There is a lot of debate surrounding JSA and PSA.
The authenticators to COMPLETELY avoid are GA/GAI (anything with Global in the name). They will slap a COA on anything. Which is why they sell for a fraction of the price as anything with a PSA/JSA certificate. Knowledgeable autograph collectors know that anything with a GA/GAI cert is almost certainly fake.
There are now 4 authentication with reasonably good reputations. PSA (the oldest and largest), JSA (Founded by a former PSA authenticator), SGC and Beckett (Beckett took PSA's two top authenticators recently).
Personally, I am not a big fan of any of them. From my experience, PSA and JSA get things right most of the time. But they have made some very embarrassing errors over the years and while they may get things 90% to 95% right, I still won't buy an autograph solely based on their cert. There are also large dealers which seem to have very cozy relationships with both PSA and JSA who get anything authenticated (I have seen illegible scribbles with PSA stickers).
I'm not very familiar with Beckett (they are brand new) and I haven't seen much from SGC. But both are well respected for card grading.
Personally, I put more of an emphasis on who I'm buying the autograph from over which company authenticated it. The exception being when there is a PSA or JSA "witnessed" COA. That means there was a public or private signing and a PSA or JSA rep witnessed the item being signed. Those are rock solid.
I hope this was helpful.
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