My livelihood has been in the trading card and autograph business for 28 years. I started as an intern at Beckett Publications way back in 1988. In 1998 I started working for Upper Deck Authenticated before launching AutographsForSale.com in 1999.
While the major card, authentication and grading companies have done a lot right since those early days, they've also done a lot wrong. A lot of the mistakes they have made fall under one general category: short sightedness.
Way back in 2014 I wrote about Upper Deck Authenticated's short sighted decision to not upload old hologram numbers in its online database.
In 2020 I wrote about Leaf Cut Signature cards and mentioned that as soon as Leaf ended this program, they removed the entire section from their website, as if they had never made the cards in the first place.
Just now I experienced an issue with JSA BGS certified autograph slabbed cards. Many years ago, when JSA and BGS were not direct competitors in the authentication and grading space like they are now, they partnered to authenticate and slab autographed trading cards. The cards had labels with JSA and Beckett logos -- and JSA authentication numbers.
Unfortunately, some of those JSA numbers apparently are NOT in JSA's online database, though some are like this Adrian Peterson card. In response a JSA representative told me, "This appears to be a JSA certified card – encapsulated by Beckett. We do not offer this service as JSA no longer has a partnership with Beckett/SGC. Any item that was previously authenticated and encapsulated through this service does not have a JSA certification # live on our database. Since the aforementioned service has not been active for quite some time, our JSA team must review the item in person; therefore, it is required that you submit the item for the upgrade."
Are you kidding me? I already paid for JSA to authenticate the autograph, the slab label has the JSA logo on it, and now I'm supposed to pay to have it authenticated AGAIN?
It's almost as if these companies make decisions while being unaware they're in the COLLECTIBLES business. The definition of COLLECTIBLES means there's a good chance that the value of the item will increase over time.
Hopefully JSA corrects this policy decision and doesn't go down the road of Leaf, UDA etc where their only concern is current and future business. Not standing behind products that have your brand on it, even if years or decades earlier, is bad, shortsighted business.
