“Autographed items with COAs and LOAs, or references to COAs and LOAs from the following people or organizations:ĬOAs and LOAs from anyone listed on the FBI's Operation Bullpen website”Īnd here is everyone listed on the FBI's Operation Bullpen website: Now that we are talking about credible lists, this is a good time to take a look at eBay’s “not allowed” page for autographs: Whatever’s word is as good a source as any. There doesn’t appear to be a credible list anywhere online of what items were faked and what weren’t apart from suspicion and innuendo in Internet forums posted 15 years or more after all this went down. I’d like to mention here that I realize the folly of quoting Internet forum hearsay in what I want to be a fact-based blog post, but nearly everything I’ve been able to find about The Score Board is unsubstantiated rumor. (…) Some middle management and upper management were morally inept and made some shady deals, but that had nothing to do with inventory of autographed items.” whatever, blowoutforums Inventory was strictly controlled, you just didn't take something from inventory, and you sure as hell didn't return anything directly to inventory, EVER. “As for the autographs, I knew everyone involved, from raw materials to finished product, from the front door to the back door. On top of all of this a lot of independent dealers and the guys running tables at shows simply had no love for the company which also happened to be one of their major competitors. There were more rumors of employees stealing large quantities of blank COA’s which they later used to sell forgeries. On top of that scandal - which actually happened - were unsubstantiated rumors of employees taking boxes of authentic items, forging a bunch of fakes, replacing the originals, and returning them to stock for shipment. If you see a Score Board COA with either of these, keep on walking.” While it’s not Griffey-related, here’s a quick word of advice from an autograph enthusiast I ran into online: “Mickey Mantle never signed any bats or jerseys for Score Board, only flats and balls. Griffey autographs were not mentioned in this case. A dealer in Las Vegas called Smokey’s was found by the FBI during “Operation Bullpen” (come on, that’s a cool name) to have the template and a stamp for creating TSB COA’s, and they were allegedly using them to fill orders for Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle autographs. When this happened and there were still orders left to fill, at least one card shop took matters into their own hands. In 1998 TSB declared chapter 11 bankruptcy. The big problem was their terrible, easy to duplicate COA's.” – Funding Universe “In their prime, Scoreboard was an excellent source of authentic sports autographs and one of the trusted names in the hobby.