Autograph Auction LOA's Do they mean anything?

[mighty bombjack]

I think auction LOAs are a bad joke as well, but they don't really bother me because I only buy autos for my personal collection. If I were trying to flip them (or if I have to in the future), it would irk me more. It is certainly a good idea to keep valid records of anything you buy from an auction house for various reasons, one of them being the ability to show some provenance when selling. If you trust a TPA's opinion, and bought an item on that opinion, any proof that the item has been purchased in an auction might ease a buyer's mind in terms of TPA.

I have not consigned with an auction house, but I can imagine buying an item with an auction LOA and then trying to resell through the same auction house only to be faced with higher consignment fees due to the need for an auction LOA. Anything for an extra buck in this business (I mean hobby).

[Exhibitman]

The auction LOA is a popcorn fart--meaningless because you have to pay the TPA for an LOA anyway. Thanks for nothing, auction houses.

Even the full LOA won't help you not being ripped off by the TPAs. I won a Satchel Paige signed PC from Lew Lipset which came with a full JSA LOA. I wanted it put into an SGC holder for display and safekeeping. I took it to JSA at the Glendale show last month. JSA demanded $25 to have SGC put the PC in a slab. Now here's the kicker: At the same time I showed them an Ezzard Charles signed Exhibit card that came from Clean Sweep with a JSA auction LOA. The JSA rep told me that the auction LOA expired so I'd have to pay the full recert fee plus $10 to encapsulate with SGC.

WTF?

Why is it $10 to encapsulate a postcard-sized Exhibit card but $25 to encapsulate a postcard of Paige? Same size, same slab, same company, same order. Only answer I can find is that since they couldn't stick me with a recert fee on the full LOA Paige card, they tried to hose me on the slabbing.