Sports Collectors Digest

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Posted By: Rhys

I think an interesting fact about the autograph industry is that you can manipulate the statistics to prove whatever you want about them. I once spoke to the man who was responsible for representing all of Warren Spahn's autograph siginings etc for years. He told me he had never seen a fake Warren Spahn autograph in his life because there were so many, and they were so cheap. Same with Feller, and people like that. You could take that stat and run with it to represent the health of the hobby. If you take Ruth, Gehrig and just about any Negro Leaguer who died before 1990 though, you are probably at about 5% authentic and could run with that statistic.

It is not really much different than the influx of fake prewar cards on ebay and all of the cut outs from Spalding guides in the prewar category, while there is no such thing as a fake 1988 Topps Bobby Bonilla. If you are anywhere in the hobby right now and looking for a bargain, you are much more likely than not to gt burned.

Coach's Corner is, in my opinion, the biggest problem with the autograph hobby. How they can get away with forging so much stuff so blatantly is beyond me. The only question with them is are they forging "in house" or do they have guys doing their dirty work for them? Not only that, but they are using the mail to deliver it all which you would think could provide a great way for someone to go after them.