I was thinking. and its baffling.

[T206Collector]

1. Provenance is so important -- whether it is a signature on a check or you know the guy who got the signature himself, knowing the history of the signature and how and where it was acquired always improves the value of the autograph. Which brings me to my second point:

2. Value -- the market takes provenance (or the lack thereof) and applies a price to it. A ball signed by Ruth with a video of the ball being signed by Ruth is obviously worth more than the same ball without the video. When you buy an autograph in the market, you are paying a price that factors in known provenance. The better the provenance, the higher the value. Take any price I paid for any of my signed T206 cards -- I would have paid more for them if they had a video accompanying them showing the same card being signed by the player.

I don't think it is much a leap of faith if you are buying and selling in the same universe of accepted authenticators. The game changes if PSA/DNA goes out of business as a result of a massive, public fraud. But the same could be said of PSA and the super minty cards that SGC won't cross over. In that sense, I think of autograph collecting and authenticating a lot like I think about super high grade pre-war collecting -- there is always an element of faith/opinion. And as long as the opinions are generally respected by the collectors in that market, then there is no concern over a super drop or loss of value based on that opinion. But one ought to have more than one base covered -- more than one authenticator/grader -- in the event one has a high dollar item that would be worth sh*t if that particular autheticator/grader went AWOL.

A bit rambling, but there you have it....