Most appropriate way to sell unverified autographs?

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by travrosty

eventually you will get one returned, and then the guarantee to pass jsa or psa won't look as good as an option.

If it happens, it happens...I'll still guarantee anything I sell. I'm not in the business of selling Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth or any other highly forged autograph...I usually have a pretty good idea if something is real or not before I sell it.

[JLange]

Thanks for the help! I agree this forum does have the right SMEs - subject matter experts - to help vette autos, and I will surely look for opinions here if I go to sell such items.

[travrosty]

I guarantee everything I sell too. I just don't guarantee it to pass psa or jsa, why take a step down, when it is has already passed TRA. I had the 'whatever will be, will be" mindset too, until jsa held up a 1300 dollar sale on a dead on, no brainer Sonny Liston autograph, that my little nephew could have certed. They snatched 1300 dollars from my hands, when they ultimately passed the darn thing several weeks later anyway. You are giving all the power to sell YOUR autographs to psa and jsa. Getting their opinion is one thing, and people can take their opinion for what its worth, but to dictate a sellers policy based on their "whichever way the wind blows" authentication process is crazy to me anyway and counterproductive.

If I am the only one that feels this way, then thats okay too. But I will never allow psa or jsa to stand in between me, my autograph and a buyer. Credo to follow is: -- Get opinions before you buy, not after.

Travis Roste

[RichardSimon]

There are many people in the hobby who are knowledgable about what they are selling.
If collectors would stick with sellers who know what they are doing, and stop placing authenticators on a pedastal, many of these problems would be solved.
The proliferation of scummy sellers on ebay of course does not help the hobby and has helped the TPA business.
But in the "old days" before TPA a collector could ask a knowledgable dealer, that he did business with, for his opinion on a particular item and the dealer would gladly try to help out that collector. I would do that all the time.
I kinda long for those days now.
Travis you are so right about this - "Credo to follow is: -- Get opinions before you buy, not after."

[RichardSimon]

One telling incident for me involves a former neighbor of mine who became a close personal friend.
To make a long story short, he was a turnstile boy at Ebbets Field and a gofer on the Babe Ruth radio show. He hung around at the Ansonia Hotel (where Ruth had a room for extra curricular actiivty) and would get in person autographs from the Babe. He also got TTM autographs from a number of other HOFers.
He eventually sold me a part of his collection including over a dozen Ruth autographs on various mediums and a number of other HOFers. It was my greatest find.
I sold them to a number of people. Two of these Ruth items, which were absolutely gotten in person, were knocked down by PSA. One of the items was then, at my suggestion, submitted to an auction house which has its own in house experts, and they took it in immediately, authenticated it and did sell it.
The other item was held onto and eventually sold by the person I sold it to, he did not want a refund because he knew the story behind the piece and trusted my opinion and my story of how I acquired the item instead of PSA's rejection.

[GrayGhost]

Trust in the hobby? you feeling ok Richard?

Seriously, through all these threads I have read, I have realized the only thing that is important to me is gaining an education, and th en buying from someone reputable. It seems too many mistakes are made by the TPA's. Plus, as several have said, you are paying for the Cert, NOT the signature, especially when you use the Alphabits guys.

Hey, they probably do get most right, but to pay a massive premium, when they make plenty of errors, and self education could be done, seems like a foolhardy move.

Education and study..could be used w many other hobby collectibles too, not just autographs.

[slidekellyslide]

We may not like it at all, but the fact is that JSA and PSA are looked upon as the gold standard. That is the perception...perception may not be reality, but I'll always go with the gold standard when trying to sell something...even if it is only perception.

With that said...if I were ever in the market for a Babe Ruth autograph I'd value Richard Simon's opinion over the perceived gold standard of JSA/PSA.

[RichardSimon]

Thank you Dan, the check is on its way.