Old Judge Proofs?

[Archive]

Posted By: Josh Evans

Nick in Vegas:

First, I viewed these proofs up close and personal and they were not even close to being real. They are simply frauds. They are also a known commodity within our tiny industry having bounced around for over a decade, and as far as I know every major auctioneer has rejected them. Therefore, any responsible individual should regard them as questionable and should thereby only be sold with that caveat or not at all as a best case scenario.

Therefore, it is not just David but many others in our hobby that are saying these are no good. If you think as a fellow auctioneer I am being subjective in this matter then realize I passed on these several years ago when I had the opportunity to obtain them and price was not an issue. If you also know me, I am more committed to the industry I have made my life in and doing what is right for the stuff is more important to me than getting one more piece or collection or one more dollar. I hope my actions through the years have proven this out.

As for the fact that these will be refundable based on “proving” they are bad that is naïve. First of all, it should be guilty until proven innocent with regard to authenticity. Besides, will the moneys be put into escrow to protect those that come back ten years from now with hats (stamped "Proof"?) in hand?

This may be off topic but I feel it is relevant when you make a statement regarding refunds. Victor Moreno and American Memorabilia do not have the greatest track record. Do you know that they paid an unscrupulous employee of mine (Katie O’Brien) to steal our mailing list? Do you know we caught them red handed and a New York judge literally stopped their first auction from happening and they had to provide a public apology?

By the way, we spent $80,000 to make an example of these guys. This was about principal more than anything else.

Do I have an axe to grind here? Absolutely. But am I correct. I’ll leave that up to you and this forum.