How strong do you think our hobby will stay?

[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.

[Case12]

Originally Posted by 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.

Another example is I learned an awful lot about paraphs on this site when I found out my Cobb cut was not real.

[homerunhitter]

I think think this is a bigger problem in our hobby than most care to admit.a lot of people in our hobby turn the other cheek on this subject because there is an financial incentive for them, meaning they sell autographs on eBay or sell autographs for a living or a side business.

[thenavarro]

Originally Posted by homerunhitter

I think think this is a bigger problem in our hobby than most care to admit.a lot of people in our hobby turn the other cheek on this subject because there is an financial incentive for them, meaning they sell autographs on eBay or sell autographs for a living or a side business.

What do you want those people to do? Stop their business pr collecting because you aren't comfortable? Of course fraud is a problem in the hobby. Any hobby that has monetary interest has fraud. If you don't want the risk, you don't participate in the hobby. Many people are fine with the risk and enjoy this hobby anyways.

It is not turning the other cheek. It is learning as much as you can and being willing to assume the risk involved. Anyone that blindly trusts any entity such as the ones you mention, Topps, TPA's, etc., are simply setting themselves up to be burned. One should never have blind trust in a human or in entities run by humans generally. Heck, 50% of all marriages (not sure of the number, I made up a generalization just like you did when deciding that all autographs would be instantly worthless if a TPA is scandal rocked) end in divorce, but that doesn't stop people from taking the marriage risk, and that has far more at stake than autographs.

I've been at this a long time, I study sigs a lot, and I still get burned from time to time. Does it stop the joy I receive from collecting? No. Do I crawl away and swear to never collect again? No. I try to learn from my mistakes in hopes of making better choices the next time.

I also remove the item from circulation by destruction usually so no one else gets burned by that same item. Aghast, even if it has a TPA that would make it so easy to pawn off on someone else.

That's not turning a blind eye to the problems, that's not protecting a monetary stake, that's being a good hobby steward and trying to do the right thing for a hobby that I enjoy.

Here's a PSA/DNA one that had to go

https://youtu.be/u-XqbbfLG6c

Here's a fake Muhammad Ali that met it's demise

https://youtu.be/pjjVPY7WwyY


And here's the blowing up of a Charles Manson signed check that many feel is real but I did not so it had to go (I realize you cant see the check itself in the video but I have several pics saved showing where I taped it to the Tannerite)

https://youtu.be/BsM7xZq_EBU

An autograph is either real, or it's not, matters not what company it came from or what TPA certed it. Don't pass your problem pieces on to others and don't be so tied to the almighty dollar that you do questionable things or buy "bargain" autographs.

If that's turning the other cheek to the fraud in the hobby in order to make money or protect a stake, I just shake my head in amazement.