Ty cobb autograph cut - psa/dna 9 mint

[sicollector1954]

Well it has happened before and was a pretty stressful time for me-- TWICE!! The first time happened around 2000-- they had "someone" working for them that thought something was indeed "real" and certed it as such for the big authenticating company. I had owned the item for several years previously before authentication COA's even were out there. When the item was put up for auction 8 years later and the original company was in fact the auction houses choice to review and slabbed it--now all of a sudden according to them- it is no longer "authentic" and they won't stand behind it as real. They then tried to hold the item hostage in exchange to get their COA back but I would not give in until a settlement was reached for their "change of opinion". After they received the COA, the President of the company called me and said they had changed their minds in deciding to mail me a compensation check for the agreed amount. However, when I indicated that I had a receipt signed by one of their employees that I had seen earlier in the day when returning the COA that the President did not know about--whoops---the tone and cooperation suddenly changed and the check was mailed out only a couple of days later. Amazing!

The other time involved a single signed baseball with their COA done by the same original authenticator that worked for them at the time. The signature was so nice-I sent it direct in the mail to them to have it graded for a small fee. It probably would have been the nicest graded signed ball in the hobby for that particular player. A couple of months went by and I heard nothing so I called them to find out what was going on. Now, all of a sudden--the same thing happens again. They did not want to return the baseball until they had their COA as it no longer might be "authentic". The settlement ended up being 12 future free COA's of items I had in my collection which I had never previously authenticated. I had it in writing before giving them their letter. What are the odds of this happening once but how about TWICE!

I have never done business with this company since nor will in the future. I have always kept this and consider it a moral victory for the little guy winning out something from the big company.