spence is ok but far from perfect. I have been collecting autos for over 35 years and have shown them my stuff, all of which I had gotten myself, and he turned it down.

Generally they are good but...certs are only as good as the paper they are printed on.

Good luck...

[Griffey24fan]

http://live.autographmagazine.com/fo...ource=activity

[danesei@yahoo.com]

http://live.autographmagazine.com/fo...ource=activity

That's a very odd situation with that thread. The thread originator is alleged to be the lead authenticator/owner of Global Authentics (Steve Sipes) posting under a fake name. The issue of the LOAs/COAs/stickers have yet to be verified, but it's fairly incriminating for JSA.

Essentially, the thread amounts to:

Trust GA/GAI zero percent of the time, as they're known for (and have admitted to) passing forgeries.

Trust JSA less than before, until this entire problem is addressed.

Trust PSA a little more than before, since JSA has lost a lot of credibility within the autograph community.

Something left out from all of this is that SGC is now authenticating, and they seem to be pretty strict on what they pass.

[lengthwise1]

thats quite a thread...

[Wrigley2010]

One thing I never understood when I was collecting autographed baseballs was why a PSA or JSA authenticated baseball would carry a premium in the secondary market over autographs authenticated by the likes of Tristar, JMI and Mounted Memories to name a few? I mean these guys witness nearly all their autographs but people prefer the opinion of someone else who didn't see the baseball being signed?

I understand that vintage autographs are a completely different ballgame but for current stars why would anyone buy a Jeter auto that didn't have a Steiner holo? Why would a Steve Carlton auto with a PSA sticker sell for more than one with a Tristar holo?

It honestly speaks volumes on the hobby itself and how much the average collector actually educates themselves about their hobby.

[Juan Gris]

One thing I never understood when I was collecting autographed baseballs was why a PSA or JSA authenticated baseball would carry a premium in the secondary market over autographs authenticated by the likes of Tristar, JMI and Mounted Memories to name a few? I mean these guys witness nearly all their autographs but people prefer the opinion of someone else who didn't see the baseball being signed?

I understand that vintage autographs are a completely different ballgame but for current stars why would anyone buy a Jeter auto that didn't have a Steiner holo? Why would a Steve Carlton auto with a PSA sticker sell for more than one with a Tristar holo?

It honestly speaks volumes on the hobby itself and how much the average collector actually educates themselves about their hobby.

You bring up some excellent points. Two factors I see for this discrepancy are 1) PSA being highly regarded for their authentication of older autographs (those which the "lesser" companies you mentioned could/cannot authenticate in person), and 2) Stories of these "lesser" authenticators letting bogus autographs be authenticated at shows where the signer is actively selling autographs. From what I've heard/read, the authenticators did not always see the items signed at shows and would blindly apply authentication stickers without being 100% sure the autographs were legitimately just signed at the show. These stories may or may not have appeared on this site but I know the rumors are out there and, for some, rumor is enough to ruin a good name.