Just because a company has gone out of business doesn’t mean their garbage can’t continue to pollute the hobby. This is the perfect way to describe NSA (National Sportscard Authenticators).
From baseball to Bruce Lee NSA made “relic” cards for anyone. None of the material found in these frankencards were ever in the presence of the person or people featured on the cards. At best the material came from items purchased at the local Walmart and/or sporting goods store.
Their generic COA on the back doesn’t offer much confidence either. Especially the part that reads “NSA Grading excepts no responsibility and expressly disclaims all liabilities which may arise from the use or resale of these pieces.” They’re basically saying its not our fault if you go to resell this card and the material is found out to be fraudulent.
Between 2008 and 2010 I jumped on NSA’s case many times before they finally closed up. When NSA was alive and kicking they would actually post positive comments about their products here on Sports Card Info. They would then take those self-made comments and post them on their website as fake testimonials.
I continue to see people get fooled by these things. On a regular basis I receive e-mails from people telling me they have this “rare NSA card”, and want to know what the value is. The answer will always be zero.
It doesn’t seem to matter how many times I talk about NSA cards, people still send me messages asking if this stuff is real. Once again I will say NO! I was recently directed towards this card by one of my readers.
Do you notice anything funny about this “authentic” Kirby Puckett relic? Take a good look at the patch. Those patches were worn in 2009 to commemorate the closing of the Metrodome. Puckett played his last game in 1995 and passed away in 2006. I highly doubt its possible that he wore a patch from 2009.
This is the final blow to those people that think NSA cards are legit. All of the posts I’ve written about NSA have become quite popular, but this is the last time I will mention their name……. I think. There isn’t much more to say after this.
Little is known about Cut Signature Inc, but I would classify their cards to be in the same category as those NSA pieces of garbage. For those people that think they’re getting an authentic Cy Young cut signature for $25.00, I’m sorry to say its not real. The problem I have is that nowhere on the card does it state the signature is a reprint. They make it sound like its a real autograph, but its not. Luckily most of the sellers I’ve found trying to move these things state in the description its a reprint, but you can see how easily someone could try and pass it off as the real deal.
These things are bad reprints too. Take a look at Young’s birthday and debut date. The having him debuting 7 years before he was born. It wouldn’t surprise me if these cards were made by NSA too.
Its 2:00 in the morning. You just got home from a long night of bad decision making. Whats the next thing you should do? Thats right, turn on Shop at Home and see what crap the people at The Score Board, Inc are selling.
Take a look at this piece of junk made by The Score Board, Inc back in the 90’s. This Mark McGwire Diamond Kings “autograph” is numbered one-of-one and the seller is looking to get around $100.00 for it. Too bad this thing is fake. It would make one heck of an authentic card. McGwire’s rookie may have gone down to nothing, but his relics and autographs are very collectible. I wouldn’t trust Score Board’s COAs anymore than NSA’s. Reading the COA they plastered on the back doesn’t state McGwire’s name anywhere. Yeah, its certified alright. Its a certified autograph of who is the real question. Stay far away from Score Board’s stuff!!! Its a good thing this company went out of business.
The other day I was told by one of my readers to check out NSA’s (National Sportscard Authenticator) new website. Their old one had been under construction for a very long time. After checking out their Testimonials page I noticed something that seemed very familiar. Almost like I’ve seen these sentences before. Wait a minute! I think I have. NSA copied & pasted comments made on my initial post I wrote about them. It wouldn’t surprise me if they wrote those comments and then put them on their site. I also like how on their Product page they state “NSA has nothing to hide.” I’m betting when a company says they have nothing to hide, 95% of the time they probably do.
NSA asks people to contact them if they have a piece of “game-used” memorabilia they would like to sell. Just for the fun of it, I made up a story to see what they would say and I received the following response:
Thank you for your inquiry. Yes! We are very interested in purchasing your jersey. There are a few strict qualifications that your piece must meet. First and foremost, do you have any COA? Second, do you have a photo of your meeting and Jeter handing you this jersey? If so, we may accept your piece and at that point what we normally do is visit your local area courthouse with you, all expenses on us, and obtain a sworn affidavit verifying the authenticity of the piece.
We also send it off to a qualified authentication company. To clarify, we do not offer in house authentication, and we only accept pieces after they have been authenticated by a qualified company. Therefore once the piece is ready to be made our company can certify each piece since NSA is a relatively new company. This insures our integrity and a quality product for our customers.
We look forward to your response,
NSA Grading Merchandising Team
Even though it sounds like they want to try and make sure the relics are real, there is just something about them I don’t like. I would really like to know who their “authenticator” is since they say they don’t do it in house. I e-mailed NSA back asking who they use, but I haven’t received a response back yet. I asked them this a long time ago too and never received a response. If I do get one, I’ll be sure to let you know. None of the COA’s on their cards state who the authenticator is. Not even their newer cards. As I have stated in numerous other posts, I still don’t trust this company. Its not possible to pickup an authentic NBA logo patch card of Michael Jordan for $20.00. Manufactured patch cards in some cases sell for much more than that. Remember people, if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.
UPDATE:
I did get a response from NSA and they wouldn’t give me the names of their (3) authenticators they use. Probably because they don’t use any!! Be sure to check out this post over on SCU about this fake crap.
