Does anybody doubt the authenticity of certain certified autos?

I've crafted my collection of autographs around Topps cards. I feel like they are a stand-up organization that has always had a good reputation in the industry. The small writing on the back of their autographed cards (since apx 2001) states "The signing off all Topps cards are witnessed by a Topps representative to guarantee authenticity"

To me that seems like a company backing it's product with a strong guarantee. On the autographed cards that I've had from Upper Deck the small writing on the back says "This autographed trading card was sent to us directly from (player)."

That's always irked me. I feel like they're not really guaranteeing anything. Sometimes the amount of cards players sign are a lot (500, 1000, 5000 etc...) and it wouldn't surprise me if somebody else were responsible for signing and sending those cards directly to Upper Deck.

The autographed cards I've had from UD looked legit (Griffey Jr, Hanley Ramirez, etc...), but I'm still suspicious. If any of you have read the book on Upper Deck you'll be surprised much like I was that their history hasn't always been squeaky clean. Their CEO Richard McWilliam had a philosophy that if buyers of UD cards were making money off of the cards they bought, those were profits he was missing out on. They were knee deep in a rare hockey set fiasco which included re-printing cards as originals and were known to print excess cards and use them like currency during the peak of the card buying bubble.

Maybe I'm over thinking this, but this little difference in literature has caused me to center my autographed baseball card collection solely around Topps releases.

I'd love to know if any of you collect with this in mind too.

I think the most famous example is Don Zimmer, whose wife signed most if not all of his TTM autographs over the years. I remember something a few years back where she signed some stuff that was supposed to be certified (not sure what company, or even if this was a true story) but I wonder if things like this are why Topps has a representative there!

I dont at all disagree that UD doesnt have as good of a reputation as Topps for certifieds, as it relates specifically to the authenticity guarantee. I mean, unless you obtain a signature IP, you never can be absolutely sure about authenticity, though I have always compared scans of trades or TTMs to IP examples, and the same should hold true for certifieds. If it looks real, chances are it is!

My 2 cents (probably not even worth that!!)

God Bless,

Kevin Mc