A L Sales in Laguna Beach

bloodhound1

A short while ago, I purchased a Ted Williams autographed baseball from a firm in Laguna Hills, California - the address is/was 23010 Lake Forest Drive, Ste. D-188. The name of the company was A L Sales.

I recently sent the baseball off to PSA/DNA for verification and found out that they could not authenticate the signature.

The Ball did come with a Certificate of Authenticity and a money back guarantee. Having said that, I cannot locate the company. Has anyone heard of this company or how I can contact them?

jrdolan

Never heard of AL Sales, but in general I think COA's are pretty much worthless unless they are individualized for that auto, with a serial number that matches a sticker on the item. Many COA's are included with legitimate items to begin with, but if they're non-specific ("This item is guaranteed authentic") then shady people can recycle them -- including them with whatever fake auto they wish. Other COA's are made up from scratch on official-looking paper by the same shady people selling the shady signatures.

And of course what good is a guarantee if the seller's method is to disappear or change identities after dumping a certain number of fake autos? Again, not saying AL Sales is like that, but that's how auto crooks operate.

bloodhound1

I checked switchboard.com and could not find a telephone number for them. I'll try the old 'snail-mail' routine and see what I uncover. Of course, if anyone out there is from Laguna Beach, perhaps you are aware or were aware of this company and if it is still in existence?

NickM

I should be heading to Laguna Hills for a work matter within the next week or so. I'll see what I can find.

Nick

bloodhound1

Thanks - you can PM me if you get lucky... I'll owe ya.

Stone193

<< <i>I purchased a Ted Williams autographed baseball >>


blood
If you get the time, could you scan the auto off the ball and post it? Would be interested to see what it looks like. There are some pretty good fakes out there. Furthermore, psa/dna can make mistakes - this is not an exact science or anything.
thanx
your friend
Mike

edit: spelling

bloodhound1

Here ya go.. I am not even close to being an expert on signatures much less determining which ones are authentic or not...

Stone193

blood
If you can, would you email me the letter from psa/dna - can't read it with you keeping this under 50k.
My email is below. Here is your scan:



and here is an authenticated Williams:



I know squat about autos but some of the stuff that they look at in rendering a decision are:
1. atypical letter slant, angle and/or pitch
2. drawn slowly
3. irregular letter shape and/or formation
4. irregular overlappying of strokes
5. irregualar spacing between letters
6. sizing of letters disproportionate/exaggerated/undersized
7. supportive writing abnormal (i.e. grammar, date, salutation)
8. and for old stuff: ink doesn't have characteritcs normally found with naturally aged ink
The thing that makes it hard for me is the fact that there are pre and post stroke autos out there - but I would imagine they know both well.

So lastly, here are the exemplars from the psa/dna club site:





Hope this helps? Let the opinions fly!
your friend
Mike

bloodhound1

Sent to you email address this morning....

Stone193

blood
Thanx for the email - very interesting read - I included the psa/dna letter as a link due to the size (if anyone is not familiar, place your arrow on the letter and the "expand button" will pop up).
The key point is the fact that the ball is dated from 1995-99 and in Feb 1994 Williams suffered a second stroke which they say would have made it almost impossible for him to sign a ball. If that is true, someone did not do their homework before forging the ball!
The "Columbo work" on this one was kind of easy for psa/dna.
Thanx for sharing
your friend
Mike

gregmadduxfan

Blood- I purchased several things from them around 4 years ago on ebay. I ended up doing a package deal with them and spent around 500.00 and got way too much merchandise for the price. At the time ebay wasn't as big and there werent as many fakes around so it wasn't as bad. I ended up selling all of their stuff for a nice profit but I would never buy from them again. I also remember them having a lot of negative feedback from people complaning about fakes so I just checked my ebay feedback from 2000 and it is crazy to see that around half of those sellers I bought from are NARUs now, I don't remember their ebay name and am too lazy to go back and looks through all my purchase orders. I don't know what you paid for the TW ball but remember, if it's too good to be true it probably is, best of luck.