Seemingly enhanced/altered Harry Truman signed baseball featured on haulsofshame.com

[travrosty]

Originally Posted by thetruthisoutthere

If Atkatz is referring to Mr. Zipper and me as the "two guys" then, of course, I can only answer for myself.

You're right, Travis and Atkatz, I will not bash PSA. I've had the same agenda for over eight (8) years now and have never deviated from it. I have my own agenda, and despite the threats, and attempts at intimidation over the past eight years, I have continued without interruption. I would never allow anyone who threatens me or attempts to intimidate me, to stop me from doing what I do.

I have no reason to bash PSA. Why should I bash a company that gets it right well over 95% of the time? If Travis and Atkatz want to bash PSA, that's their right. Neither of you have been censored here, have you? You may have been criticized for your views and opinions, but haven't we all? If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Getting back to PSA. Honest mistakes are made by human beings. I don't know of one honest authenticator who hasn't made an honest mistake. The mistakes may have been clerical or an honest authentication mistake.

If anyone on Net54 wants to criticize PSA that is their right. But at the same time, the same people who criticize PSA, also flock to PSA to get their items graded or authenticated to receive a higher premium when it comes time to sell.

Why don't we ask Travis why he never bashes Todd Mueller?

Travis, is it because "you have no reason" to bash Todd Mueller? If that's your reason, then I accept that, Travis. I have "no reason" to bash PSA. When "LoveTheMarlins" was exposing some of the forgeries on the now "Dead As Julius Caesar" old ANL site, no one heard a peep from Travis criticizing Todd Mueller. If those same items had been authenticated by PSA, Travis would have been all over it. As a matter of fact, Travis went out his way to defend Todd and the Willie Mays TTM wife-signed autograph that Todd had listed on his auction site as an "authentic Willie Mays signed card." And not a peep from Travis about the two (2) Phil Dorsey signed Roberto Clemente photos that Todd Mueller had listed as "authentic signed Roberto Clemente photograph" or that Walter Johnson signed garbage.

Travis, if you have "no reason" to bash Todd Mueller, then I accept that. But don't criticize me for not bashing PSA because I have "no reason" to also. I have had the same agenda for over eight years. You have your agenda and I have mine.


David once (or still does) owned a "1927 NY Yankees" signed baseball that was certed by JSA. He proudly posted photos of his JSA certed baseball and his own self-proclamation as a "Yankees vintage autograph expert." In addition, David announced his own "Quick Opinion" service on Net54 because of his self-proclaimed expertise on Yankees vintage autographs.

Then David discovered his JSA certed "1927 Yankees" signed baseball was a JF special. I knew it was a JF special when David sent me full-blown photos of this baseball. I am sure that David asked Jodi to confirm that his ball was not authentic. But then David starts ranting against JSA for his ball being bad, but as a self-proclaimed "Yankees vintage autograph expert," how is it that you (David) never discovered it was bad? I was well aware of JF team-signed baseballs, why weren't you? Instead of looking in the mirror, you blame JSA and start ranting against them.

Then David went out and purchased an authentic "1927 Yankees" team-signed baseball. He also informed us that he needed to sell some other items in order to finance his "new" baseball. And guess what. The items he listed on Ebay were either PSA or JSA authenticated. But wait, David, what about your rants against PSA and JSA? Why would you insert PSA/JSA in your title descriptions to promote the fact that they are PSA/JSA authenticated to sell your autographed baseballs, when from the other side of your mouth you're ripping both PSA and JSA?

Richard Simon and I are very good friends; we have opposing views when it comes to PSA. We always agreed to disagree. But we would never disparage each other to get our points across. I would hope that all of us can have that same respectful co-existence here.

