Third Party Authentication

 Autograph Authentication

Who Is The Best or At Least The Most Accurate

There’s so much negative talk amongst collectors about how poorly is the accuracy of  the so called autograph authenticating companies.

At a recent sports show a group of collectors were discussing how they all agree that COA’s from the more active high profile companies on eBay are basically a joke and useless.  More and more collectors are no longer submitting items for their autographs to be authenticated.

 They are now depending on an accurate bill of sale from an autograph dealer that has credentials.  After all it’s your only legal document.

 Since popular areas of collecting seem to be sports and Presidents of the United States that was the area to do a short study on the accuracy of some of the authenticating companies.

 A team of autograph experts from  PADAH (Preferred Autograph Dealers and Auction Houses) was chosen to do a survey and President Bill Clinton’s signature on a baseball was their choice.

 The following two signed baseballs were chosen from eBay as good exemplars to start the investigation.  Both baseballs were authenticated by PSA/DNA.

 It is recommended that one uses these two illustrations as a guide.

 On eBay it seems that  JSA has authenticated the most baseballs believed by their “experts” to be genuinely signed by Bill Clinton.

 We have chosen four illustrations from eBay.  How can someone (an expert at JSA) state that the following baseball is genuinely signed by Bill Clinton?

Compare the following signature with the two certified by PSA/DNA.

 Now if  JSA states the above ball is signed by  Clinton, then how can the next one also be genuine.

 The “experts” at  JSA have stated the following ball is genuinely signed by Clinton.  How could this possibly be if the one’s illustrated  above are genuine.

 Based on JSA believing the above two Bill Clinton signed balls are genuine, who at JSA has determined this third one below is real?

 Let’s look at one more ball below passed by JSA.     This one is only asking  $449.99.

Which of the four balls above would you purchase?  CAN THIS TYPE OF AUTHENTICATING BE CALLED LEGITIMATE?

 If this short study thus far hasn’t convinced you that COA’s are basically worthless, you deserve to have one of these balls in your collection.

 Let’s try another one of the high-profile companies. The signature on this ball is so bad that only one example will be illustrated from this company. This should convince anyone not to spend more time with this authentication company.

The ball illustrated below has been authenticated by  Beckett Authentication, Steve Grad as the lead authenticator . With his past history authenticating autographs, enough said.

 How can anyone, certify the above signature as genuine. Like the old saying goes, "Is something wrotten in Denmark?"

 Trying one more time with a little unknow outfit is a ball authenticated by PAAS.  The lead authenticator is listed as Mike Frost.  However from several court records his name is Michael Fiegenbaum.  Why hide your real name?

Maybe you hide your real name when you put out a COA like the following.

One more thing, his “experts” listed are his wife and brother and son. Two others have asked Feigenbaum to remove their names, Neil Lanigan and Roger Gilchrist. They have done so in writing, as they have never  been associated with this PAAS. 

Most interesting, is that this item is authenticated as genuine.  the signature is so bad, in the description the seller has written “PAAS Authenticated full letter of authentication. Please also make the determination of authenticating for yourself by examining the photo/signature."

PAAS has a history of being the choice of forgers.  Based on the above xample, it is understandable.

The autograph experts at PADAH have determined that:

 PSA/DNA is the obvious winner of being the most accurate when authenticating signatures of Bill Clinton on a baseball.

 As for the other three, apparently they don’t appear to be in the game.  SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG WITH THE BUSINESS OF AUTHENTICATING AUTOGRAPHS. It needs to be examined by some agency to clean it up.  Even a barber who charges $15.00 to give a haircut needs a liscense!

BECKETT Authentication….Very Strange

The Value of a Beckett Authentication

 Recently we came across a vey poor looking forgery of Babe Ruth.  This signature was authenticated “as genuine” and placed in a Beckett plastic coffin.  Beckett Authentication # 083241973425171.

 Almost impossible to believe the above Babe Ruth signature could pass "as genuine" by anyone.

 We reached out to Beckett and requested information about “who” GIVE US A PERSON'S NAME, at Beckett authenticated this signature.  To our surprise we got a rare response from Beckett.

                                 Our response......

                                     Beckett responds....

                             Our response......

                    Beckett's shocking response...

                    Most likely embarrassed, they completely avoid commenting on the signature they once authenticated as genuine.

                                      In closing, the above email was my last email to Beckett which there was NO response.

  When a company makes a mistake, as they have done with this horrific Babe Ruth signature, why can’t they just own up to it. Tell us the name of your expert who authenticated this signature.

 Beckett charges $400.00 to authenticate a Babe Ruth signature, not to mention the additional cost of placing it in one of their coffins.

 The ole saying appears to still stand “You get what you paid for!"

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N1N37y4pg4uC_BuzuaDZGjr4OSkU9ZJa/view?usp=sharing

Autographs are a tricky business. Many companies claim to authenticate autographs by giving their opinion. Who is giving the opinion? All these companies include PSA, JSA, BSA, PAC, AOC, and on hire what they call experts to go to shows, in-house, or through the mail. The conflicts of interest are eye-popping as these authenticators also sell autographs. The customer can pay hundreds of dollars for a sticker of opinion. One authenticator, Steve Grad told the truth when asked what it takes to become a PSA/DNA authenticator he responded online; “A Pulse.” Still, collectors flock in line to buy these little stickers for a blanket of sorts. They feel it’s a layer of protection to buy an opinion from an unknown child backed by absolutely nothing. No recalls, no refunds, and no care either way.

