Hated to, but had to do it
 

Im curious if you guys would have done the same thing, as in a way I feel like a heel

was at Mansfield Flea yesterday and saw a guy w autograph photos of Williams, Joe D, Aaron and Mays ALL with STAT certs. I told him he shouldn't sell those, as they are all bad. They were too., He kinda was like "uh huh".....

Would you have told him, or minded your own business?

Please, I was at the Ernie Harwell estate auction and auctioneer littered the auction with Fakes and used Ernie's name as provenance that they were real. I brought my operation bullpen book with me and told all the bidders about the Franngiapanni COAs, I know I save at least a couple of people thousands-wish I could to more.

Hey Taz, every little bit counts.
Not too many people would have done even that :(

I would have told him.And if he would have blown me off,I would have told him again.

Good job

You did the right thing, Scott.

I've done it myself at local shows here in NJ.

Nice job, Taz.

Devil's advocate department: if we act under the presumption that the seller is not a con artist and genuinely believes the items are legitimate, I can understand a dismissive "uh huh" response. If someone I don't know comes up to me and tells me something I'm selling is fake, I might react the same way.

Yeah, he will prob still sell them. I didn't want to make things worse, just to inform him.

Let's just say that my wife breathes a sigh of relief when I don't see any autos at a flea market or auction. :D

I've found the best way is to engage the seller in a friendly manner, like asking if he has any other items, and strike up a conversation about autographs. At some point I sneak in the fact that I've been collecting autographs for 30+ years and that there are a lot of forgeries out there and even most COAs aren't worth a damn. Most will ask questions if it's not too busy.

Most casual sellers of autographs don't know anything about autographs, have never heard of Operation Bullpen and believe that any COA is a stamp of legitimacy. 90% of people I've approached in this manner have been receptive to what I had to tell them. The other 10% usually brag that they've sold "hundreds" of autographs without a problem. You're not going to reach them, they only care about the $.

If you have business cards, give the 90% guys one and tell them if they are ever offered autographs you'd be happy to provide them a little advice for free. For one, you might save someone a ton of money, and two, they might bring you in on the deal or offer to flip to you (both have happened in my case). I saved one guy from spending over $5000 on Operation Bullcrap stuff. He thought he was getting $100K worth of stuff for pennies on the dollar. Every stinking item in the lot was bad.

I have found that if someone doesn't think that you are trying to rip them off (ie telling them they are fake and then trying to buy them cheap), they might listen. Usually I just tell them to Google Operation Bullpen if they want to get an education about autographs.

Jeff