Shoeless Joe Jackson Auto- Fake?

[Lorewalker]

Originally Posted by Snowman

Most people don't have the time required, or even the interest, to educate themselves on how to identify a forged signature. And even if they did, they probably wouldn't be very good at it. But there's a strong desire from collectors and the hobby at large to know if a signature is authentic or not. So the hobby lets the free market decide who is most qualified to render an opinion, and they vote with their dollars. Like it or not, the hobby has chosen PSA & JSA as the experts whose opinions matter most. If one of them says it's good, that's enough for the hobby at large to accept it. If both say it's authentic, then that's about as good as a buyer can hope for in this market.

The idea that prices might suffer if the buyers only knew about the "controversy" is laughable. There is no controversy from the market's perspective. Serious bidders on this photo do not care one bit what a small gaggle of internet trolls thinks about the authenticity of this photo. They only care what PSA & JSA have to say about it. Most buyers who are paying 7 figures for something like this aren't idiots. They are fully aware that the experts aren't infallible. They realize there exists at least some possibility of them being wrong. But it doesn't matter. Once that photo gets the stamp of approval from the hobby's chosen experts, it immediately has maximal market value. It is what it is. But nobody bidding on this stuff actually cares one bit what any of us think. Our opinions don't matter (and yes, I'm including myself in that statement). They view these posts the same way they view random people on Twitter arguing about politics and pop culture.

You are a bit late to the game but congrats to you, personally, for at least getting here. Even a tad less anger...gotta keep working on that one. I think many of us said DAYS ago that the only opinion that matters belongs to the company on the label.

I think if ya ask the small gaggle of internet troll groupthink if they care if the bidders or buyers of items like this care about what they think they will let you know they care very little.