[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by Caseyatbat

Richard, your argument I only agree with when "buying" an item. Of course you don't need TPA's to buy an item if you know what you are doing. 99% of the items I buy are without TPA's or any type of certification whatsoever. I typically buy them with no guarantee, no COA, and also no clue who I am dealing with. I buy the autograph sole on the autograph itself. I usually don't even both listening to their provenance unless it sounds like an interesting story.

My argument is from a dealers point of view. When dealing with items that are worth over 1,000 dollars, I believe it is in the dealers best interest to use a major TPA. I want to prove to my buyers that there is nothing to hide. Not to mention that every major auction house (outside a few like lelands) makes it mandatory to have it. And to sell them on ebay it is highly recommended as well. If you take selling vintage autographs serious on ebay, you should use a top TPA. It is not mandatory like the major auction houses, but if one of your items is questioned, they flag your account if you don't have TPA. And if you get flagged 3 times, they suspend or cancel your account. Why would a dealer want to deal with that and take that risk? When they can just use the proper TPA and everybody is happy. Ebay is happy, the buyers are happy, and the dealer is happy that everybody is satisfied with their product.

And lastly, Most of these transactions are done through paypal. If people buy autographed items "without" TPA, many times they send them away to be authenticated after buying. If they come back as "no good" from the TPA, paypal allows them to return the item anyways within 45 days. So if the dealer has the proper TPA already, that is one less thing to worry about.

None of this is the fault of the TPA's. Rather, the auction houses, ebay & paypal have decided to use them as their leading authority. If people don't like that, they should really take it up with the auction houses, ebay & paypal.

Casey - points well taken but also some disagreed with and a couple of TPA stories.
It is not mandatory for the consignor to consign an item with a TPA cert,the auction house is responsible for the TPA auction cert (don't get me started on auction certs and that scam).
I have many customers who have been buying from me for many, many years.
They don't bother spending the money, even on high ticket items, on TPA.
I had a $15 Burgess Meredith (the actor) autograph returned once that I sold on ebay. It came from one of the best in person collections I ever bought. The buyer admitted to me he knew it was good but he was a dealer and he could not resell it without TPA.
I had two rejections of Babe Ruth in person autographs from PSA. One was then sent by my customer, to Lelands, (I would take their authentication over any TPA) who immediately thanked him for the consignment, and sold it. The other one came from the same collection and the dealer I sold it to would not return it to me because he too knew it was good despite having it rejected by PSA. He sent it to them for the reasons you bring out in your post (marketing) but knew it was good and kept it, despite their rejection.
The next few stories to come out from Halls of Shame are going to be eye popping and will dissuade many who are on the fence about TPA's.