[mrmopar]

There are always new people entering the market. Maybe it is the broader exposure of facebook groups, but it just seems to me that more and more people have entered in the last 3-5 years that know absolutely nothing. They rely on the certificates and authenticators and complete strangers opinions in online groups to guide them.

I am in a group that helps ID signatures and some of the stuff being posted is laughable. It seems to be people buying random stuff from thrift stores, garage sales, online market places, etc and then running over to this group to get the signatures identified, so they can probably turn around and sell for a profit, all the while not knowing a damn thing about what they are doing.

When you ask who signed a baseball that may or may not have a legible signature, but there there is a "HOF 62" or "NL ROY 1995" inscription, well I am not sure what I can say about your ability/knowledge that is anything other than disparaging.

I would have liked to see card makers get involved in the certified autograph craze sooner. I love that aspect of collecting more than just about anything anymore. We missed the boat (except for buyback cuts) on a lot of great players unfortunately, so I guess that helps to add comfort to signatures from guys like that who died before certification was a thing.