Last night I received a question about these so called “Chrome Proofs” you see up for sale. They wanted to know if these are authentic 1/1 proofs from the manufacturer. The answer to that question in no. These were once base cards from a Bowman Chrome set, and then someone dissolved away the cardboard and what was left is the chrome front. When cleaned up it looks like a proof that came from a manufacturer, but in reality its nothing more than an altered base card made to fool collectors.
These cards fit nicely into the same category as those 1/1 proofs containing the multi-colored bars. Those cards come from an uncut sheet that should have been discarded by the manufacturer but somehow found their way into the hands of a scammer who thought it would be a good idea to cut them up and try to pass them off as proofs. Manufacturers really need to find a better way of discarding the leftovers of past products so they stay out of the hands of scammers.
While doing a little research for this post, one of the biggest sellers of these counterfeit proofs is none other than ljbiggestfan2, who also is a huge seller of NSA “game-used” cards. For those people who defend NSA because you can’t admit you got scammed, just look at what else this person is selling. It sure doesn’t add to the credibility of NSA. Be sure to check out my other posts about NSA which have attracted a lot of attention from the collecting community.
I’ve talked about NSA “relic” cards on hear before, and the topic has been one of the most clicked on posts I have ever written over the two year period this blog has been around. Last night I received another comment on my original post from a collector actually defending NSA. Most collectors agree with me that these cards DO NOT contain actual relics worn by the athlete pictured on the front of each card. But there are some people that think these cards are great investments and are waiting for them to go up in price. I don’t know how many times I have to tell people, but the COA on the reverse side of each card doesn’t state the piece of memorabilia was actually used by the athlete. Comparing an NSA COA to a COA from Upper Deck, Topps, or Panini you can clearly see the difference.
I have to laugh at the people defending this company. Take a look at some of their comments I’ve received:
Why would this company risk going to jail over a few dollars? You can buy a Brett Favre Game Used jersey for $500 cut it up into 1000’s of pieces where each piece would be about 50 cents or so. You can sell the cards for $25 -$30. You can easily make $25,000 from one jersey. What do you think Upper Deck does? It does not have to be fake! Get the point!
Say what you want. I would think if these jersey cards where not the real thing these stars would have sued NSA for false advertising by now. I know I would have wouldn’t you? So I’m buying them up as fast as I can before they catch on and the prices skyrocket.
I bought a two LeBron James jersey cards. I think NSA is actually a good company, since it is often hard to get a piece of that size of swatch from an NBA jersey. I was lucky and got half of an NBA logos from LeBron’s jersey. I also got a high school jersey. They are great prices going by the fact that most LeBron James High School jersey pieces are a load more. Its a rare find because they don’t play near the amount of high school games that they do in the NBA. I just think NSA is a good company.
I’ve talked about NSA on here a bunch, but I wonder whats really inside pieces like this? At least they say these are replicas. I’m about 99.99% sure that none of their relic cards are real, even the ones that don’t say replica on them. NSA is very good on how they word their COAs.
I’m glad these cards don’t sell very well. Maybe people are getting the hint.
The other day I received an e-mail from a reader telling me they purchased a Tom Brady Authentic 1 of 1 NSA #453358 jersey card on eBay and wanted to know if I could tell him what it might be worth. I have never been a fan of NSA (National Sportscard Authenticator) because there cards just don’t seem legit. To start off, he said that his card was numbered 1 of 1 but somehow on eBay there is another card just like it with a different serial number on the case. Thats the first red flag. The COA on the back shows me another red flag. The COA states:
This item has been certified by an NSA representitive. Each NSA Sports Product will contain a unique serial number and a certificate of authenticity containing the matching certification number. Any tampering will invalidate the guarantee of authenticity.
When I read a COA, I like to see what it says and then I look to see what it doesn’t say. Nowhere within the COA does it state that the piece of memorabilia was used by the athlete. This is why I stay far away from cards like this. Their COA’s leave a lot of holes within the statements. NSA cards barely sell and when they do its not for much. I’m starting to see these more and more. Usually I would find them online, but at the last few shows I have attended I’ve seen more. About 7 months ago I wrote a post stating how NSA would give $1,500.00 to someone if they sent in a card that was determined to be counterfeit. In my opinion, NSA is right up there with GEM GRADING, PRO Grading and WCG. I plan on sending an e-mail to the company to see what they have to say about their COA’s.
National Sportscard Authenticators (NSA) is a card manufacturer and grading company. They sell game used cards slabbed in their protective holders of players from all different sports. On their website they claim that if they grade a card that has been trimmed or is counterfeit they will pay the cardholder $1,500.00. I wonder how that really works? If someone sends in a card for grading that they know it is counterfeit or trimmed and it comes back graded what is the person going to do? Are they going to admit the card was doctored? Probably not. Even if you sent the card in and didn’t know it was doctored and it comes back graded, how does that help? If you sent in a card in which NSA graded it you would have to remove it from the holder and submit it to another grading company like PSA or BGS just to get a second opinion. The whole thing seems a bit confusing to me. The serial numbering on the cards for example says “1 of 25”. Why couldn’t they just stick with “1/25” for a serial number? The way they have the cards numbered makes you think they are part of a set and not serial numbered. Browsing eBay you can see that NSA cards don’t really sell that well. Most of them don’t even sell at all. Personally, I wouldn’t buy them, but thats just me. Has anyone else had any experience with them?
Sports Card Info 