Help with Ty Cobb signed photo's at a local auction..."Ace" Authentication?
 

Hey guys, I was bored browsing around estate sale websites and came across a VERY local sale that is happening this Saturday. Listed are a bunch of signed photographs, 2 from Cobb, Lajoe, Speaker, Robinson, and a few more. The 2 of interest for me are the Cobb photo's and they're listed at pretty decent prices. The first one appears to be a Polaroid of his HOF plaque signed at the bottom, and the second is described as a signed wire photo.

All of the autographs in this sale are certified by Ace Authentication. I have never heard of them and was wondering what you guys thought of the samples below. Any help would be much appreciated on what you think of authenticity, and maybe if you could throw in a value? The sooner the better as this sale is Saturday. Thanks!

I believe ACE Authentication is Justin Priddy's company...he's right up there with Stat and Chris Morales. IOW junk.

Utilize the "Search This Forum" function and type in ACE.

Brandon, would you mind posting the link to the estate sale? Maybe if enough of us send them a note they'll do the right thing and pull the items from their sale.

ACE is located in Villa Park, Ca...where is this estate sale at? Odd that recently authenticated signatures show up in an "estate" sale.

To me the two Cobbs signatures vary in slant and some other characteristics from each other.

The sale is in Anaheim, CA. I didn't even notice that the date of authentication was December 5, 2011...Maybe the sellers just thought it'd be better to have a COA and didn't know ACE's history? I'm going to attach some of the other signatures, let me know what you guys think of these.

Auction
 

In this day and age its BS if an estate auction does not properly research a piece-ignorance is not a defense. If they are advertising a COA even though its a known fraud then shame on them. The only caveat would be if the auctioneer during the auction adds his own commentary to a piece(reporting faults, update condition reports, reiterates an unrecognized cert, etc...

Nobody has thoughts on these other autographs? I thought one of the guys would give an opinion on the others...

I wouldn't even know where to start when giving an opinion on autographs...what I do know is that if it has an ACE cert it's almost guaranteed to be bad.

Wasn't ACE the company that certified all those fake Babe Ruth autographs that guy was trying to sell with his Mathewsons?

Thoughts
 

My thoughts on the other autos-all bad....What more do you want to hear?

Really what I was looking for was something along the lines of, regardless of the ACE connection, even if I didn't mention ACE, that the autos were no good. But I'm getting that vibe anyway so I'm satisfied, I'll stay away. :)

I know that I wouldn't buy any of these with or without an Ace cert. The autographs on the sheet look to be done by the same hand.

Cobb on a Polaroid?? I know Polaroid has been around awhile, but that particular type of picture wasn't around til the '70's was it? My Brother had a late '60's Polaroid and they were still the peel type film. That picture is on the "blow on it" variety that came out much later after he was dead I really think. Anyone else???

lots of ace surfacing
 

Gents,

Take a look a this antiques and collectibles auction... Boatload of questionable stuff all authenticated by ACE

http://www.auctionzip.com/cgi-bin/ph...&kwd=ty%20cobb

Ya geez, what a bunch of crap. The Cobb looks just like the one in the first post I made. And everything looks like it's on the same type of paper. Well guys glad I posted this thread, I'll just stick to the baseball! lol.

PS I think the first auto process Polaroid was 1960.

I have a Joe Jackson polaroid, know I know where to get it authenticated.

Thanx!
Doug

This piqued my curiosity and it seems polaroid photographs can be dated via the date code on the photo, if one knows how to decode it. (Or, more accurately, you can date when the film was manufactured, with the usual assumption being that it was used within a few months of that date).

That being the case, I've done some preliminary searching, but haven't turned up anything that describes how to pull a date from the code. My understanding is that law enforcement agents have long been able to contact Polaroid customer service to determine the date of photos relating to an investigation, though I don't know if that still holds true (assumedly they would have to contact Fuji now). It seems to me though that someone somewhere would have made public the method for dating these photos.

So, anyone know something I don't that they would care to share?

(5 minutes later)
And of course, within minutes of posting the original question, I happened upon a document with the answer. In case it proves helpful to anyone, I found it here:

http://gawainweaver.com/images/uploa...olaroid_ID.pdf

Randall,
Good catch! Nothing like stating what should be the obvious and making this whole topic a no-brainer.... ;)

LOL Doug! That's a good one!! :p

Brandon,

No worries! Your baseball expertise is exceptional. It's great to have a guy like you around as a resource. I'm not even an early baseball collecting guy, but I can't wait to pick up your book on a topic that I would love to know more about. :D

Ty Cobb died before Polaroid photos were introduced.

Scott thanks a bunch! We just had 2 sample books made up, it's moving along very well now. Thanks for the support!

The Speaker doesn't look too bad. The Jackie. eh. hard to say. on the A's sheet, the Grove and Hoyt..YUCH. unless they were drunk.

I defer to more expert opinons overall, but these guys rep is really pretty bad. That said, even a Broken clock is right twice a day, so they may get some right along the way too.

Tried to do some research online. As far as I can tell, pack film (which is what that photo is cause it has the wide bottom border where the chemical pack is held before it gets squeezed out to develope the picture) came out in 1963 two years after Cobb was dead. It was all roll film before that. So, you know...

Well, Cobb musta used a "Ghost signer":p

This is exactly the way that I saw it as well...

As far as I'm concerned one bad egg spoils the lot. I just don't think anyone goes to ACE, STAT, Morales, etc unless they know what they have is bad already. If the Speaker looks okay it's probably just a good forgery.

Completely agree.... and same for the Robinson, and the rest of the team sheet. Would not touch any with 10 ft. pole...

Found this online.
Sellers description - "Fabulous 8x10 sepia image of the Bambino with bat in hand boldly inscribed and signed with wonderful ink contrast and gorgeous displayability--You won't find one nicer for less! COA from Justin Priddy/ACE Authentication."

That inscribed Ruth photo is one of the worst I have ever seen. It is inconceivable that any authenticator could pass it. It's choppy, it's in dark brown ink that shows no aging, everything you could think of is wrong with it. An absolute outrage!

what he said. wow

One of the Cobb's is now on ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI...E:B:SS:US:1123

poof... gone :eek:

What a shame :D
Guess the ebay police must be doing their job.
And since KOC gave it his "like" approval I will also say "Keyser Soze"

Since we're changing +1 to Like, can we go ahead and change poof...gone to Keyser Soze? :D

Or gone to where the fishes sleep? :D