Out or Safe Facebook Autograph Group

[bobbyw8469]

I just had an "interesting" experience in the Facebook Autograph group out or safe. What is everyone's opinions on that group?? Are they reliable?? Or do you basically get what you pay for?

[Belfast1933]

Great question… they certainly are considered reliable by the FB hobby crowd. I do very, very few autographs but do find the page to be interesting. They do seem to operate behind a secretive curtain.

I appreciate you asking the question here - I look forward to following this thread.

[tazdmb]

While I don't like that they won't accept alternative opinions in their threads, I think they provide an amazing service to collectors and they are correct over 95% of the time.

PS-I would have admin move this to the regular Autograph thread instead of the B/S/T.

[bobbyw8469]

They act like Nazi's to me.. That's the part I don't like.

[Topnotchsy]

From what I have seen, they are very good at what they do.

The structure of the group (not allowing other opinions) is to make sure that the masses who are clueless don't drown out the opinions of those who are experts. (Of course if there was way to allow outsiders who are actually experts to comment and prevent the clueless people from posting that would be great, but I don't see how that is possible.)

They offer the service for free, unless you are looking to resell the item. In that case it is $6.

In general, from the posts I've seen, they are quite patient and understanding with people not following the rules.

I don't think they get it right 100% of the time, but I think they are excellent on 99% of autographs. I think it is a pretty generous service.

I don't know whether they have an eventual goal to open their own authentication service or if there is a different end goal, but I think they are providing much more of a service than 99% of people posting on Facebook.

[bjerome]

I do follow that page. They are very accurate. They also have some ground rules. They do not do cards. They do charge a fee if you plan on reselling an item posted. They charge nothing for an opinion on a personal collection piece. There are 2 or 3 people. Nik Key is the one who stands out to me. Good knowledgeable viewer. I would also say with the amount of people who use the service they are making money with that $6 fee. The biggest complaint I see is from people who are impatient as it can take up to a few days to have your item looked at. The site users also do not follow their protocols which also leads to confusion. The admins are good about trying to rectify that. All in all, they are very accurate. I can honestly say with the amount of Mantle's they look at had made me so much better at shooting a good one.