Searching For A Piece Of Sports History? Our Online Advice Is...
by Armen Keteyian
HOFMAG.com Exclusive
New York, New York - July, 2006
recently reported for Real Sports on rampant fraud in the booming online sports memorabilia market involving huge auction sites like eBay. To put it mildly, it was an eye-opening experience, beginning with the fact that industry estimates are at least half the signed sports memorabilia sold online today - hundreds of millions of dollars worth - is fake.
Think about that stat for a second: an estimated one out of every two signed items for sale online today is worthless - worth nothing more than the cap, ball, bat, photo or jersey it's placed on. So odds are, when you're searching for your next birthday present or graduation gift, there's a damn good chance you're buying something created by guys like Greg Marino, an aspiring artist in San Diego we profiled in our piece, or other unscrupulous sellers whose sole purpose is to separate you from your money.
To those who knew Greg Marino, he was nothing less than a signing savant - a bit of a burnout with a gift for knocking off nearly flawless forgeries for hours at a stretch. He "worked" as part of a forgery ring filling orders supplied by the likes of "Eddie," a key distributor featured in our piece.
Babe was the real thing, but every Ruth signature isn't. "He did Marilyn Monroe. He did Mother Teresa. He did the Pope," Eddie told me.
But most of all, Marino did athletes, hundreds of them, every name a work of art, but none finer than his very own Mona Lisa: a flawless "Mickey Mantle."
"He was just an amazing person to watch," Eddie said. "He was a genius. I would call him and say, 'you know, I need 20 of this, 50 of this, 100 of this.'"
"I need 20 Mantles. I need 20 DiMaggios?" I asked.
"Correct," admitted Eddie.
From the consumer perspective the good news is that in 1999 the FBI broke up the San Diego ring as part of something called "Operation Bullpen," sending Eddie and Greg and some 30 others to jail. Along the way the feds confiscated a warehouse full of fake bats, balls, shirts, photographs and small sheets of paper, known in the memorabilia business as 'cut' signatures.
The bad news: According to FBI agent Tim Fitzsimmons, who headed the bust, Eddie and the gang told him that 90 percent of their high-quality fakes had already entered the market and were about to be distributed like never before.
"What was interesting when we debriefed these people," said Fitzsimmons during an interview at the warehouse in San Diego, "is they had started experimenting with selling items on the Internet. And they all agreed - that was where the crime was going to move."
And so, seven years later, it has. Today Fitzsimmons estimates there are at least three million phony signatures being peddled online. Why online? Because, as Eddie said, the Internet is the "land of the disappearing" - a vast, largely unregulated universe where your money goes in and good luck getting it out if there's a problem.
To insure some sort of credibility, most knowledgeable online buyers look for a so-called "Certificates of Authenticity," or "COA," a piece of paper that routinely accompanies a listed piece. The COA, a staple of the industry, sounds - and often looks - impressive. In essence, its purpose is to assure a buyers they are getting the real thing. But, as we discovered during our Real Sports investigation, far too many COAs aren't worth the paper they're printed on.
The ring in San Diego, for example, basically bought off several so-called "forensic experts," who routinely, for a price, certified large amounts of fake merchandise, taking up to $150 to certify a signed DiMaggio uniform. And when that wasn't enough, the Marino gang created their own authentication company, called SCAA, to, in essence, guarantee their fakes as real.
According to the FBI, the so-called "authenticator of choice" was a Brooklyn, New York licensed forensic expert named Donald Frangipani. All told, said the feds, Frangipani issused COAs for thousands of pieces sent to him by Eddie's ring. We decided to see for ourselves, so Real Sports sent Frangipani, who was never charged with any involvement in the forgery ring, seven items we knew were absolutely bogus. In short order we had seven COAs from Frangipani certifying our fakes as real.
At that point, I put on my Mike Wallace hat and went out to Brooklyn to question Mr. Frangipani. One after another I showed him his certificates: "Ted Williams...Mickey Mantle...Brett Favre"...informing him that every single item we sent him was bogus.
Frangipani took about three steps back before saying he'd been fooled by the forgeries, to which I countered, okay, fool me once, fool me twice, but a thousand times? You were sent thousands of rare items by the Marino group, I said, and your curiosity never got the best of you? You never wondered how they got their hands on dozens of rare Ruth cut signatures? Or box after box of Mantle hats or balls?
Is it real or is it fake? Only the forgers know for sure. "Oh, I asked myself that question," said Frangipani.
"Well, yourself," I replied. "But are you asking anybody else?"
