[thecatspajamas]

Admittedly, getting eBay to accept anyone else is even harder than getting buyers to do so. I think you'll find that they focus on higher profile/more expensive autographs though, in addition to those policed by agents of the signers themselves (off the top of my head I can't think of any sports figures this would apply to, but try selling a piece of KISS memorabilia that Gene Simmons didn't authorize (and get paid for) and you'll see what I mean). Over the years I've had them pull Clemente, Muhammad Ali, and Michael Jordan signed items that were legit but didn't have one of their approved authenticators. But those were only a small percentage of the overall number of signed items I have sold. Most are below eBay's threshold of caring. The more buyers who see a "good guy's" name out there though, even on lesser items, the more overall confidence they will build in shopping outside "the boys" category.

AND if eBay is ever going to change their stance on which authenticators are okay to use, it won't be because one or two guys vouched for someone. I have to believe that they chose the companies that they did because those were the ones that were widely accepted (at the time, whatever you may think of GAI now) among collectors. Personal gripes aside, those were the companies that were well-known. Knowing how eBay works, whatever person or persons made that initial selection probably didn't do any more research on authenticators than buyers do, and laziness is surely a factor in why they haven't updated their "approved" list as well. I still think that, if they ever did open their eyes to re-assess their approved list vs. what is currently accepted, having a list of other good authenticators along with well-hashed-out reasoning as to why they are good and why those eliminated from the list are not would go a long way to building that concensus opinion among the collecting community.

And any long-term pipe dreams of eBay changing for the better aside, I'd just like to see a boiled down list of who is good and trustworthy. Every second or third board post seems to deal with why such-and-such an autograph is clearly no good or how we can't believe X company would let that one pass and surely Y individual would have failed it, etc. I wouldn't be so much interested in a black list as a list of the "good guys" who have a good track record.

Lance Fittro