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Posted By: DJ

The idea of authenticating via of a scan is something and something is better than nothing.

Obviously a lot of you didn't follow the market before Operation Bullpen (and Foul Ball) and before eBay did nothing at all to protect it's consumers from fraud. Where you can go on eBay and find 20-25 signed Babe Ruth baseball bats for $500 a piece from three different sellers that had documentation from so-called experts who would eventually find themselves black-balled or in prison.

Ebay has so many different facets of itself to police that it can't keep track of everything and there is no doubt that autograph fraud exists in the site and there is no question that it's easier to forge a cut signature of a deceased ball player, then it is a comic book or a first edition. It's kind of like babysitting the children of everyone in the world. You can't do it. You can't watch everything and make sure that every transaction goes through smoothly and both parties are satisfied. Ebay is built on the principle that "people are good", I believe that was founder Pierre Omydor's original words to describe his vision with it's intent was to satisfy his wife's hunger for Pez dispensers.

The problem we have with the business of authenticating is that it is far from an exact science and I whole heartedly agree that one authenticator cannot authenticate everything. If they say they can and object to rendering something without an opinion, then this isn't an authenticator that I think I can trust. PSA/DNA and JSA are without question the big two, with GAI followed closely behind, therefore it is the duty of those who have been left with a bad taste in their mouth to say something about the companies that authenticate not in the hundreds like the lesser known authenticators, but the hundreds of thousands that some of the respected companies look at in a years time.

The object of the auction house is to get the most money for their consignor. That is the goal. Simple math, the more the item brings, the more the auction house makes and the happier the consignor is. Right? Easy enough.

As I read this updated autograph thread, I went to the CCSA site and checked it out and "low and behold" an auction ended yesterday! Here is a samplin:

Josh Gibson single signed baseball $1000
Josh Gibson cut signature $491
Martin Luther King single signed baseball $746
Walter Johnson single signed baseball $386
Christy Mathewson single signed baseball $998
Chrsity Mathewson signed/inscribed post card $608
Lou Gehrig signed baseball bat $2100
Fred Clarke single signed baseball $1001
Cap Anson cut signature #1 $347
Cap Anson cut signature #2 $358

A book I recommend to everyone (even if you aren't interested in the hobby) is "Operation Bullpen" by Kevin Nelson. It is an absoluetly amazing read and excerpts can be found on the web site: www.operationbullpen.com. If you are a card guy, you will think ten times less about this business after reading this.

On a side note, "vintage" in this form Dylan is about Pre-World War I and it's safe to day that this area of collecting is "en fuego" and even if the cards dipped 80% of what they were at this time last year, it would still out reward those shiny cards, pasted on cotton swatches and Philip Hughes rookies up the ya-zoo.

Repeat after me: "It's all about the Registry, It's all about the Registry!"

DJ