Possible items from forgery factory sold by Hunt
 

This hit the news this morning -

I don't think that Hunt or any of those other than the forger and cronies would be at fault here, however if you've made a big memorabilia purchase of historic game used in the past few years this may be worth watching. This will also add some pause to art collectors. Props to the FBI for being on it.

Perhaps the memorabilia was to launder the art fraud monies as they have not determined the authenticity of the those auctions as of yet. I imagine as it was new to Hunt at the time of story the FBI will be reaching out to those buyers for research soon. I would only assume that other auction houses would be involved as the art was sold through several. Items mentioned include used Ruth and Gehrig bats at this time, likely more coming as the records seized are researched.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/ne...ty/5398152002/

I saw that article this morning. The scammers just never rest. Hopefully they bring down the entire nation wide ring.

nothing is safe

True. I know some will point to this and say “look how screwed up this hobby is”. But counterfeiting is all over. Airplane parts. Medical devices. Some very scary sh*t.

I have amassed an art collection of one artist. I wouldn't trust more than a handful of people to verify a piece before I purchased it. And one of those people is me. To pay $300K on the word of some auction house and so called expert is insane. Besides art critics are morons in my book. a drawing or painting that looks like a 2 year old scribbling brings 10's of thousands of dollars because some critic says it's chic. Blah.

The collector should also be an expert and educated in what they buy.

We have the same in this hobby where companies can produce a card early in the morning, and as long as it's limited numbers are hyped, it's touted as a "rookie", or any other supposed importance you can think of is greatly exaggerated, they'll get tens of thousands of dollars for it in the afternoon. So is it the art critics that are morons.... or we collectors? :D

Little of column A, a little of column B, I'd suppose! It's the same reason why some cards are priced so much more than others. The modern collecting game baffles me sometimes. Like when we see cards of a player like Jasson Dominguez, who hasn't even sniffed the majors yet, go for well over $2,000. It makes no sense, but if someone is willing to pay that price then, you better believe it's going to sell for that!

I read about this yesterday.

Years ago, I was vilified by numerous members on the autograph side because of a Babe Ruth signed "700th Homerun" ticket that I posted was a forgery.

Now you know who penned that forgery.

There are some members that I will never forgive for their comments.