Excellent posts by Richard Simon and Chuck Tapia (Fuddjcal).
If Travis wants to be anti-third party, then that’s his choice, but here's my issue with you, Travis. You continue to rant day after day against third-party authenticators, but when confronted about why you don't rant against an FDE like Chris Morales, you claim (and I'm paraphrasing) "that it's old news." Well, as long as Chris Morales continues to "authenticate" crap for Coach's Corner, it will never be old news.
I'm sure there's a reason why you don't rant against an FDE like Chris Morales; maybe you're afraid of offending someone, but that is your choice.
Tell me, Travis, can you show me ten Muhammad Ali signed items that are authenticated by Chris Morales that are 100% authentic? Can you? Can you show me ten Babe Ruth signed baseballs that are authenticated by Chris Morales that are 100% authentic?
I have yet to see anything that Morales has authenticated that is actually authentic; so in my book, he is wrong 100% of the time. As a matter of fact, I just checked the Morales certed items in this month's Coach's Corner listings and once again I did not see one item that he certed that in my opinion is authentic. Of course, I tried to do that on Ebay, but there are no Chris Morales certed autographs on Ebay because he is on Ebay's "Banned COA List."
Of course, Travis, you always mention the dollar amounts when you post a rant against PSA. But what about the Morales certed dollar amounts, Travis? Are those dollar amounts irrelevant? Maybe you think the people that buy that crap don't matter and have no impact on the hobby. Do you really think that a Babe Ruth signed baseball certed by Chris Morales, that sells on the Coach's Corner auction site for $400.00, isn't a big deal? Well, it is a big deal when you discover that $400.00 ball ends up being sold in a retail store in Las Vegas for ten times the purchase price. But I guess those "dollar amounts" aren't a big deal.
Travis, what about the person who bought the below pathetic Derek Jeter forgery? I guess the dollar amount the buyer paid for this piece-of-crap Jeter forgery doesn't count.
Attachment 54491
Travis, you once wrote
"6 FDE items = what? 60 bucks? They are selling Mantle, Williams & DiMaggio for $10 each? And the FDE's are the problem? Sheesh!"
First of all, you write
"6 FDE items = what? 60 bucks?" The number "6" you quote is actually in the thousands. And those thousands of items sold anywhere between $1.00 and $200.00. Not to mention the profit-making shipping charges. But for argument sakes, let's say the number is only "6." Are telling me, that when those "6" discover that their FDE certed autographs are forgeries, that it doesn't matter to those "6" buyers? As a matter of fact, hundreds of those buyers tried to flip that crap on Ebay and I can almost guarantee, that most, if not all of them, were removed.
Judging from your comments, Travis, the mistakes made by "XYZ" and "ABC" are having a major impact on the hobby. Does that mean that the thousands of pieces of crap certed by Morales over the past eight years haven't had a major impact on the hobby?
You and other people jumped all over John Reznikoff when he made a mistake on the Pawn Stars reality show, but not a peep about Drew Max, FDE, when, after he examined a
FDR Letter To Clergy, said on the Pawn Stars reality show
"When you put it all together, there's only one conclusion, this thing is definitely authentic." Even though that
FDR Letter To Clergy was a clear reproduction and one of 121, 700 reproductions sent to clergymen throughout the US. But not a peep about Drew Max from you or the other people.
Below is the link to the story I wrote about the
FDR Letter To Clergy.
http://live.autographmagazine.com/pr...to-clergy-pawn
What you do, Travis, is called
selective bashing; and you have every right to do that, Travis, just like I have every right to call, what you do, as
selective bashing.
Has PSA made mistakes? Yes. Has JSA made mistakes? Yes. Now here's a real number. During the eight years of looking at Chris Morales certed autographs, I have yet to see one autograph that I would consider authentic. Not one. And I would bet my life that PSA has a huge rejection database. Does Chris Morales even have a rejection database?
If I had a choice between someone who gets it right between 96%-99% of the time and someone who gets it wrong between 99% and 100% of the time, who do you think I'm going to choose?