Operation Bullpen
I recently read Operation Bullpen too and definitely recommend it. It's sad how many people got duped with worthless fake autographs between the mid-1990s into the new millenium and I'm sure it's still going on today.
Some of the highlights include how the scammers would take brand new baseballs, remove the modern stamping, age the balls, put on an old manufacturing stamp on the ball, put a fake signiture on it and produce a convincing high-priced vintage fake. Another story describes how they would go to used book stores and a buy real old books and tear out the first several blank pages and use those for vintage autographs. Another big problem is that fake Certificates of Authenticy were almost as common as the bad signitures.
One other good story is how the Feds caught some crooks by seeing if they could get Muhammad Ali autographs on a stack of rare photographs of him boxing a Japanese sumo wrestler in 1979, which Ali's agent guaranteed that Ali never signed during his career. Sure enough, the crooks produced autographs on those furnished photos claiming they had Ali sign them privately on a certain date in New York while it turns out he was in Miami on that same day.
It also mentions Shelly Jaffe's involvement, who later posted on these boards after getting out of jail.
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