Are coins and stamps as bad as baseball cards and autographs?

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Posted By: DJ

There is no question that the world of autographs of all the collectibles has the most issues in regards to authenticity. It is something that cannot be verified to exist and that's the popularity from the front of the fraudster. You deal and collect in a collecting genre that has an authenticity percentage that is in some cases barely double digits. There is no way (okay, small percentage), regardless of who says so, that the Babe signed that item. It could very much be the work of a master forger.

I chatted several years ago with other collectible experts with the same question and there are issues in anything where money could be made. It's simply a lot easier to unlevel a playing field and play outsisde the rules, but with other collectibles like Comic Books, Card and Coins, it's not so much about the item being downright fraudulent (as compared to the world of scribbles where you can expect a dollar amount based on the work one does on a blank scrap of old paper), but tampered with or authenticating companies simply giving an incorrect opinion.

When I chatted with a CGC (comic books) guy, he noted that of many of the Silver and Golden age comics that are highest in demand (Spiderman, Superman, Action Comics, Detective Comics, X-Men, FF etc.), that between 1 and 3 out of every five had some work done to restore it that the original seller did not specify.

I talked to one gentlemen who told me a tale of a collector who was in desparate need of a rare coin in a specific grade. It was at the third highest grade (valued at $8,000) and he wanted a second highest grade ($24,000). So what he did was take a hammer to the holder and he simply kept resubmitting the coin hoping for the higher grade. He did this like fifty times before he finally got that higher grade. He had turned that $8,000 coin into a $24,000 and paid about fifty submissions which was well worth it to the now satisfied customer.

Happy Holidays!

DJ