Yep. Even otherwise sophisticated, intelligent, successful people seem to check all these qualities at the door when it comes to cards, autographs, memorabilia. It's the perfect recipe for fraud. It's as Paul Simon wrote -- a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.
And this phenomenon is exacerbated by TPG because the holder and the LOA just whitewash the problems and give what is -- in many cases -- false reassurance.
Since none of us are going to stop collecting no matter what scandals emerge, the only choice is to be more careful I guess, and use your common sense at all times.
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My avatar is a sketch by my son who is an art school graduate. Some of his sketches and paintings are at
https://www.jamesspaethartwork.com/
He is available to do custom drawings in graphite, charcoal and other media. He also sells some of his works as note cards/greeting cards on Etsy under JamesSpaethArt.
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