So, what's an autograph collector to do? LONG POST AHEAD

[HRBAKER]

I think the first thing to remember is that the majority of what you see here that may come across as chest beating, finger pointing and an overall wee-wee measuring contest as it relates to autos is primarily a function of the passion that the players have for it. They will never see eye to eye and nearly all posts eventually get to the same place. Hopefully at some point we can all just move past that.

I think that it is natural for most of us to want to give more creedence to the major ABC groups than the other groups because a. many of us feel that they do a good job on most items, and b. (very important point) many of us have a financial stake somewhat in the fact that they get it right most (and have gotten it right most) of the time.

There have been very legitimate cases where they have been pointed out to be in error, to have certed something without an exemplar, etc. The bottom line is that all you are getting is their best hunch/opinion which they are not backing up with a guarantee as far as I can tell. So to me self-education instead of reliance is the way to proceed.

You will never be able to tell the authenticity 100% of anything that was not signed in front of you. And for something that is, that ironclad provenance is good for one person - you. The next person down the line is just taking your word for it.

You may and I may have some non-authentic autos in our collections, again anything not signed in front of you is questionable at some level to someone.

I think we have a tendency to overblow some of this stuff but as we have seen the forgeries seem to be rampant. I think that the best advice given is to align yourself with "sellers" who have an outstanding reputation and have earned it over the long haul. Sellers that stand behind their product and don't rely on or pass the buck to anyone to do their legwork for them.

Just my $0.02.