Rant about PSA. Does anyone have a contact there?

[Bpm0014]

It's a shame. And I know that nothing is truly "black and white", but in the simplest of terms: If you can't authenticate something that was signed in front of me, you completely lose all credibility. Why should I trust anything else that you authenticate? The basketball which was signed 10 seconds before the jersey passes...and the jersey (which was signed 10 seconds after the basketball was) fails.

[packs]

I'm sure I'm in the minority but I'm actually glad that items sometimes get turned down even if they were signed in front of you. Jordan is one of the most forged autographs out there. If he signed it sloppy, I'd still want PSA to fail it rather than pass it. You can always submit again but I'd rather they be cautious when working with autographs like this one.

[deeg23]

Originally Posted by packs

I'm sure I'm in the minority but I'm actually glad that items sometimes get turned down even if they were signed in front of you. Jordan is one of the most forged autographs out there. If he signed it sloppy, I'd still want PSA to fail it rather than pass it. You can always submit again but I'd rather they be cautious when working with autographs like this one.

+1

[thetruthisoutthere]

Originally Posted by Bpm0014

It's a shame. And I know that nothing is truly "black and white", but in the simplest of terms: If you can't authenticate something that was signed in front of me, you completely lose all credibility. Why should I trust anything else that you authenticate? The basketball which was signed 10 seconds before the jersey passes...and the jersey (which was signed 10 seconds after the basketball was) fails.

Why should they believe you when you write "I got it signed in person?"

They must read that dozens a times day from the submissions that are sent in.

[Bpm0014]

I never told them I got it signed in person. I'm telling that here...

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Bpm0014

I never told them I got it signed in person. I'm telling that here...

We hear that dozens of times a day!!!

[thetruthisoutthere]

Originally Posted by Leon

We hear that dozens of times a day!!!

+1....

[thetruthisoutthere]

Originally Posted by Bpm0014

It's a shame. And I know that nothing is truly "black and white", but in the simplest of terms: If you can't authenticate something that was signed in front of me, you completely lose all credibility. Why should I trust anything else that you authenticate? The basketball which was signed 10 seconds before the jersey passes...and the jersey (which was signed 10 seconds after the basketball was) fails.

Post a photo of it here.

[Bpm0014]

Here you go

[Bpm0014]

Pic 2

[Bpm0014]

Pic 3. All signed within 30 seconds of each other.

[Bpm0014]

Rest of baseball

[Bpm0014]

Baseball 2

[thetruthisoutthere]

Originally Posted by Bpm0014

Here you go

No way I would have passed that jersey.

[packs]

The jersey is a sloppy signature. That's likely why it failed. If they aren't sure, I'd rather they fail the item.

[Bpm0014]

I wouldn't disagree that it's sloppy, because it kind of is. I basically have a couple of minutes to get things signed. He signs a ton of autographs. He doesn't care if his signature is sloppy or not (and rightfully so). He's probably used to signing on the "flat" number part (the 2 or the 3), but I didn't have a silver pen. He signed it on the mesh and although it is dark and bold, it's kind of atypical. Oh well...

[drcy]

As I have often said, the authenticators and graders are offering an opinion, and how that opinion is taken is a matter of the collectors, bidders, dealers and auction houses. If collectors and dealers wrongly give too much iron-clad written-in-stone arbitration-of-truth weight to what is an opinion, that is the fault of the collectors and dealers not the opinion giver. Heck, the letters themselves state in black and white that they are offering an opinion.

People are often rightly (IMO) astonished and think it is ludicrous that a PSA 10 trading card sells for many times more than a PSA 9, but wrongly blame PSA for the price difference. PSA doesn't bid on anything or set the prices. It's the collectors and dealers who determine the price differential. The hobby of collectors and bidders could have determined that a PSA9 and PSA10 (or PSA6 and PSA7, etc) that look essentially the same in condition are worth the same or very similar and PSA wouldn't have had any say over that either.

For a number of reasons I won't go into here, I personally think the high grade graded card section of the hobby is ludicrous and stupid. I do give partial blame to the graders, but give more than half of the blame for the ostrich head in the sand buyers and sellers.

The sports memorabilia hobby is often run by money not common sense and logical thinking. Many people are concerned about the authenticity of the money not the authenticity of the memorabilia.