Getting back to the point here....
Frank Garo may have the best of intentions, and may truly be an honest fellow. But what on earth makes him qualified to be an authenticator? Even if he got it right on the afroementioned Ruth Photo, he has been way off on countless others.
I have looked at hundreds of reliable Babe Ruth exemplars (team signed balls, personal checks, team/movie contracts, etc.) as have all the authenticators in question. It doesn't take a genius to identify a bad item. And as an earlier post stated, there are plenty of reliable authenticators besides Spence and PSA - Gutierrez, Jordan, Albersheim and Keating, to name just a few.
As stated earlier, I know beyond a doubt, that Garo has given his "seal of approval" to a slew of items that aren't even close to being good. Those awful Ruth/Gehrig examples posted earlier are just the tip of the iceberg. Garo is where people go after the respected authenticators have rejected their item. As a result, his LOA means nothing in the Industry. What does it tell you, that no respected/major auction house has ever featured a Frank Garo LOA, but that Coach's Corner does on numerous occasion?
Again... he may have no bad intent... he is simply an unskilled authenticator. I think that most of us (who really study these pieces) would be infinitely more scrutinizing if that's how we chose to make a living.
|