Does anyone know the real Nicholas Burczyk story?

[RichardSimon]

I am sure the autograph people here are aware of the Nicholas Burczyk COA's which are flooding ebay now. Mostly connected with autographs of Mantle, Williams, DiMaggio, Koufax and original 500 HR items including the Atlantic City show 500 HR litho.
My question to the forum is: does anyone know the true story of Burczyk? The ebay sellers claim that he was retained in the early 1990's by a collector/autograph chaser/company to authenticate autographs. That he was the first forensic authenticator to be retained in such a manner. However, the COA's that are shown in ebay ads do not mention any item. They state: "I have made a review of the Autograph that corresponds with this certificate." No mention of what the autograph is. No COA I have ever seen, even the dubious ones, would write up a COA in that way. They all mention the item and some of them will picture the item.
I am wondering if anyone is familar with Burczyk. The usual COA of his, that is shown with most ebay auctions, lists him as having 11 different offices in Florida. The phone numbers of those offices are listed on the COA.
I called four of the phone numbers. Two of them are disconnected, one is for a maid service and one is for an insurance company.
A few of the ads on ebay show a sticker on the back of the item, with a date from the 1990's and a few scribbled initials along with his name. This sticker corresponds to nothing.
Does anyone here know the real story behind Burczyk? Is this totally a scam? Or was he really examining autographs in the 1990's?
I have tried to locate Mr Burczyk with no success.
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[HRBAKER]

Richard,
I don't know the answer to any of your questions but I wouldn't touch any of those with the proverbial ten footer. They may be real for all I know but the COAs certainly wouldn't give me any comfort to that effect based on the limited amount of info you were able to find out.

[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by HRBAKER

Richard,
I don't know the answer to any of your questions but I wouldn't touch any of those with the proverbial ten footer. They may be real for all I know but the COAs certainly wouldn't give me any comfort to that effect based on the limited amount of info you were able to find out.

I think the forum members here know me well enough to know I would not touch these with a 100 ft pole .
I am just trying to pin down the story of Burczyk.
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[HRBAKER]

Richard I knew that.

These "vanilla" COAs could be used with anything down the line as well.

[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by HRBAKER

Richard I knew that.

These "vanilla" COAs could be used with anything down the line as well.

Yes, that is the scary thing about those COA's. A copy machine/printer can make a forger semi-credible on ebay at any moment.
The one consolation is that the autographed items I am seeing, with these COA's, are selling for pennies on the dollar. $12-$50 for Mantle, Williams, Dimaggio, Koufax and even for dual signed photos of those players. Some items of those guys I have seen offered at $29.99 and they dont even sell. So, the good news is that the ebay buyer is smartening up.
It also appears that many of the low prices realized sale items are winding up in the hands of another seller and then a few days later, the item appears again.
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[sago]

This site could be the source for some of the material:

http://shop.alwaysatauction.com/iSynApp/allAuction.action?sid=192&selectedCatId=12645&query=&rc=20&sort=timeleft_asc&layout=$layout

The ads indicate that you may contact their customer service department with any questions about Burcyzk.

I found lots of references to him on the net; none of them were postive.

[murphusa]

Richard

Sorry , I just don't post to this site. You know me. My name is Jim Murphy and my business since 1988 is the Philadelphia Bat CO. In the 90's and early 00"s you and I set up next to each other at a few of the Philly shows.

At a show in 93 in Baltimore I was offered a pack of certificates with Nicholas Burczyk name on them. I was told it would help my sales. When I declined the seller told me I was making a mistake.

Couldn't find out too much about Nicholas Burczyk then and you can't find it now. Why? He was never in the business

Let me google or yahoo, you, Spence or any of the other autograph guys and you can find a wealth of info but nothing on the Doctor. If he was so good and involved in the hobby, his letters would be gold. But all you can find is legend and nothing more. And what is the source of the google links, all the same one or two quotes

Google Charles Hamilton, he has been dead for over 13 years but you can find lots on his work.

[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by murphusa

Richard

Sorry , I just don't post to this site. You know me. My name is Jim Murphy and my business since 1988 is the Philadelphia Bat CO. In the 90's and early 00"s you and I set up next to each other at a few of the Philly shows.

At a show in 93 in Baltimore I was offered a pack of certificates with Nicholas Burczyk name on them. I was told it would help my sales. When I declined the seller told me I was making a mistake.

Couldn't find out too much about Nicholas Burczyk then and you can't find it now. Why? He was never in the business

Let me google or yahoo, you, Spence or any of the other autograph guys and you can find a wealth of info but nothing on the Doctor. If he was so good and involved in the hobby, his letters would be gold. But all you can find is legend and nothing more. And what is the source of the google links, all the same one or two quotes

Google Charles Hamilton, he has been dead for over 13 years but you can find lots on his work.

Thanks for clearing that up.
Ah, the good old days of the Philly show, how this business has changed.

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[Fuddjcal]

i don't have any proof, but I heard a bunch of his stuff was stolen back in or around 1993. That's why so many of the certs show the same dates from September of 1993 or so and that he was the Author of a book on Gestalt Theories, never did Sports certificates. He was the Donald Fryingpangianni before his time.

The fake certs have evolved on e-bay over the years from a small sticker attached to the back of the horrible putrid fake photo to the cert you show in your pics....now used on anything, like a ball or pennant. As long as E-bay allows this trash, Low life scum bag sellers will keep on jerking off the American public moronic auto collector with E-Bay as their accomplice.

[Fuddjcal]

as a footnote to the original post, here's the Fonz doing his thing on E-bay this month about Burzsack ack ack and another cheater f'er selling a boat load of these forgeries on the Bay.

I just love this guy for doing these video's challenging the sellers of obvious forgeries.!!!!!!! Keep up the HEAT!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOZencw1XFo&feature=sub

[bigtrain]

Just a few minutes research, I found a listing for Nicholas R. Burczyk in Waukesha, Wisconsin. He is a retired forensic document examiner in his mid-70s. Sounds like could be the same guy. Anyone want to give him a call? His phone number is listed in the book.