Is the hobby in trouble?
Recently there have been many claims of fake autographs making their way through selling platforms with no idea of how long this has been happening. What else could be at risk?
Originally collectors began to realize that on card patches ended up not even being used in games unless marked “Game Used” on the card itself. Then after some inspecting of cards, collectors were able to find out that some of the patches were not even from the player displayed on the card, but of a player with a smaller role on their teams. People began to see the lies so they counteracted by spending money of full jerseys of their favorite players to have some sort of proof that what they were buying came from the player of their choice. Of course these jerseys came from authenticators like PSA, Beckett, and more. If you can see where I’m going, yes, the authentication process is now what is under scrutiny.
Recently fake slabs of graded cards and graded autographs have been the topic of choice. With fake Michael Jordan Rookies & other goats flooding the market, what percentage of the hobby market cap is false? Who are these savants creating fake product to trick buyers? Which authenticators are trusted? So many questions have now entered the hobby that we have authenticators for authenticating products on a marketplace, such as eBay authentication for products over a certain price.
Now I constantly hear more stories on social media that cause more concerns and controversy. This might make the hobby a little more affordable as now less people are confident in the marketplace. Raw cards being more affordable could bring more players into the hobby instead of the for profit collectors of the past holding prices as high as possible.
Will the market be able to handle this uncertainty of purchase? Will we be hearing a commercial in the future “Did you ever buy a product from PSA? You could be due financial compensation.” What else in the hobby will be questioned next? We shall see.
Let me know what you think 💭
