[Archive]

Posted By: <b>Alan Elefson</b><p>Hi-<br /> First of all, I would like to thank the participants of this thread for posting such valuable information and for doing their best to clean up our hobby/business. This thread is incredible!<br /> Second, this weekend I wandered into a shop called Gallery of Legends found within the Miracle Mile shops attached to the Planet Hollywood Casino (formerly the Aladdin) on the Las Vegas strip (I am visiting my parents who live in Vegas). In this shop were two autographed bats supposedly containing the autographs of 1930s Yankees teams (including Ruth and Gehrig) with a prominent sign stating they were "authenticated" by none other than Christopher Morales. As soon as I saw the sign, my thoughts went right to this thread, and I began to get angry thinking someone will purchase these forgeries unknowingly. Beyond the fact that Morales "authenticated" these items, the Ruth on each looked quite bad to me (although I am not an expert). I realize regular hobbyists would never purchase autographs at a store like this (way overpriced in general), but I was concerned for the general public as well.<br /> I immediately spoke with a man behind the counter and told him about Morales and that the Ruths appeared to be fakes. He blew me off (he said I have been doing this since I was 5 years old and I know my autographs - he looked like he was in his late twenties at most). Fruitlessly, I tried explaining the issues with Morales, but again, he blew me off. <br /> I then went to the mall security (the mall and the casino are run by two seperate companies) where I spoke to a security supervisor and I wrote out a formal complaint leaving my name, telephone number and address. The security supervisor said that management will definitely contact me and he thanked me for bringing this possible fraud to their attention. <br /> The shop's website is www.galleryoflegends.net. I urge any one on this forum to report a store selling possibly fraudulent autographs to anyone who will listen. Unfortunately, I am not an autograph expert, but if I receive a response from security I will contact Richard Simon and/or Shelly Jaffe to see if they can help with their expert opinions. I do not know if the mall's management will act on this, but I hope they do. <br /> On a good note, I also visited Field of Dreams on the Strip and spoke with their manager. He uses only good authenticators (Spence, PSA, etc.) and will never touch an item "authenticated" by Morales. He also thanked me for making the complaint as bad autographs adversely affect his business as well. <br /> Please note that it is my opinion that the high dollar autographs found in Gallery of Legends are fakes. I base this on the "authenticator" as well as the look of the autographs. This is only my opinion. I encourage all Net 54 readers to "raise a stink" wherever you see these bad autographs.<br />Thanks,<br />Alan Elefson<br />aelefson@hotmail.com