Opinions on Value/Authenticity

[jbsports33]

Well, I guess there was some confusion to what I said and there seems to be no trust in the COA companies on this board or at least some of the members from this post. Sorry if my statement was mis-leading and I thought the COA companies had some credit in the Autograph hobby. I will be honest, I am mostly a card guy and always have been, but over the years have had my experiences with autographs. Something needs to change in the autograph business if there are things going on that I am learning from this post – sorry I came off strong at times, but the fact is sometimes it can be hard to say anything on this board. I guess you learn from participating as Leon said in his post, I think next time – my responses will not be as long and confusing. I fully understand the comments Mark mentioned and it was not my intention to say to everyone – they need to blow their money on a COA

Jimmy

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by jbsports33

Well, I guess there was some confusion to what I said and there seems to be no trust in the COA companies on this board or at least some of the members from this post. Sorry if my statement was mis-leading and I thought the COA companies had some credit in the Autograph hobby. I will be honest, I am mostly a card guy and always have been, but over the years have had my experiences with autographs. Something needs to change in the autograph business if there are things going on that I am learning from this post – sorry I came off strong at times, but the fact is sometimes it can be hard to say anything on this board. I guess you learn from participating as Leon said in his post, I think next time – my responses will not be as long and confusing. I fully understand the comments Mark mentioned and it was not my intention to say to everyone – they need to blow their money on a COA

Jimmy

Jimmy, I don't think you come off too strong, or that you need to worry about responding. If you think it's "hard to say anything on this board" and don't feel like putting out the effort, that's up to you, but the only thing difficult that you have to worry about is analyzing your audience prior to speaking. If you don't feel like doing that, then just realize that you might get some strong disagreement if you are in the minority, but that, like the rest of us, it's the internet and unless things devolve into a battle of name-calling, most of us will forget it.

I also think that there was Zero confusion about what you said. You simply stated things that astounded some of us.

And finally, your black-or-white statement that there "there seems to be no trust in the COA companies on this board or at least some of the members from this post" is a distortion of what we have said. A truer statement would be that YOU seem to place complete trust in the COA companies to do your thinking for you. To sum up succinctly: sending this garbage to a TPA would be a waste of time and money. Going to the TPA's before you go here is your option. Going to the TPA's after reading this thread would be just plain stupid - yes, they might put a COA on it (but I doubt it), but it WILL NOT MAKE IT REAL.

Talk with you soon, I'm sure.

[Runscott]

...and not having trust in the TPA's is a lot different from thinking they have no place in the hobby. Most of us just want to see improvements. Until they are willing to spend more time studying autographs and doing the research that some of us do, we are going to have to rely on forums like this. If you don't think that is wise, then spin the roulette wheel.

In addition, some of the people who come here asking authenticity questions are doing it for items that already have TPA approval - they want a real autograph, not a pretty certificate. The people who buy more expensive vintage autographs from me almost never ask about COA's. I frequently find COA's from JSA or PSA lying around months after I sold an autograph (yes, I save them), then email the customer and ask if they want it.

That should tell you something.