re: My people tell me we will be happy on Tuesday

Richt fixing to have his Tuesday presser. Guess it's now back on

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quote:The authentication companies just authenticate them though from what I understand. They aren't the ones paying players or obtaining the autographs. You could certainly say that it's stupid of the dealers to submit that many of the same item for authentication at once though. Stupid and lazy on both ends. They obviously didn't think through the backtracking that could go on. However, up until now they really haven't worried about it because nobody could come after them.

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It varies. (IK haven't read through the entire thread, so if this has been covered.....sorry.)

SOME companies will contact the athlete, meet them at a location...witness the signing and then place a hologram, etc on the signed object. Upper Deck, Tri-Star are two that do this. Other companies just take signed merchandise from wherever they can and pass it off as authentic not knowing if it is authentic or not. Some will buy an object and just sign themselves and pass it off as signed authentic merchandise.

You NEVER know unless you buy from an EXTREMELY trusted source or get the item signed in person.

There are different ways they will do a signing. Some will offer a flat rate to the athlete and have items ready to be signed. An athlete might sit at a table and a representative will sit beside him. The athlete will sign an item and the representative will pull that item from the athlete and slide a new one in front of them. A LOT of items get signed in a relatively short time.

Another method is to contract for a set number of items. (Not usually the way it is done except for younger less demand athletes.

Another method is to hold a public signing and allow the public to come with their items for an athlete to sign. Typically they will sign like this for 2-3 hours, then go to a back room for the athlete to continue signing exclusively for the dealer for an hour or more.

These are the most common ways items are signed. An athlete in high demand contracting by time can demand upwards of 60,000-70,000 dollars for 3-4 hours of work. MANY years ago, I know George Bell got $40,000 to sign for 3 or 4 hours. This was back in early 1980s.