Regarding the issue of who should pay . . the seller or the authenticator? . . I thought I'd chime in on a similar issue I recently had.
Nine years ago I purchased an autograph for from a rather prominent autograph dealer. The piece was acquired by him through a major auction house and was accompanied by a PSA/DNA auction house letter. In my recent attempt to sell the item it was determined that the signature was not genuine but was in fact a stamp. By the same authenticator's admission, when the item was authenticated nine years earlier, this stamp variation was not known. When I informed the dealer who sold me the item about this discovery I had significant difficulty obtaining a cash refund despite the written lifetime guaranty that he provided at the time of sale. While he did offer a credit towards items in his inventory, we were far apart on what constituted equal value. After several weeks of back and forth, his outright refusal to provide a cash refund, and my threat of litigation, he called on Joe Orlando from PSA/DNA to get involved.
I agree with Rich's point where he states that "The seller should always be the one to give a refund. If the seller then wants to take it up with (the authenticator) that is his business, but the seller is the one with the ultimate responsibility." Afterall, my dealing were not with PSA and this guy gave me his own written guaranty. And as far as I know, neither PSA or JSA have a buyback guaranty as all they are offering is a professional opinion.
Nonetheless, Joe Orlando called me and asked that I deal directly with him to resolve the matter. Within a week I had a check from Collector's Universe reimbursing my full cost of the item. I had never before used PSA/DNA's services and had no prior dealing with Mr. Orlando. I haven't mentioned the dealer by name as it is not my intention to drag his name into a public forum. My intention here is to illustrate how a similar situation the Wrght signature was handled and to express how impressed I was with the way Mr. Orlando handled the matter. While I was greatly disappointed in the way the dealer handled things I thought this would be a good place to say something nice about an authenticator for a change. They had no obligation to me, but for the sake of good business, they did the right thing. I only hope the dealer they bailed out is as appreciative as I am.
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