Hauls of Shame: eBay pulls ‘Rotten Peach’ Ty Cobb artifacts
From SABR member Peter J. Nash at Hauls of Shame on March 13, 2012:
Hot on the heels of their reported authentication of a fake Ty Cobb signature on a Little League ball made fifteen years after the Hall of Famer died (as reported by us on Deadspin last Friday), PSA/DNA has made another monumental authentication error. A Cobb item appearing on eBay for the past few weeks as an alleged cut signature of Cobb that was certified authentic and graded in one of PSAs air tight encapsulated holders was just pulled by eBay’s Fraud Investigation Team.
Collectors refer to these items as “slabbed signatures” and they have become an extremely marketable commodity thanks to PSA who has sold consumers on the belief that such items certified by them are unquestionably authentic.
The eBay seller BigDaddySportsCards of Alexandria, Louisiana, was offering it for almost $1,300.00 until the item was removed from the site earlier today. The seller was apparently sold on PSAs expertise stating that the, “Gorgeous Green Ink Cut” has been graded a “Mint 9″ by the company that is a subsidiary of Collectors Universe (NASDAQ: CLCT).
Unfortunately for “Big Daddy” and PSA, the nation’s leading authority on Cobb’s signature happened to be browsing the eBay Cobb offerings and immediately determined the offering was a counterfeit.
Read the full article here: http://haulsofshame.com/blog/?p=11626
Originally published: March 13, 2012. Last Updated: March 13, 2012.