The answer, sadly, was no. Sad for you. And sad for guys like Scott Stimell, owner of a mom and pop memorabilia shop on Long Island, New York called Cardboard Memories. Among a treasure trove of material, I spoke with Scott about the explosion in online fraud and how forgers peddle their wares for a fraction of what the real thing costs.
"[People] are not really going to be able to buy a real Mickey Mantle autograph hat for two or three hundred dollars," he said. "But there are a lot of people out there that are not astute in this hobby, that don't know, that are thinking they're getting a great price and a great deal, and everybody loves a great deal."
So much so, it appears, stores like Stimell's are being crushed by the online auction explosion. In 1997, about 4,700 "mom and pop" memorabilia stores were in this country, according to industry estimates. Today that number is 1,200 and falling.
"It's had a tremendous impact, and I find that very disturbing," said Scott. "A lot of people assume because it's eBay, and that they're the biggest, they're going to do their best to bring a proper product to the consumer. The bottom line is they're not protecting anybody. They're saying buy at your own risk - good luck."
For its part, eBay disputes that notion. They point out they offer buyer insurance up to $1,000 for items purchased through PayPal. In addition, they stress they've teamed up with an authentication service which, for about $8, will offer a "quick opinion" - telling a bidder if the item is likely genuine or likely not. One big problem is when its authentication partner, PSA/DNA, finds an item "likely not genuine" eBay fails to put any kind of icon next to that item as a warning. Instead, it just takes another eight bucks, then another, then another, from one curious customer after another.
So what are you to do? Bottom line: My advice is eBay and other major sites are like the Wild Wild West. It's virtually anything goes, so take extra care and scrutinize the origin of the item and the COA that accompanies it. How many similar items does the seller have online? Is there a legible name on the COA? An address? A phone number? And don't feel shy about inquiring about the history of the piece. Is there any photographic documentation as to the signing? What's the so-called "chain of custody?"
The best possible advice I can give is, whenever possible, deal with reputable companies like - and, trust me, this is not a paid pronouncement - Upper Deck Authentic, Mounted Memories or Steiner Sports out of New York City. They have exclusive deals with top-line athletes or teams, so while you'll definitely pay more, sometimes 10 times more, at least you'll be getting the real thing.
And, oh yeah: If it sounds too good to be true...it probably is.
HOFMAG.com Exclusive
New York, New York - July, 2006
recently reported for Real Sports on rampant fraud in the booming online sports memorabilia market involving huge auction sites like eBay. To put it mildly, it was an eye-opening experience, beginning with the fact that industry estimates are at least half the signed sports memorabilia sold online today - hundreds of millions of dollars worth - is fake.
Think about that stat for a second: an estimated one out of every two signed items for sale online today is worthless - worth nothing more than the cap, ball, bat, photo or jersey it's placed on. So odds are, when you're searching for your next birthday present or graduation gift, there's a damn good chance you're buying something created by guys like Greg Marino, an aspiring artist in San Diego we profiled in our piece, or other unscrupulous sellers whose sole purpose is to separate you from your money.
To those who knew Greg Marino, he was nothing less than a signing savant - a bit of a burnout with a gift for knocking off nearly flawless forgeries for hours at a stretch. He "worked" as part of a forgery ring filling orders supplied by the likes of "Eddie," a key distributor featured in our piece.
Babe was the real thing, but every Ruth signature isn't. "He did Marilyn Monroe. He did Mother Teresa. He did the Pope," Eddie told me.
But most of all, Marino did athletes, hundreds of them, every name a work of art, but none finer than his very own Mona Lisa: a flawless "Mickey Mantle."
"He was just an amazing person to watch," Eddie said. "He was a genius. I would call him and say, 'you know, I need 20 of this, 50 of this, 100 of this.'"
"I need 20 Mantles. I need 20 DiMaggios?" I asked.
"Correct," admitted Eddie.
From the consumer perspective the good news is that in 1999 the FBI broke up the San Diego ring as part of something called "Operation Bullpen," sending Eddie and Greg and some 30 others to jail. Along the way the feds confiscated a warehouse full of fake bats, balls, shirts, photographs and small sheets of paper, known in the memorabilia business as 'cut' signatures.
The bad news: According to FBI agent Tim Fitzsimmons, who headed the bust, Eddie and the gang told him that 90 percent of their high-quality fakes had already entered the market and were about to be distributed like never before.
"What was interesting when we debriefed these people," said Fitzsimmons during an interview at the warehouse in San Diego, "is they had started experimenting with selling items on the Internet. And they all agreed - that was where the crime was going to move."
