This has been a pet Peavy of mine for months now and I don't mean Jake. I only collect Mantle, Dimaggio & Williams, Koufax for the most part. I can tell you that 99.99% of all GAI or Global or whatever those asses call themselves today are Fake as hell. You have a better chance of winning a game of pick-up sticks with your butt cheeks than finding an original Auto with their cert these days. I'm sure you won't hear any true professional like Richard or anyone bash them like I will, a lowly collector, but I don't care about my reputation. The GAI Mantles are ALL HORRIBLE FAKES. This is more than the casual mistake they all make from time to time. This is as sinister as Operation Bullpen or Operation Coaches Corner. It is the Dirty little secret (Not so secret to real collectors) of E-BAY. At this point, not only should they not be on their approved Authentication list, They should be on their UNACCEPTABLE list. It makes E-bay look like crooks by not doing anything about it. They are complicit in this crime against the hobby. These Fakes typically sell for more than originals with-out certification which I find rather humorous.
Something happened when Global was going through their first financial crisis before folding and opening up another crooked or incompetent operation. Someone must have gotten a hold of rolls of stickers and every fake in the world was certed. I have spoke to a few dealers of this trash and they keep selling it as if they are actually real, even they know they're fake. They seem to have 100's of them. Not just trying to get rid of autos they were beat on. IT IS SICKENING. I did see a Real Mantle GAI) about 3 months ago and it had the sticker on the left for whatever that is worth? It goes deep to all sports I'm told. Tiger Woods Golf Balls, Tomlinson in Football, The Nascar crook that is still lurking over there. It is just a total scam that is not quite as big as Coaches Corner, but just as friggen irritating. I'd welcome someone with knowledge of this crap to step up and state the facts here...Someone like Shelly, who knows a lot about fakes and has not been too shy in the past.