Autograph Auction LOA's Do they mean anything?

[drc]

Yes, they have some worth. Things are rarely all or nothing.

[travrosty]

Because these auction loa's "expire", and after a short time, they aen't "valid" anymore, collectors wonder if psa or jsa are switching their minds and opinions and all of the sudden the piece is no good anymore?

If you haven't paid them extra for the full LOA to keep the opinion going, I guess the opinion expires and we should have no way of knowing if the autograph is good?

Is the signature good today, and then bad tomorrow? If they inspected it and said it's good, it should be good tomorrow too.

Does the prescription in your eyeglasses expire and turn off all of the sudden so you can't see clearly anymore unless you pay the optometrist and the lens manufacturer if you fail to pay an upgrade or maintenance fee? NO!

They want it both ways, they want the auction LOA to dazzle you and knock your socks off and be seen as a LOA to ensure the autograph you buy at auction is good, but only until you buy it, then it turns from an LOA to a POS. Then it's not worth the paper it is printed on and you better hurry up and pay more money to get a real LOA. But if you haven't bought the item yet, disregard that and please regard the auction LOA as a great LOA that ensures your items authenticity.

The verbiage they use is laughable. They say that an auction loa is just a "preliminary review" and the item hasn't gone through the rigors of a full inspection like a REAL LOA'd item does. Well, if that is the case, why are people bidding on items that just get a glance? They say their opinion can change once you send it in and they get a real good look at the item. It's unbelievable.

Now PSA dumped auction LOA's and is using their PRECERTIFIED program, which GUARANTEES that any autograph that passes precertification WILL get a full LOA. So I guess it isnt a preliminary review anymore but no one can figure just what they did to their procedures to change their review from a preliminary glance to a full inspection.

PSA changed from auction loa to precertified to avoid confusion they say because some collectors were using auction loa's as real loa's.

This concerns them because the items only had a preliminary review and people were using the auction loa as a full loa, convinced it had a full review and inspection?

Nah, this concerns them because the auction loa was free and they weren't paying extra to get the "really real" LOA, and they can't have that.

Now that they have precertification, they don't issue a piece of paper so there is nothing for the collector to use unless they UPGRADE to a full loa.

Unless the collectors prints out the auction listing screen that mentions precertified by psa, then they can just skip paying the fee again and all is well in the world.

What I can't figure out is why JSA or PSA calls it an UPGRADE in LOA's or certification when the autograph is still the same. The AUTOGRAPH hasn't been upgraded. It's still the same. It is either real or not. So only NOW they are going to try to figure it out???

I can only interpret the word LOA upgrade as to mean that they thank you for your extra money and they will now get serious about your piece and go from "we glanced at it", to "We decided to do our jobs" Money has a funny way of doing that.

I blogged on another forum and myself and a couple of other collectors were going back and forth from the main representative from a major auction house about auction loa's and precertification versus REAL LOA's, and the guy just kept talking in circles, wouldn't give us straightforward answers to any of our questions on just how PSA goes about inspecting the autograph for the auction loa effect and the precert effect versus real LOA. He didn't know or else what is more likely is that he knew but didn't want us to know how the hot dogs were made for fear we would never buy one again.

Sorry, auction LOA's and Precertification is a joke in my opinion, and if they can't guarantee you are getting a real autograph when you bid and buy from the auction house, then that's what it is and to say they looked at the item and made some type of conditional determination is not worth anything to me. You either did your job and made a proper authentication or you didn't.

Think about it, did mears give an auction loa for the 4.4 million dollar ruth jersey, a preliminary inspection with a full inspection coming to the winner of the item? sounds silly if they would have tried that. but your 500 dollar autograph gets that treatment.

[Exhibitman]

I agree with everything you say, Travis. I am absolutely disgusted by the whole situation. I have gotten to the point now where I will not buy a signature unless it is on a mfg-certified card that doesn't 'need' any more 'authentication' or is one that I know and feel good about regardless of whatever spurious piece of paper they are handing me. It is also beyond silly that an Ebay seller has to warrant their product and accept returns but a big AH can tell you to piss off with one of these fake certificates.

What we need to do is to start letting AHs know that we will no longer bid on autographs that require us to turn around and spend more money to get a valid certification. If enough consumers say no to the practice and the AHs start to feel concern over the situation, the nonsense will stop, I guarantee it.

I also commend Hake's, which supplies its own LOAs for items it sells, and Lew Lipset, who gets the full certs from the TPAs he uses. Having the nards to stand behind one's products or make sure that one's customers are taken care of is a quality few AHs have.