I don't know how many on the board collect graded autographed sports paraphernalia. If so I've got an interesting story for you. One of my friends is big into collecting sports paraphernalia of all kinds. I collect baseball and football cards only. But he is into Baseball, Football, Basketball, Hockey cards, tickets to games, autographs etc. Sometimes he'll send something off to be "graded" by one of the grading services. He recently sent a boxing ticket signed by Evander Holyfield from one of his championship fights. Holyfield signed the ticket literally with my friend watching him do it. The grading service sent the ticket back with a letter stating "in their opinion" it was not authentic so they couldn't grade it. He calls the company and talks with a representative and has a 45 minute conversation with the guy. The representative told him they had over 300 examples of Holyfield's signature and their staff (which includes hand writing "experts") determined the one he sent was not authentic. My friend said I couldn't stop laughing the entire time he was telling him this and kept repeating "I literally watched Holyfield sign the ticket. I was standing three feet from him."
My friend said this brings up an interesting point. That if these services can make a mistake on recognizing a signature and reject it as not being authentic, the reverse was just as likely. How many items have they deemed as authentic that weren't, yet have been sold many times over for astronomical prices? These auctions and "seal of authenticity" that have to be on most items sold in the auctions may not be as authentic as they claim. But once that seal of approval has been stamped by a recognized grading service. Whether truly real or not, it is now "real" and "authentic" within the market.
My friend said this brings up an interesting point. That if these services can make a mistake on recognizing a signature and reject it as not being authentic, the reverse was just as likely. How many items have they deemed as authentic that weren't, yet have been sold many times over for astronomical prices? These auctions and "seal of authenticity" that have to be on most items sold in the auctions may not be as authentic as they claim. But once that seal of approval has been stamped by a recognized grading service. Whether truly real or not, it is now "real" and "authentic" within the market.
Last edited:
