I am a man of many projects and it seems one project leads to another. One of my current projects is collecting signatures of all of the Yankees Captains. I already have two of the toughest to find-- Kid Elberfeld (1906-1909) and Everett Scott (1922-1925).Every collector has a "Want List" and at the top of mine is a Hal Chase autograph to fill perhaps the biggest hole in this project. I lost out on an auction in November and it's haunted me ever since.
I have a select group of dealers I purchase from and the one I buy most from told me I did the right thing not getting in too deep for the Chase. Had I won that auction in November, I would have likely paid close to $2k for it. He promises me that is crazy dollars and that I will be able to find one for about half that price down the road.
Last week, while I was driving to work, I pulled up eBay on my phone and saw there was a piece that just went to auction of Hal Chase. It was a signed portrait that came out of the Barry Halper collection and was auctioned off about a decade ago at MastroNet and Robert Edwards Auctions. Back then, not a lot of people questioned the Halper collection, but nowadays it's getting more thumbs down than approvals.
I immediately questioned the authenticity of the item because the e in Chase was a capital E. I went to my folder I have of Hal Chase exemplars and noticed my gut was right, none of my examples had a upper-case E on the end of his name. Looking at it even closer, there was so much wrong with the way they wrote Hal, just three letters they couldn't get right! I knew I had my opinion about it, and I wanted to hear from others. So I got a couple of other opinions from guys I thought would know and all three told me they would stay away from it.
That night, I noticed that the auction ended with a Best Offer $600. MastroNet auctioned this piece off for $613 10 years ago. Smells fishy! I feel bad for the seller, but I am guessing he has received word about the Halper Collection and is trying to get out of it what he put in. The next day, a fellow by the name of Sean came on Net54 and showed his Hal Chase autograph he had bought on eBay-- Yep, the same one! One of the same guys I asked his opinion for the previous day immediately replied to Sean's post saying in his opinion, it wasn't real. I added my two cents as well before editing it and writing him a private message.
After work, I called Sean and we talked for about 45 minutes and I explained to him all that I saw wrong with that particular piece. He said his brother had submitted it to PSA for a Quick Opinion and that he wasn't going to pay until the results of the Quick Opinion came back. The next morning, I got an email from Sean that PSA did in fact give a "Likely Not Genuine" opinion on the piece. He told the seller the results, and after some flack, the transaction was cancelled.
I noticed the next day, the Hal Chase piece was back on eBay. Less than 24 hours later, it was removed from eBay as a forgery. I am glad that Sean posted that on Net54 or else he would have been out $600. I feel bad for the guy that originally won this auction 10 years ago, but it is what it is. It's the worst part about this hobby-- being stuck with something you invested in as real.
I'm also very proud of myself for showing the discipline to pass on it when it's the most sought after piece on my "Want List." In the end, scarce autographs that I want and I can't easily find, give me time to study different exemplars and become somewhat of an expert on them. I immediately thought it was no good, and when I researched it, found it to be worse than I thought.
But it still leaves me searching for a Hal Chase! Preferrably in black ink! E-mail me if you have one for sale-- but include a scan! *WINK*
#GRAPHNATION. Follow me on Twitter @GraphNation
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