Who to use to Authenticate Items by CCSA

[tinkereversandme]

This showed up in my inbox this morning.

http://scottmalack.com/?p=77

A site rarely run by Scott Malack of Coach's Corner, I guess part owner of "Coach’s Corner is proud to offer our customers the finest in authentic sports memorabilia. We’ve been in business over twenty-five years and looking forward to the next 25 years as well.”

Pretty funny stuff. He is probably right as those scumbags will probably be around for another 25 years.

Especially:

Who to Use to Authenticate My Items?

I have been asked this question at least 1,000 times and my response is always the same. There is not 1 well-known professional authenticator that I have not heard dozens of complaints about. My advice is to find one that you have a good relationship with and that has no ties or “conflicts of interest” with any business or auction company: meaning that they are not on the companies payroll or more directly speaking-paid to pass items.

Why are all of these nice balls dated Scott? I guess you have a good relationship with rareandsigned.com, right? What is your definition of "conflict of interest"? Seems like the same hand did all the dating, doesn't it?

Solid advice Scott! Great stuff! You think that Comiskey ball penned in 1919 will fetch $500?

Happy Collecting!

Larry

[tazdmb]

I will tell you what scares me-The ball are OBVIOUSLY fakes, but the signatures themselves seem to get better (closer to the real thing) all the time, which seems to me that the forgers are getting better. Just my 2 cents.

[prewarsports]

Weird how John Ward and Josh Gibson somehow went to school together and learned the EXACT same way to write numbers (despite being born a half century apart, being of different social classes and breaking all racial barriers of their day).

[packs]

Must have been a heck of a show. Looks like everyone used the same pen 30 years apart.

[Klrdds]

They must have had some great private signing sessions with these guys. I hear they are all CCSA EXCLUSIVE signers. No extra charge for inscriptions. They are all horribly bad forgeries.

[Runscott]

The weird thing is that people have been buying enough stuff from CC to keep them in business for 25 years. Who are these people?

Do they have pointy heads? Do they ever leave their apartments or trailers? Are they ideal Geraldo guest candidates?

[thetruthisoutthere]

Scott, I do believe that the majority of the "buyers" are stores like Antiquities, etc.

They sell tons of forgeries with COAs from Chris Morales, Ted Taylor, Drew Max, etc. to impulse buyers.

[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by Runscott

The weird thing is that people have been buying enough stuff from CC to keep them in business for 25 years. Who are these people?

Do they have pointy heads? Do they ever leave their apartments or trailers? Are they ideal Geraldo guest candidates?

Scott,
I truly believe that at this point in time CC's prime customers are just resellers.
Mall stores, smaller auctions, etc. Sellers who sell to the unknowing impulse buyer. I am sure that the vast majority of serious autograph collectors are well aware of what CC is actually selling.

[Runscott]

Thanks Richard, that makes total sense.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Runscott

The weird thing is that people have been buying enough stuff from CC to keep them in business for 25 years. Who are these people?

Do they have pointy heads? Do they ever leave their apartments or trailers? Are they ideal Geraldo guest candidates?

I'd have to say some of the biggest customers have to be those big buildings full of sad people with money falling out of their pockets...staring at roulette wheels, slot machines with buttons instead of the traditional pull-stick (all the faster to take your money) and stacked decks.

House always wins, even when they don't. All they have to do is get some sucker on an adrenaline rush, who just won big and can't believe his luck that on the way out the door he spotted a GEN-U-WINE Josh Gibson autograph in the Gift shop, for the too good to be true price of $5000.

Oh, and Cruise ships. Those are good places to sell this sort of stuff and take advantage of somewhat hazy seafaring commerce laws, and marks throwing away their vacation money.

[icollectDCsports]

Wonder if they'll hold a Josh Gibson private signing anytime soon?

[D. Bergin]

I hear Scott Bakula rents his Quantum Leap machine to Coach's Corner, twice a month.

[Klrdds]

I do not think we can ever know who buys these items from CCSA. They certainly are not selling for anywhere near market price/value, so it could be anybody from a millionaire in the US to Japan or Australia to the 15 year old kid spending his allowance on a dream ball at a seemingly great price or the guy trying to be the hottest collector in his area or the next little Cooperstown . Suffice it to say that those buyers do not post here and have very little knowledge of the lack of authenticity of those items, I would not say say ignorant but rather uninformed. Whatever the reason CCSA has made a small fortune off these people , and they keep coming to their site and buying these horrific items.
To paraphrase Field of Dreams , one of my favorite movies , " forge it and they will buy".
I hear their next private signing is with Amos Rusie who will date and inscribe Hoosier Thunderbolt for free.

[thetruthisoutthere]

Originally Posted by Klrdds

I do not think we can ever know who buys these items from CCSA. They certainly are not selling for anywhere near market price/value, so it could be anybody from a millionaire in the US to Japan or Australia to the 15 year old kid spending his allowance on a dream ball at a seemingly great price or the guy trying to be the hottest collector in his area or the next little Cooperstown . Suffice it to say that those buyers do not post here and have very little knowledge of the lack of authenticity of those items, I would not say say ignorant but rather uninformed. Whatever the reason CCSA has made a small fortune off these people , and they keep coming to their site and buying these horrific items.
To paraphrase Field of Dreams , one of my favorite movies , " forge it and they will buy".
I hear their next private signing is with Amos Rusie who will date and inscribe Hoosier Thunderbolt for free.

I beg to differ.

In my humble opinion, the majority of buyers of Coach's Corner forgeries know exactly what they are buying.

[mcgwirecom]

I live not too far from CC. In fact at one time I lived only a few blocks away. I knew those guys when they just owned a tiny card store called Captain Ricks. I have actually been to their place as recently as 2 years ago. I will sometimes watch the auction for JSA or PSA items as well as McGwire signed items which I can easily identify as good or bad. Over the years I have bought a handful of real nice McGwire signed items at a good price, but thats only because I weeded though the 100s of bad ones. They run out of an old, old vacant building. The stuff is piled up all over when you walk in. Usually have to walk around and yell for someone to help you out. Probably could just grab a bunch of stuff and leave, but it would mostly be worthless...LOL

[D. Bergin]

Not surprising that security is not so tight, when you could just replace that priceless Moses Fleetwood Walker / Cap Anson dual signed baseball, with a simple call to the local handwriting "expert", Mr. More-Or-Less......or Ted Paydirt.