Question about PSA/JSA "Guarantees"

[ibuysportsephemera]

Originally Posted by travrosty

I just wanted to be clear, i know there are people who dont specialize in autographs, so they dont what what to do, so they trust psa or jsa, which is the two companies they know others will trust too, and they can participate in the marketplace such as auctions and ebay and they can buy and sell without hassle.

The point i am trying to make is that it is an entire market that is not based on the truth of whether or not an autograph is real or not, especially concerning boxing, but it is a market based on popularity of the cert. and if thats what people are worried about, then they must realize they are participating in something that is not accuracy based, but popularity based.

that's all i am trying to say. I think many people are so confused as to whether an autograph can accurately be figured out, that they have thrown their hands up and decided to go with what is popular, that is they have decided that they will let psa and jsa decide for everybody what is real or not, and if it gets the cert, it's real, and if it gets rejected, it is fake.

i can tell you point blank that thinking like that is incredibly flawed, shortsighted, and wrong.

psa and jsa have wrongly authenticated as real the following autographs

secretarial signed john l sullivan letter

wife signed bob fitzsimmons letter

manager signed bob fitzsimmons letter

hotel registry ghost signed by james corbett, tom sharkey, and james jeffries

james corbett 1892 inscribed cut

Jack Johnson "signed" boxing card manufactured only after Johnson's death

manager signed jack dempsey autographed photo

11 bad max schmeling signed photos consigned to one auction and only pulled after they were alerted that the major tpa didnt quite hit the mark on that one.

secretarial signed jack sharkey signed photo

bad primo carnera signed photo

many, many, many bad joe Louis signed photos and album pages, too many to count, this is truly their low point. and i mean a LOT of them.

bad luis firpo signed photo but it got the cert anyway.

numerous wife signed sonny liston signed album pages while rejected authentic signed liston autographs.

An autographed album page they encapsulated and certified as Rocky Marciano that is an autograph of Rocky Graziano.

Rocky Marciano preprinted or stamped autographed photo.

Many, many many bad Muhammad Ali signatures both secretarial, autopen and
just plain bad signatures on all types of photos, and pages. And we are talking a lot, in one instance 75 ali autographed photos were certed in a row with consecutive cert numbers. this is a type of ali autographed photo they won't cert anymore, but it didnt stop 75 consecutive ones to get the cert. Do they know Ali?

Mike Tyson preprinted 8 x 10 photo where the autograph is IN the photo, not on top of it.

So does this convince you yet, or what? And these are only the ones that show up on ebay and online for sale. not considering the zillions of certed boxing autographs that just go in someones collection that we can't see.

You can just play the game and go with the cert, it's called cert shopping, or you can find out if it is actually a genuine boxing autograph or not. Your choice. Many choose the cert shopping for monetary reasons. I understand why they choose it ($$$) but not why it makes them true boxing autograph collectors and dealers.

One compay told me directly that they need help in boxing. why would they say that if they were "world experts" as they claim to be? That means the best in the world? Who knows boxing autographs and believes that statement? no one.

Travis, I agree with you because NO ONE can say with absolute certainty if an autograph is real or not if they didn't see it signed in front of them. So anyone using a TPA is only getting the opinion not the guarantee that the autograph is real.

Of the few autographs pieces in my collection, I am not certain that they are all real but I think that they look good and that is enough for me. On the other hand, I am not considering any time soon, spending 1,000's of dollars adding autographs to my collection.

Jeff