Coach's Corner - The Perfect Crime?

[Mr. Zipper]

I'm not so certain that the FBI isn't doing anything. The fraud is so blatant, and it really is a poke in the eye to the FBI after Operation Bullpen... how could they not do something? But, these things take time -- maybe years.

I'm not a lawyer, but it seems to me this is a textbook criminal conspiracy.

I don't know what the legal terms are, but there seems to be willfull ignorance on the part of the owners. The authenticators cannot hide behind "it's my opinion" when there is a consistent pattern of behavior of being wrong 99% of the time.

It's only a matter of time before one of them makes a mistake and the black sedans show up at 5 a.m.

[J.McMurry]

I've been thinking this situation over,and now am wondering if CCA is not some elaborate system of distribution for fake merchandise to crooked dealers? During OP Bullpen,dealers sent lists to marino to fill that were so outrageous they pretty much proved the items were being manufactured by Marino. so what if you set up a "closed auction" where only insider crooked dealers can purchase the fake product through the disguise of an auction?

Crazy,..but truth is stranger than fiction.

[RobertGT]

One point lost in many of these discussions is the CC consignors. Most of the people on this board have a tendency to focus solely on CC (rightfully so), but who exactly is giving CC these obviously bad autographs?

I never gave the issue much thought (i'm not a big autograph guy) until I ran into a longtime dealer/collecting buddy of mine at a Pennsylvania auction recently. He told me CC has become the dumping ground of several reputable auction houses looking to dispose of their obviously bad material and sigs that flunk PSA/DNA & JSA. He cited one well-known auction house specifically (that I won't mention here) that routinely consigns items there almost every month.

I found this shocking.

[Vintagedegu]

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[sports-rings]

CC has become the dumping ground of several reputable auction houses looking to dispose of their obviously bad material and sigs that flunk PSA/DNA & JSA. He cited one well-known auction house specifically (that I won't mention here) that routinely consigns items there almost every month.

I thought reputable auction houses should not consign their own items, or if they do, they should put that in the description (they never seem to do that). I had a great opportunity to buy a championship ring from the son of a well known player and then Heritage scooped in and purchased the ring from him. Later on, it was in their auction but no mention that they owned the ring.

[RichardSimon]

"CC has become the dumping ground of several reputable auction houses looking to dispose of their obviously bad material and sigs that flunk PSA/DNA & JSA. He cited one well-known auction house specifically (that I won't mention here) that routinely consigns items there almost every month."

Since when does well known equal reputable in the auction house business?

[Mr. Zipper]

Originally Posted by Vintagedegu

This is close to what I've been thinking lately. Basically, what are the odds of a) so many rare vintage signatures being consigned each month, and b) basically all of them poor fakes?

Occasionally they might have some modern stuff from legit sources, so I'm looking at big-name vintage only, the Ruths and Mathewsons and Clarksons and nonsense like that. What are the odds of being wrong almost 100% of the time, for years? I don't have any hard numbers, but anecdotally speaking it seems that way; some absurdly high number. Authentication via dartboard would yield more accurate results.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were better odds of being correct every time than of being wrong all the time, particularly with people experienced in the memorabilia business.

I don't know exactly what's going on over there, but it sure is weird.

Criminal conspiracy is what's going on.

The sheer volume and percentage of fakes nullifies any possible "oops, bad opinion" defense. A monkey with a 50/50 chance of picking good/bad would have a higher accuracy than they do.