The point I am making is that we can all co-exist on a peaceful level here on Net54 without the disparaging remarks, double-standards and hypocrisy.

firstly, quit lying about the willie mays signed card, you know it's not true. He is a dealer and not a third party authenticator and doesn't authenticate other peoples autographs for money.

secondly, i never mentioned you at all, you flatter yourself.

thirdly, get the company line right, it's only one mistake out of 1000 (.1%), or as John R. says, 1 out of 10,000 (.01%)

5% error rate stinks. and they are the worlds experts? Mueller challenged any authenticator to a contest, winner take all, he got no takers from the worlds experts. I could clean their clock on boxing, why are they the world's boxing experts again?

fourthly, many, many of their errors are not clerical or honest mistakes, they are the product of authenticating too fast, sending the wrong person to authenticate the wrong autograph, conflicts of interest, and just general apathy towards being meticulous and getting it right.

fifthly, did you see the signed boxing glove that was just auctioned off at hugginsandscott.com for 2100 dollars. It had two Marciano signatures on it, and those are unlike any we have any seen, but signed off by joe orlando on a coa. Would you trust his opinion on this piece?

What makes them experts? Can anyone explain that? Mastro pushed for them and pumped up their credentials and that is how they got started, but tell me why they are good?


It is unbelievable, and you can find no criticism of this pathetic Marciano? Quit authenticating boxing, PSA!

[thetruthisoutthere]

Originally Posted by travrosty

firstly, quit lying about the willie mays signed card, you know it's not true. He is a dealer and not a third party authenticator and doesn't authenticate other peoples autographs for money.

secondly, i never mentioned you at all, you flatter yourself.

thirdly, get the company line right, it's only one mistake out of 1000 (.1%), or as John R. says, 1 out of 10,000 (.01%)

5% error rate stinks. and they are the worlds experts? Mueller challenged any authenticator to a contest, winner take all, he got no takers from the worlds experts. I could clean their clock on boxing, why are they the world's boxing experts again?

fourthly, many, many of their errors are not clerical or honest mistakes, they are the product of authenticating too fast, sending the wrong person to authenticate the wrong autograph, conflicts of interest, and just general apathy towards being meticulous and getting it right.

fifthly, did you see the signed boxing glove that was just auctioned off at hugginsandscott.com for 2100 dollars. It had two Marciano signatures on it, and those are unlike any we have any seen, but signed off by joe orlando on a coa. Would you trust his opinion on this piece?

What makes them experts? Can anyone explain that? Mastro pushed for them and pumped up their credentials and that is how they got started, but tell me why they are good?


It is unbelievable, and you can find no criticism of this pathetic Marciano? Quit authenticating boxing, PSA!

Travis "What makes Todd Mueller an autograph expert?" What, no criticism of this obvious Derek Jeter forgery that Todd Mueller stated "Is authentic?"

As a matter of fact, Todd made up a whopping story to try to convince others that this Jeter forgery was authentic.

TM-Jeter-Forgery-1.jpg

[mighty bombjack]

Originally Posted by travrosty

5% error rate stinks. and they are the worlds experts?

In my experience, they have a better rate than this in baseball, but I have only researched a small number of players sporadically. I'm no expert, which brings me to my next point...

Originally Posted by travrosty

Mueller challenged any authenticator to a contest, winner take all, he got no takers from the worlds experts. I could clean their clock on boxing, why are they the world's boxing experts again?

Intriguing. How would such a contest work, exactly? Who would "officiate"?

[travrosty]

i dont know , but there will never be such a competition because they know they would lose. it would have to be an impartial third party who selected the autographs, both real and fake, and see who gets the most right, with no exemplars present, just off of memory. I would love just a joe louis contest, they are clueless when it comes to Louis, a total abomination.

[JimStinson]

I would love to participate in that contest. Where is it going to be held? I've done over 150 private signings with boxers alone so I know a little about that. Italy-Argentina-Thailand-UK....lots of miles under my belt ...I'd love to give it a shot. Is there a "handicap"?

