Posted By:
Dan HLook I will go ahead with this but reluctantly. Not because I am afraid of losing, but because this has the potential to cause more controversey then it is worth. My initial reaction to this was "great! an easy $1000," but as I thought about it more, I don't want to put the authenticators on the spot here any more than they are. They provide our hobby a valuable service. There are lots of people out there constantly looking to find fault with these guys and hack reporters out to sandbag them and I don't want to give people another chance to bash them regardless of the outcome. Given what you have been through I am sure you know a few guys in the legitimate authentication business (one thing we can agree on is that the authenticators you excluded are of no use to me either) who perhaps can help you out here and save you a few dollars.
And a quickopinion would not be fair to me, you or the authenticators, that should be avoided as a disposition to this bet. But you are free to run one on your own before going forward with this bet if you like, I strongly suggest you do.