And so, seven years later, it has. Today Fitzsimmons estimates there are at least three million phony signatures being peddled online. Why online? Because, as Eddie said, the Internet is the "land of the disappearing" - a vast, largely unregulated universe where your money goes in and good luck getting it out if there's a problem.
To insure some sort of credibility, most knowledgeable online buyers look for a so-called "Certificates of Authenticity," or "COA," a piece of paper that routinely accompanies a listed piece. The COA, a staple of the industry, sounds - and often looks - impressive. In essence, its purpose is to assure a buyers they are getting the real thing. But, as we discovered during our Real Sports investigation, far too many COAs aren't worth the paper they're printed on.
The ring in San Diego, for example, basically bought off several so-called "forensic experts," who routinely, for a price, certified large amounts of fake merchandise, taking up to $150 to certify a signed DiMaggio uniform. And when that wasn't enough, the Marino gang created their own authentication company, called SCAA, to, in essence, guarantee their fakes as real.
According to the FBI, the so-called "authenticator of choice" was a Brooklyn, New York licensed forensic expert named Donald Frangipani. All told, said the feds, Frangipani issused COAs for thousands of pieces sent to him by Eddie's ring. We decided to see for ourselves, so Real Sports sent Frangipani, who was never charged with any involvement in the forgery ring, seven items we knew were absolutely bogus. In short order we had seven COAs from Frangipani certifying our fakes as real.
At that point, I put on my Mike Wallace hat and went out to Brooklyn to question Mr. Frangipani. One after another I showed him his certificates: "Ted Williams...Mickey Mantle...Brett Favre"...informing him that every single item we sent him was bogus.
Frangipani took about three steps back before saying he'd been fooled by the forgeries, to which I countered, okay, fool me once, fool me twice, but a thousand times? You were sent thousands of rare items by the Marino group, I said, and your curiosity never got the best of you? You never wondered how they got their hands on dozens of rare Ruth cut signatures? Or box after box of Mantle hats or balls?
Is it real or is it fake? Only the forgers know for sure. "Oh, I asked myself that question," said Frangipani.
"Well, yourself," I replied. "But are you asking anybody else?"
The answer, sadly, was no. Sad for you. And sad for guys like Scott Stimell, owner of a mom and pop memorabilia shop on Long Island, New York called Cardboard Memories. Among a treasure trove of material, I spoke with Scott about the explosion in online fraud and how forgers peddle their wares for a fraction of what the real thing costs.
"[People] are not really going to be able to buy a real Mickey Mantle autograph hat for two or three hundred dollars," he said. "But there are a lot of people out there that are not astute in this hobby, that don't know, that are thinking they're getting a great price and a great deal, and everybody loves a great deal."
So much so, it appears, stores like Stimell's are being crushed by the online auction explosion. In 1997, about 4,700 "mom and pop" memorabilia stores were in this country, according to industry estimates. Today that number is 1,200 and falling.
"It's had a tremendous impact, and I find that very disturbing," said Scott. "A lot of people assume because it's eBay, and that they're the biggest, they're going to do their best to bring a proper product to the consumer. The bottom line is they're not protecting anybody. They're saying buy at your own risk - good luck."
For its part, eBay disputes that notion. They point out they offer buyer insurance up to $1,000 for items purchased through PayPal. In addition, they stress they've teamed up with an authentication service which, for about $8, will offer a "quick opinion" - telling a bidder if the item is likely genuine or likely not. One big problem is when its authentication partner, PSA/DNA, finds an item "likely not genuine" eBay fails to put any kind of icon next to that item as a warning. Instead, it just takes another eight bucks, then another, then another, from one curious customer after another.
So what are you to do? Bottom line: My advice is eBay and other major sites are like the Wild Wild West. It's virtually anything goes, so take extra care and scrutinize the origin of the item and the COA that accompanies it. How many similar items does the seller have online? Is there a legible name on the COA? An address? A phone number? And don't feel shy about inquiring about the history of the piece. Is there any photographic documentation as to the signing? What's the so-called "chain of custody?"
The best possible advice I can give is, whenever possible, deal with reputable companies like - and, trust me, this is not a paid pronouncement - Upper Deck Authentic, Mounted Memories or Steiner Sports out of New York City. They have exclusive deals with top-line athletes or teams, so while you'll definitely pay more, sometimes 10 times more, at least you'll be getting the real thing.
And, oh yeah: If it sounds too good to be true...it probably is.
posted by Authentic1 at 8:46 PM
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