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Old 02-15-2011, 08:36 PM
thetruthisoutthere thetruthisoutthere is offline
Christopher Williams
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Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 3,900
Default GAI/Mike Baker

One guy I would love to hear from is Mike Baker. He signed off (literally) on thousands of pieces of Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Willie Mays and others when he was a "authenticator (I use that term loosely)" for the now defunct GAI. That garbage has helped to dilute the hobby and bring values on legitimate autographed memorabilia way down. Compounding the problem is that the now defunct GAI is still listed as a Ebay prequalified authenticator. They (GAI) should be dropped from Ebay's list of prequalified authenticators immediately. Those who know absolutely nothing about autographs "depend" on the fact that Ebay lists them as a prequalified authenticator and then there are others (those who know the GAI garbage is bad) who take advantage of the fact that GAI is a Ebay prequalified authenticator. The problem, of course, is that (in my humble opinion) 80% of those who buy and sell autographs on Ebay don't have a clue. And that's where the knowledge of autographs helps. It helps to be able to trust certain people but always be cautious. We know that stuff is bad and we stay away from it, but the rest of the population relies on the fact that Ebay lists them as "someone to trust when it comes to autographs." I don't see the big deal in removing the now defunct GAI from that list. Or at the very least, ban the GAI certs with Mike Baker's name. The biggest problem that I see is that those people who should be reading this thread have no idea of its existence. I'd love to hear from you, Mr. Baker. Below is one of the thousands that you certed. Please, Mr. Baker, show is what exemplars you used to cert the below autographs.

Z1.jpg

Z2.jpg

Last edited by thetruthisoutthere; 02-15-2011 at 08:38 PM.
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