The turnover as a so-called expert at a third party authentication company is faster than McDonald’s in most cases as one authenticator stated he’s paid $200 to place stickers on autographs over the weekend from Friday-Sunday They are displaced from their families or in many cases high school classes equaling over 60 hours at a show, coming and going and nights in the hotel bar if those that aren’t old enough have fake I.D. This equals around $4 per hour, four times less than an opening position making French fries at McDonald’s.

Everyone knows third-party authentication is a mess. It’s real one day, fake the next, then real again, then fake again. So who are these experts? Whoever they can push as an expert? When Steve Grad worked as a shipping clerk at Mastro’s auctions and Bill Mastro decided to make him an expert he marketed him as “handling millions of dollars worth of autographs.” It was true, he took these autographs, packaged them, and mailed them from the company so he did handle them. But now we come upon what most could have predicted in the beginning. Many third-party companies, self-described but not educated autograph authenticators desperately want to hang their hat on a new expert. The standards are so low, you don’t even have to exist.

One New England auction house, RRAuctions is a big fan of creating their own experts. They have John Reznikoff as their historical expert who was known for selling $7-8 million dollars worth of forgeries in JFK alone. Then they have their music expert Roger Epperson who authenticated over $1,000,000.00 worth of fake Michael Jackson sketches forged out of Canada. It seems you have to break a world record for selling the most forgeries in your area of expertise to be considered an expert by some auction houses.  RR Auction uses Epperson for music but Epperson took a back seat to a David Bowie expert named Andy Peters out of England. Beginning December 4, 2019, to now, over 39 items of David Bowie have been sold by RR Auction as; “Accompanied by a letter of authenticity from Bowie expert Andy Peters.” RR felt Andy Peters was a better expert than Roger Epperson thus replacing Epperson on Bowie items for the past three years. Roger ran things through Andy Peters as did other auction houses using third-party authenticators. The 39 items authenticated by Andy Peters in the RR Auction sold for a whopping $36,247.00.

Also of interest, one blog owner used Andy Peters to accuse John Brennan of being a forger. RR Auction lists 5 David Bowie autographs as being from the John Brennan in-person collection but their blog friend claims John Brennan is a forger. It’s so confusing as different so-called experts render their opinions on Bowie material and when nobody will sign off on it you’ll see a story like this; “which notes that the album derives from the collection of Tony McGrogan, a former RCA employee and friend of David Bowie.” Nice story except it’s not true. Tony McGrogan, who passed away in 2015, never got an autograph nor collected autographs of David Bowie. Yes, he kept some notes and trash but he never asked Bowie to sign anything for him according to his family. Another description when a so-called friend/expert won’t sign off on it can read; “…..Obtained in person by a New York autograph collector who collected from the 1950’s through 2000’s.”  Wow what strong provenance!  Was this verified or what they told you? 

Finally, to the rescue comes Andy Peters. He took the offense and declared himself a David Bowie expert. He even created a scare tactic at the following link.

https://www.davidbowienews.com/2021/01/david-bowies-autograph-genuine-or-fake-and-how-to-spot-it-by-andy-peters/

Andy Peter’s has now made himself extremely valuable to third-party authentication companies and auction houses. The only problem? He doesn’t exist! A collector impressed by Epperson and RRAuction’s promotion of Andy Peter’s decided to do a large six-figure deal with Andy Peter’s based on their recommendations and promotions of Andy. He asked while doing the deal via the phone; “You know Andy, nobody has met you. Can you send me a selfie so I can see what you look like?” Andy Peters complied and sent a selfie. No auction house, not Epperson, nobody verified Andy Peters, just this collector.

Upon getting the photograph he did a Google back search on it. Pretty easy to do, it takes seconds yet these so-called experts have been promoting Andy Peters since 2019. The Google back search of Andy Peter’s by a novice showed he wasn’t Andy Peter’s but a well-known forger known as Tony Ford. Here is Tony Ford now.

He had been authenticating his own and his friend's forgeries of Bowie and failing genuine material. Third party authenticators & auction houses ran with this information without a second to verify what Andy Peters claimed, or worse, if he even exist. 

It is now coming to light that we have a real problem. We can hire kids and make them experts, but now we are creating experts who are really forgers and don’t exist. Yet people will buy based on these fake people who don’t exist. Collectors do know more than any self-proclaimed expert out there, including the forger Andy Peters aka Tony Ford. This will be brushed under the rug like all the other scandals.  How embarrassing!

Scanning some autograph auction sites, came across this.  Sixteen bids before closing!

I get a call from someone who wants to make an appointment to get a so-called rare item autheticated.  I asked im what it was and he said "Trust me, you'll never see another."  Even though I had heard this statement many times before, and was disappointed,. the voice of the man seemed quite sincere. The appointment was made.  He arrived several days later with a large album. 

He said he investigated all the autograph authenticators and they seem to all have serious problems.  I was chosen because in his opinion, he found out that most of them have said wonderful things about me and even used me when they had problems authenticating.

His album was filled with photographs of the man standing in front of me with Elvis Presley.  Some of the photographs were inscribed to this man, who was one of Elvis Presley's bodyguards.  I looked down on the floor and obviously there was a case with a guitar.

This man said it was signed 35 years ago, in front of me,  and Elvis said while he was signing,"it'll be a long time before you see a signature like this again."  HE WASN'T KIDDING!