Question about PSA/JSA "Guarantees"

[travrosty]

dont handcuff yourself like that. you are exposing yourself to the whim and fancy of psa and jsa if you do that. if an autograph that you know is 100 percent legit fails these services because they dont know the autograph, or that they just rolled out of the wrong side of the bed this morning, you are out a lot of cash, and it's not your fault. i would guaranee the authenticity of the autograph yourself, but a jsa or psa fail does not trigger your guarantee, rather real evidence that it is a fake autograph should trigger you guarantee.

josportsinc.com has a good guarantee disclaimer.

http://josportsinc.com/catalog/autograph.html

people i know have been burnt so many times by promising an item to pass psa or jsa, only to see these services get it wrong that we just throw up our hands now and say no way.

[ibuysportsephemera]

Were you there when the autographs were obtained? If not, how do you or anyone else "guarantee" that they are authentic. If you are continuing to auction these items on eBay, take lots of pictures... including really close up ones, give really good descriptions and explain the provenance of the piece the best that you can. Unless you missed the boat (i.e. a facsimile that you mistook for the real thing) and don't describe something correctly, let the consumer be the judge and bear the responsibility of the authenticity. If you read Net54 for any length of time, you will see that just from pictures autograph guys make determinations about authenticity on a regular basis.

Jeff

[cjedmonton]

Okay, good advice from both. Thanks. I'm still torn between taking the auction house route or sticking with Ebay.

Although I am committed to spending the time to take plenty of pictures/scans and provide a good description for each item (without explicitly "guaranteeing" anything), I obviously want to avoid any drama from a disgruntled buyer if a signed item turns out not to be authentic.

Fortunately, the provenance is rock solid, so hopefully that will be enough to give bidders enough info to draw their own conclusions.

[mighty bombjack]

Here is my take as a seldom autograph seller. A seller needs to stand by the authenticity of an item. You should have a return policy so that the buyer can inspect the item in hand. If you want to give the buyer enough time within that policy to send an item to a third party, than do so, but never offer to cover their expenses for that.

[earlywynnfan]

I sell a lot of low-end stuff on ebay. I offer a guarantee on the cost of the item. I tend to respect the people here more than PSA or JSA, but they are the popular choices. I had one item (a Soriano ball) get caught between dueling authenticators. I truly feel it was good, but I refunded the buyer because I want them to be happy. I don't think you need to worry about paying the buyer's fees as long as you are up front about it.

Ken

PS: You have Richard Simon right here, why not see how much he'll charge you?

[markf31]

I am not a seller but I am a buyer and I have had numerous exchanges with sellers regarding this topic. I am by no means an expert and I rarely trust my own eye to know if a particular autograph is authentic or not for the simple fact I just don't have the knowledge or experience.

My only pience of advice is be ware of offering buyers a refund if an item fails authentication. There are many stories out there of a buyer claming an item fails authentication because they'll switch your genuine item/autograph for a known fake. The buyer then submits the fake, it fails authentication, and they ask for their money back while sending you the fake back and keeping your original authentic item.

In my mind it comes down to the difference in the final sale price that can be realized by having an item authenticated. If your selling a $50 autograph, its not worth having authenticated. If you're selling one that can be valued at several hundred dollars, then it could pay to spend $50-$75 to have it authenticated and realize the gain in a higher final sale price.

[MooseDog]

DO NOT offer to refund fees unless you can somehow limit the exposure. If you have business insurance you might be able to do something there but probably not worth the cost.

I have two cases where PSA and JSA deemed "not genuine" high $ signatures that I obtained in person and witnessed the signing myself.