Global Authentics Timeline
 

Hey Guys,

First time posting in the auto forum. PLEASE DON'T BITE MY HEAD OFF. I've been poring over these threads and am really impressed with all of your guys' expertise. Wish I would've found this before being taken on a 500 HR ball.

I'm wondering if anyone has a timeline of when authenticators with good reputations like Bushing and Knoll, and more controversially Steve Sipe, worked for GAI. I wonder if there's a way to date the GAI stickers to periods in time when they were apparently doing better work than others. (For the record, you guys have scared me off of autograph collecting for a while, and I would probably never pay for a GAI piece that wasn't perfect, but the researcher in me is interested.)

There's a guy in Orange County selling clearly counterfeit stuff with GAI stickers, and there are eBay listings popping up all the time, like this (that sticker was probably taken from another item anyways):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MICKEY-MANTL...-/400481936986

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/MICKEY-MANTLE...b0Q~~60_57.JPG

Any thoughts?

I think the Ted Williams is fugly, slants way to much to the right for starters. However, I am far from an expert

We don't all bite here in this forum. ;)

I can't help on the timeline but I'm sure someone will chime in. That would be helpful information for all.

First of all I would NEVER even consider buying a photo signed by those three players. No matter who certifies it, there is still probably a less than 1% chance a piece like that would actually be "good". Unless you got it yourself or from someone you trusted implicitly - just not worth the risk.

People get sucked into these pieces because they look nice and usually the price is "too good".

I don't think this one is even a good forgery. To me the J and gg in the first autograph are all off. The second M in Mantle looks suspicious, and the Williams is all wrong.

The first director of authentication was Mike Gutierrez and his name appeared on the full 8"x11" LOAs. I'm not sure when he left, perhaps 2005. Gutierrez had a strong reputation in the autograph hobby, left when he was hired by PSA/DNA then Heritage where he now works. GAI's checkered downhill slope happened after he left. The early years GAI LOA with his name on it is the best and most respected.

In the early days, GAI had Bushing & Knoll for game used, Gutierrez for autographs and was at the top of the heap in unopened pack grading. Some collectors today may not know or recall, but GAI once had a very strong hobby reputation, including in autographs.

DRC, Gobal was authenticateing in the late ninty's early 2000.
They where going broke and cut a deal with B and J to authenticate there items. I know for a fact that they authenticated Dimaggio balls half where good the other half bad. That was Rocchi at the time. Then Baker, Purdy and gone. Now is Steve Sipe.

I'm generally more confident buying things without certification than ones that comes with GAI.

I believe GAI was started in the very early 2000s, when the head of grading for PSA left and started his own card grading company. It was primarily a trading card grader, but soon added autograph and game used units.

The company has indeed taken a serpentine route since then, with authenticators and units coming and going, its reputation going downhill. The original authenticators long gone. The original pack grader had to quit when his house burned down. There have even been multiple companies holding the same acronym.

That was Steve Rocchi. I dont ever remember Mike being part of them. I could be wrong because he has been with so many company's

I don't remember Mike as part of Global either.

Well, he was. I used to bid in his auctions, followed the companies he worked for and have had GAI LOA's with his endorsement. He was even with MastroNet (as they were called at one time) with Steve Grad before he was with GAI. The full 8x11 GAI LOAs from when Gutierrez was there will have his name on it and are from circa 2001-2005 (I don't have exact years on the tip of my brain), so you can identify a GAI autograph from when he was there.

As I said, early on GAI had some big name people (Bushing & Knoll were the top game used experts at the time, Mark Murphy was the top unopened pack expert), and was considered a very resectable company. It's in recent years that they had their all their issues. Bushing & Knoll left after a couple of years early on too.

GAI was big news and closely followed by baseball card collectors when it started (including on Net54 and the PSA board), as it was started by ex PSA guys and was supposed to be the new competition with SGC and PSA. The card grading started out okay-- was respectably respectable the first couple of years --, but fizzled out in price and perceived quality and had its issues over the years too. Baseball card graders will also sometimes comment that cards graded by GAI early on (with a different style and color label) were different/better than in recent years. I don't believe card graders take any recently graded 'GAI' or 'Global' graded cards with any seriousness. As I mentioned earlier, in recent years GAI appeared to be have sold parts of the company, at least its name and/or acronym and/or variations on its name, to different entities and it all became a bit of an alphabet soup mess at some point and most baseball card collectors lost interest in even trying to figure it out.

MG was with global for awhile, maybe the only guy to be part of all 3. global, psa, jsa.

This is all great info. It seems like it's impossible to date or trust any GAI stickers because they're so easily removed from the pieces anyways, but it's certainly an interesting display of how nebulous some of these companies' histories are.

The early full 8x11" LOAs were dated, had Gutierrez' endorsement and a photo of the autograph. So they can easily be verified as coming from the 'good days.'

I can attest to Mike being with Global. I used to go to the Chicago Sun Times Shows when I was in Law School in Indiana (graduated and Moved away in May 2005 so we are talking before that date) and I used to submit a few autographs of bigger names to Global when I would go there and Mike was their lead authenticator back in those days (2004-2005). They actually were THE BEST of the bunch when they first started and the one time I had some questions he came out and spent several minutes with me explaining some things and answering some questions I had and was very nice. My last submission to them was in either late 2006 or early 2007 and at that time their reputation was still strong in the hobby and it was after that point you started to see things that made your eyebrows go up a bit.

Rhys

Rhys is correct. I looked it up and Gutierrez left in 2005, and, as I recall, GAI may have done a credible enough couple of years after that. It was in recent years that they had the well advertised autograph problems and their reputation fell precipitously.

There's no question GAI's history was a strange and sometimes mysterious journey.

I am almost positive that Mike Baker was there for a while as I remember his name on coa's. As Rhys said earlier they used to all be at the Sun Times show, but even when Mike G. and Baker were there they authenticated many bad items that seemed obvious to me including Mantle's etc. as did the other companies. Many of you on this board are much better than I, but it is my opinion that their autograph work was poor for most of their time. The upside is that you can still find authentic items with GAI certs for a fraction of the price as most people run like the plague from a GAI item. As many have said, you judge the piece not the COA. I will say that my opinion is that Mike G. is a buffoon. FWIW.

Mike Baker did grade cards for GAI.

Mike Baker is on a ton of certs for GAI. I would add I would not buy any of them. Rocchi has a new company that authenticates for my favorite players garbage. As far as Mike goes I stand corrected. He has worked for more companies than anyone in this business it hard to keep with him.