Legendary Auctions Email....

Did anyone get this email from Legendary Auctions today? Interesting read, that's for sure. Only thing is that I couldn't see the pic of the bogus Ruth signature.

Legendary Auctions wrote:
Recently we at Legendary Auctions were offered a collection of amazing signed material:

• 1939 HOF Induction signed ball and First Day Cover
  
• 1927 Yankees Ball
  
• Ruth Single Signed Ball
  
• Ruth and Gehrig Signed Ball
  
• Ruth Signed Bat
  
• 1934 World Tour Sheet
  
• DiMaggio and Monroe Signed Christmas Card
  
• Babe Ruth Christmas Card
  
• Babe Ruth Signed Check (Bank of Manhattan Company-Jamaica Branch)
  

The list goes on!
The story was his father worked for the Columbus Dispatch.
What seems too good to be true usually is,
as was the case here. Once the material arrived we quickly came to the
conclusion that the material would never be authenticated by reputable
authenticators. When pressed for more information, the
submitter admitted he had purchased all of the material from another
auction company. He spent 10s of thousands of dollars and was left with
a pile of material that in our minds was worth nothing.
Unfortunately,
the craft of authentication is merely an opinion which makes it
difficult to "call out" another company when it comes to selling
questionable material. However, this collection had one item
that is so definitively fake we will show you in great detail just how
irresponsible other auction houses can be when offering material to the
public.




Pictured is a Babe Ruth signed Christmas Card
This item is absolutely fake. Babe Ruth died in 1948. A simple web search demonstrated that this Hallmark Christmas card (from the "Slim Jim" line of cards) was not produced until the early 1950's. To add insult to injury on the facing blank page you can see the indentation of a fake "Roberto Clemente" signature.
We can only surmise that the forger was cranking out fakes and
didn't realize that underneath the item to which he was applying a
"Clemente" signature was sitting the Ruth Christmas card shown here.
Fortunately there are a number of exceptional authenticators including PSA DNA, Kevin Keating and James Spence Authentication. In
additiion there are also a number of reputable auction houses beyond
Legendary Auctions that really try to do it right. This includes, but is
not limited to, Goodwin, Heritage, Huggins and Scott, Hunt, Legacy,
Lelands, Memory Lane, Mile High and SCP.
Our
primary goal is to offer quality material to the public, but we also
see it as our responsibility to keep our hobby safe. If you come across
the caliber of items
described above that have not been vetted by reputable authenticators or
auction companies run the other way! In
addition, even if it is not something you are ready to consign feel free
to contact us if you want an independent opinion.
17542 Chicago Avenue
Lansing, IL 60438
(708) 889-9380
www.legendaryauctions.com

Oh, and who wants to bet that all these autographs were obtained through Coaches Corner......

And I also found it amusing that they didn't give REA any props as one of the auction houses "trying to do it right". I realize that the list "is not limited to", but you're really going to leave one of the biggest and best auction houses off your list?

Interesting that they failed to mention REA as a "reputable auction house". Yes, better to stick with Legendary, at least there won't be any shill bidding.

jbonie wrote:Interesting that they failed to mention REA as a "reputable auction house". Yes, better to stick with Legendary, at least there won't be any shill bidding.

We're on the same page. I was editing my post to include the very same observation when you posted it.