I posted this on another site and I thought it would be nice to post this here as well to see if anybody has anything to add to the story...
Here's the best of the best of the fish stories from an E-bayer that he sent me to "set the record straight". I have been very vocal in this fight on blogs and to e-bay security, trying to remove all this from E-bay and I can tell you, it ain't going to happen. New collectors are going to find out the hard way. Here's the story as it was told to me
He states that he
"has a letter from Mantle and his attorney, Roy True and that Mantle himself concurred with burczyks findings. I know this because I have the letter, I sat with Mantle, I watched him sign over 200,000 items, that's right 200,000. I do love your passion and I would never say that you are being vindictive. I realize that you feel strongly about your views, but I have verifiable court documents to prove what I'm telling you. so even if you disagree with the findings of Burczyk, remember Mantle did not and it was I who fought scoreboard and it was I who beat them, and it was I who sat with Mantle at over 200 signings over my 31 plus years in this buisness. oh yes it was I who produced all the product for home shopping, qvc, j.c. penney's etc.,etc., etc.. so please forgive me if i disagree with you. but i do respect your opinion. by the way Mantle loved Burczyk when he met him. respectfully yours, tony p."
In the back of my mind, I do remember something to this effect coming to light in the late 80's, early 90's about Dimaggio having to go to court in a forgery case and he couldn't pick his signature out from the fakes. Then there is this Greer Johnson chick who actually helped Mantle books shows and make what the man had coming to him. I think there was a case of some sort, where she was accused of forging or having some Mantle stuff forged? Could this be the stuff? Maybe Mantle said they were his to protect Skank Johnson? Anyway, does anyone think that Tony P. is Tony Podsada of My Favorite Players? Most of their stuff, was authetic, though most of the Mantle's have always been suspect.
Do any of you long time collectors know this story, know Tony P?
Personally, I still don't like everyone of those Birdsick items. I wonder if Dimaggio liked Birdsick, What about Ted? Did Birdsick and Ted hunt & fish together?
There is also some talk about the photos all being copies of prints anyway, then pasted with the STAT. GAI and Birdsick cert. That make sense, because if the signature was a photo copy, it would'nt fade. Have you ever seen a faded Birdsick piece, I haven't. I left one out in the sun for 6 months and the signature didn't fade.
Personally, I think Tony P. is an honest guy. The one thing that I noticed by his e-bay buying habits is that he obviously know the real Mantle from the fakes. He is not buying Birdsicks and Stats and GAi Mantles. he is spending quite a bit of $$$ on the real thing .