Most appropriate way to sell unverified autographs?

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by travrosty

my friend sold a bob fitzsimmons signed photo that is good, and psa knocked it down and the buyer sued my friend. The buyer lost as my friend showed up in court and showed that psa opinion is just that, an opinion and in many cases they are dead wrong.

I should know about these things as not too long ago PSA asked me to be their boxing autograph consultant expert because they didn't have one and said they needed help in boxing. I didn't want to do it because of their organizational setup in how they authenticate and their unwillingness to reform their policies and procedures. That's how this "James Jeffers" nonsense like this gets passed.

They still need help and still don't have anyone who knows boxing.

I have no idea whether it was good or not, but that Fitzsimmons piece you mentioned caused a lot friction in the hobby between a lot of good people who were just trying to do the right thing on both sides.

It's a tight knit community and it's amazing the ripples that one piece caused.

[travrosty]

It was the final straw as far as psa is concerned to me. the problem i had with their opinion is that they didnt say why they didnt like it. They didnt say if they thought it was a forgery, or a stamp, or what? Thats the part i didn't get.

If someone is going to sue based on psa's opinion, then the lawsuits would never stop.

Lesson to be learned is to get many opinions before you buy, if you wait until after it is too late.

I know the people on both sides of that piece too. And if it was judged to be good, no one would have been upset at anyone else. The buyer was confident in the piece when he bought it, but when it was judged to be no good, then he couldn't get the paper to resell, so now he didnt want it anymore. It's still a good piece in my opinion, as I have never seen any evidence to suggest otherwise, an opinion from psa doesnt make a bad piece good, nor a good one bad.

What that piece and lawsuit did was tighten up dealers and collector return policies, (they had to spell it out completely so nothing like this can happen again).

So something good did come about from it. If I sell something I don't allow returns based on psa or jsa opinion. (no evidence provided). I return based on evidence no matter where that information comes from. And other dealers, collectors took the same warning and spelled it out on their websites. I don't blame them.

I can't have psa and jsa hanging over my heads all day because they don't like a Firpo I have, but they like a firpo and issue a cert that is totally bogus? Why are they so good again? I don't know. I have personally found their ability to be severely lacking.

People need to get opinions before they buy, from whoever they like and feel confident with. If that is PSA or JSA, fine. If it is me, fine, if it is you, fine, if it is others, fine.

If someone says they don't want to buy from me because PSA didn't like an autograph I had for sale. That's fine, because it is before they buy. But if someone says psa didnt like my autograph after they bought it, so now they want a refund, I would tell them no dice. psa wanted me to join their team as the boxing guy, so why would my opinion not be good to them now and PSA's non boxing experts trump mine? Just because they are PSA and I am not?

http://www.fighttoys.com/Firpononauthentic.htm