Towards the end of summer last year, I'd made two attempts to contact Carlton Fisk to get a fantastic Mitchell & Ness 1975 retro jersey signed that I'd recently acquired, but unfortunately with zero success. Soon thereafter I became aware of a sports memorabilia business called "Sure Shot Promotions" out of Hanson, MA, and in the Fall they were to have a signing session with a slew of former athletes, which much to my delight included Mr. Fisk. Because I was working the day of the scheduled signing I decided to utilize their "Mail Order" service. I contacted them to make sure I got everything right since it was my very first time EVER using such a service and soon sent it in. Several weeks later, my jersey was returned and what a beauty it was. I was extremely content to say the least.
Now that I had tasted success with them and because I had another Fisk item I wanted signed, a c.1980's catcher's mitt, I decided to once again utilize their mail order service. The signing with Fisk was scheduled for Jan. 15th, 2020. Finally the day had come and I was quite chuffed about getting my glove back which I'd actually sent in with a Fred Lynn mitt I'd restored a year earlier. When the day came that both my mitts were returned to me, I first opened my Lynn package. OH JOY!! Beautiful autograph and the silver sharpie just popped off my restored and re-imagined work, absolutely loved it. At this point I'm like, "Oh yeah, this Fisk is going to be AWESOME!! Then I look at it. What the (insert expletive here) is this?!
I can't tell you how pissed I was. $70 bucks for THAT autograph I paid and that wasn't including the cost of my shipping to get it to them AND returned, nor does that include the cost of the mitt. Livid man, LIVID, but because we humans sometimes have a tendency to do or act in a brash manner while enveloped in such emotions. I drank a couple beers and simmered for 2-3 days. I then wrote two emails regarding the issue to the two email addresses found on their website, both a week apart at least. The second including a screen shot of a PSA quick opinion that returned "Likely not genuine", not that I needed it obviously. But with their delays I thought to myself, "They're a business, busy, you know?". Much to my chagrin, nothing, no calls, no return emails. Week three after the return of my items, I leave a voice mail and wait another week(I'm now in February), again, nothing. Ignoring me? No doubt about it. Why would they, the money's secured, who cares? Well,... I care, my fellow collectors care, the athletes who's names are being forged, they care. Again here's a comparison of the two Fisks I got.
So I go poking around the forgery problem that still plagues the memorabilia industry and read up on the FBI's "Operation Bullpen" that was executed in the 90's and come across this excerpt under the "Public Awareness" portion of the report:
An individual or company having a paid signing session with an athlete or celebrity is no guarantee of authenticity. Operation Bullpen has revealed that is a common practice for forged memorabilia traffickers to "mix-in" forged memorabilia with items signed during an autograph session. For example, a company may pay to have an athlete sign 500 items. After the signing, the company will "mix-in" forgeries with the authentic autographs. The company also may continue to sell forged items after the authentic items have been sold claiming that they were from the autograph session.
That solidified my belief that this is what happened to me and my initial assumption and PSA's "Quick Opinion" service had already proven that this second Fisk Auto was indeed a forge. I hope that all of you that read this today, be very careful of this company. If they have a signing session BE THERE and WATCH the athlete sign your item. Sure Shot's Mail Order Service is flawed and opens you up to the incident I have just experienced. I also hope that ANY representative from SURE SHOT PROMO that sees this thread, go right to your boss, and tell them what you just saw. The word is out, the proof has been laid out, and you got some "advertising" for $150 bucks. Grats!!