[travrosty]

you have to drink for a couple hours to give me a sporting chance

[JimStinson]

I'll do that ...as long as its a "light" beverage like JAGER or MAKERS MARK

[JimStinson]

When I used to drink in Havana , I drank Hemingway's drink which he invented and called a "Papa Doble" , which is a double daquari , easy on the sugar.
Well I was drinking at a place called "the Plaza of the Church" in English and I ordered my Papa Doble. and the waiter brought me TWO POTATOES ! which in correct spanish "papas Doble" means 2 potatoes...
By the way Ernest's record which still stands at "The Floridita" where they invented the Daquiri is 17 "Papa Doble's"

[travrosty]

Originally Posted by JimStinson

I'll do that ...as long as its a "light" beverage like JAGER or MAKERS MARK

I was going to ask what's a heavy beverage, anti-freeze?

then i saw the papa-doble post!!!

I recognize there are several good boxing autograph guys that I would have my work cut out for and I am not claiming to be the very best but for sure none of them work for psa or jsa. they still dont have a boxing consultant listed, and the one ali guy on jsa stated publicly, but anonymously that he trusts the long time boxing dealers over the big companies "all day and twice on sunday" and that the big companies make egregious mistakes.

once jsa saw that they dropped his name from their consultant list.

when spence calls this a real luis firpo autograph like he did for the hake auction, we are all in trouble.

compare this ridiculous firpo to a real one i got directly from a collector in Argentina.

[mighty bombjack]

Originally Posted by travrosty

i dont know , but there will never be such a competition because they know they would lose. it would have to be an impartial third party who selected the autographs, both real and fake, and see who gets the most right, with no exemplars present, just off of memory. I would love just a joe louis contest, they are clueless when it comes to Louis, a total abomination.

See, my point was that someone would have to select the real and fake autos. So, the contest would be one of who agrees or disagrees with the judge more. Who would the judge be? Who is never wrong?

[travrosty]

Originally Posted by mighty bombjack

See, my point was that someone would have to select the real and fake autos. So, the contest would be one of who agrees or disagrees with the judge more. Who would the judge be? Who is never wrong?

nobody is never wrong. but the third party judge could pick autos with information about them that the participants don't have, like impeccable provenance, in person autos with the recipients still living, and so forth.

not a perfect system but the chances that one autograph making the difference and being in dispute to taint the whole contest would hopefully be slim.

i know if two guys were involved and asked me to be the judge, i am confident i could find a bunch of autographs i knew were good and bad because i would have a lot of time to pick the autographs and use outside help too. the trick is to find some that are not dead on or dead off because you need some of them a little challenging, but not a trick autograph either that doesnt give clues as to its authenticity. i.e. a real autograph written left handed by a righty who did it as a lark. I would have fun doing the contest with anybody I knew had real experience, because maybe i would lose or win by one or two autographs and nothing to be ashamed of, but i know i could beat psa, because they say they know boxing, but do they really? Mix in a preprint, stamp or secretarial in there too. make it a hard test but fair. Losing to psa would be quite embarrassing I would admit but i'm not too worried, they ain't taking me up on the offer because who is their best boxing guy, steve grad? they are the ones who said they needed help in boxing, i am afraid they still do.

http://www.fighttoys.com/PSAHolyfield.htm

http://www.fighttoys.com/PSAMarciano2.htm

psa used to have a contest at the national to test peoples authentication skill, they called it the psa world series of autograph authentication or whatever, richard bond won the first year and mark theotikos won the second year, and then they stopped doing it. but they had some silly time limit and is that what authentication is all about, rushing somebody?

[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by travrosty

psa used to have a contest at the national to test peoples authentication skill, they called it the psa world series of autograph authentication or whatever, richard bond won the first year and mark theotikos won the second year, and then they stopped doing it. but they had some silly time limit and is that what authentication is all about, rushing somebody?

Well that was just a precursor to the PSA philosophy of getting the work done quickly. Can you imagine a time limit on autograph authentication?? Ridiculous.
And I was not an entrant if anyone was going to ask that question.

[travrosty]

Originally Posted by RichardSimon

Well that was just a precursor to the PSA philosophy of getting the work done quickly. Can you imagine a time limit on autograph authentication?? Ridiculous.
And I was not an entrant if anyone was going to ask that question.

They used their own template of "under the gun" "beat the clock" authentication" Plus authenticating in that contest by scan only. Nice.

They should bring it back. See who can authenticate the fastest.