How strong do you think our hobby will stay?

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by homerunhitter

Thank you all for your responses, I appreciate them as as you bring up some very good points. Before reading these this thread, I was leaning toward collecting HOF factory certified autographs because companies like PSA are just one big scandal away from making all those slabbed autographs worthless! and i thought i would be safe with lets say topps certified autographs because after all Topps is Topps! if you cant trust Topps who can you trust in our hobby, was my thinking and logic. my thought is the day that the hobby cant trust a company like Topps is the day that i feel the hobby will no longer be.(who in their right mind would want to collect then) PSA is just an "opinion" service and if Topps cant be trusted, why collect autographs?

Wow, very sad! Sorry you feel that way
Collect what you enjoy

[homerunhitter]

It is sad that the autograph hobby if filled with so many fakes (I read online that an estimated 75% of all autographs in our hobby are fake) how can I enjoy what I collect when all it takes is one bad scandal and everything touched by PSA or Beckett would be worthless? And now from what I’m reading we can’t even trust companies like Topps or Upper Deck in regards to autographs being real. Either players having their friends and girlfriends signing their autographs, to companies not actually witnessing players signing (sending players stacks of cards or sticker sheets to sign) to now crooks using high speed printers to print out autographed cards with factory authentication stamps on them. Is anyone else worried about the direction autograph authentication is going in our hobby?

[thenavarro]

Originally Posted by homerunhitter

It is sad that the autograph hobby if filled with so many fakes (I read online that an estimated 75% of all autographs in our hobby are fake) how can I enjoy what I collect when all it takes is one bad scandal and everything touched by PSA or Beckett would be worthless? And now from what I’m reading we can’t even trust companies like Topps or Upper Deck in regards to autographs being real. Either players having their friends and girlfriends signing their autographs, to companies not actually witnessing players signing (sending players stacks of cards or sticker sheets to sign) to now crooks using high speed printers to print out autographed cards with factory authentication stamps on them. Is anyone else worried about the direction autograph authentication is going in our hobby?

If PSA or JSA or Beckett or ABC or whomever get rocked by scandal all you have to do to stuff they've "touched" is crack the slabs. It's not hard and takes less than a minute generally. If it's stickered just remove that if you choose, some are harder than others but they all come off.

You don't really seem like you are gung ho on collecting autographs, so don't. It's not everyone's cup of tea and that's perfectly fine.

Find something you enjoy and that doesn't worry you. Collecting is much more fun that way.

Good luck,

Mike

[Fuddjcal]

Originally Posted by thenavarro

If PSA or JSA or Beckett or ABC or whomever get rocked by scandal all you have to do to stuff they've "touched" is crack the slabs. It's not hard and takes less than a minute generally. If it's stickered just remove that if you choose, some are harder than others but they all come off.

You don't really seem like you are gung ho on collecting autographs, so don't. It's not everyone's cup of tea and that's perfectly fine.

Find something you enjoy and that doesn't worry you. Collecting is much more fun that way.

Good luck,

Mike

enjoy cracking the slabs that hold all your trimmed cards...LOL

[thenavarro]

Originally Posted by Fuddjcal

enjoy cracking the slabs that hold all your trimmed cards...LOL

I won't lose any sleep over it. It's a hobby and this stuff is not the Magna Carta. People take this hobby way too seriously.

[homerunhitter]

I just think people (myself included) feel like, why buy autographs that are not real or that have a high chance of not being real? Most people I know don’t have money to just throw away on autographs. I just think it’s a shame that big companies like Topps autographs might not be real (based on the comments here) TPAs have always been “just an opinion” but if you can’t trust Topps, Upper Deck, etc then who can to trust? May I ask, if all the autographs in your collection one day turn out to not be real (even though they are PSA slabbed and certified by companies like Topps, Upper deck, Steiner etc (if you have those) would you have the same attitude then? Would you still think “it’s just a hobby” and take a huge financial loss on what you paid for your autographs? I’m not saying you at all but a lot of people say “it’s just a hobby” until it hits them in the pocketbook.(when they go to sell their collections and can only get like 20% of what they paid for it or when PSA, Beckett, etc get exposed as the next GAI and their autographs aren’t worth much after that) would like to hear your thoughts on that. Thanks

[Fuddjcal]

Originally Posted by homerunhitter

I just think people (myself included) feel like, why buy autographs that are not real or that have a high chance of not being real? Most people I know don’t have money to just throw away on autographs. I just think it’s a shame that big companies like Topps autographs might not be real (based on the comments here) TPAs have always been “just an opinion” but if you can’t trust Topps, Upper Deck, etc then who can to trust? May I ask, if all the autographs in your collection one day turn out to not be real (even though they are PSA slabbed and certified by companies like Topps, Upper deck, Steiner etc (if you have those) would you have the same attitude then? Would you still think “it’s just a hobby” and take a huge financial loss on what you paid for your autographs? I’m not saying you at all but a lot of people say “it’s just a hobby” until it hits them in the pocketbook.(when they go to sell their collections and can only get like 20% of what they paid for it or when PSA, Beckett, etc get exposed as the next GAI and their autographs aren’t worth much after that) would like to hear your thoughts on that. Thanks

actually, many of my nice large framed autographs are faded off and pretty much worthless. They are real however as I actually learned the signatures myself and don't rely on those companies. I have a tub full of Mint baseballs 15- Mantles. 15 Dimaggios 10 koufax's 5 Williams, and a few more that are put away. They have been personally vetted by me and there are ZERO forgeries left in my collection. Others are displayed in my office and some are also fading right off the ball. PSA is GAI in my opinion when it comes to cards. A few of my autographs have PSA or JSA, but many don't have anything, which I would rather have. (Only about 50K worth of junk, worth nothing)

I never bought them for an investment, just bought them to have for fun and to brighten my home office. Something for my grand kids. If they want to sell them, that's great. There are instructions in My trust on who to sell them with. Someone with integrity that frequents these boards. (AND IT AINT BRENT MASTRO) That's good enough for me.

[Fuddjcal]

Originally Posted by thenavarro

I won't lose any sleep over it. It's a hobby and this stuff is not the Magna Carta. People take this hobby way too seriously.

It's serious when the top seller blatantly has friends breaking cards out of stupid cases and altering them, then resubmitting for higher grades.

I don't take it seriously. I could care less if the guy is crooked. I just don't buy and move on to something else. Like collecting 100 bills again.

[Case12]

I have fun. Get burned sometimes (every one knows that here :-). If it's expensive, rare or highly forged I ask here. For Bobby Doerr (who I never saw play, but wanted to collect) I look at exemplars and have fun deciding myself. Figuring it out, learning and texting with an expert community like here is part of the fun.

[Fuddjcal]

As it is, PSA encases trimmed cards and give their top submitter's preferential treatment for grades and letting them flip cases like they flip hamburgers at Tommies.

E bay sells & PROMOTES fake autographs. Their call center is in the Philippines. What do you think the future is?

I think a nice little recession and PSA turning into GAI will take care of everything.