Profession Card Graders

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Posted By: DJ

I could be wrong, but Grad was a chaser who sold modern autographs through his company Grad Ink before he joined Mastro as a text writer and then PSA/DNA hired him to work under Spence.

Spence on the other hand was born into the business as a dealer first who gained knowledge that way to become what he is today. My point is that you can be trained to authenticate in the autograph business. It's all about training your eyes to look for imperfections. I don't have issues with either company, really, in comparison to those authenticators who are 100% fraudulent and pass everything for the right price.

After all, if you have ever seen the process up close, it's all about looking at exemplars and looking for key things in a signature that may bring up a red flag. Would the Babe slow down here? Why did the Babe lift his pen? Why did the Babe tail off in a swift motion at the "h"? How can the Babe sign a 1978 All-Star Baseball?

All I can tell you is that authenticating autographs is FAR from perfect and I can assure you that even the best authenticating companies pass items that they shouldn't have.

DJ