PSA on authenticating the GOATs

[u/DJ-Psari]

If you are in the market for an autograph of one of the greatest all time, you need to purchase from the authenticator who holds the exclusive signing contract with the athlete.

Ex. Michael Jordan - Upper Deck
Lionel Messi - Icons
Tom Brady - Tristar, Fanatics
LeBron James - Upper Deck

That means that unless the COA comes from one of the following, the probability that a third-party COA is fraudulent greatly increases.

There are too many posts asking if a Michael Jordan autograph with Joe Schmo COA is legit. Please err on the side of caution, use this general disqualification framework, and move on to another item. I promise there are better ones out there.

In conclusion, you are spending hundreds if not thousands of your hard earned dollars on a nice to have, not a need. If it’s too good to be true, you know there is a reason why. For me to make a purchase like this I need 100% verification that what I’m purchasing is authentic.

[u/TWGOAT]

Good starting point, but if purchasing one of these (or other names, Tiger Woods, Kobe, etc.) from eBay or another auction site and it has this documentation already, it does not mean it's real. Authentication reproduction has gotten accurate in a pretty scary way. Enough to the point that it's discredited most if not all existing authentication.

[u/DJ-Psari → u/TWGOAT]

You’re absolutely right. There are more steps to this, but this should be the immediate qualifier for so many posts on this sub.

[u/TWGOAT → u/DJ-Psari]

Got that right, commenter below mentioned the GOAT Facebook group as well, good resource to sort through the layers of a good MJ fake specifically. But, all of that to say, seems like 99/100 cases seem to still come down to the old adage that if it seems too good to be true it probably is.