A meeting of the
Isitreal expert team took place on 8 November, 2009 in Filderstadt near
Stuttgart. Markus Brandes and Rolf Ramseier from Switzerland took part along
with Florian Noller, Peter Müller, Ralf Hahn and Andreas Wiemer from Germany.
The most important topics of discussion at the meeting were the current and
future format of the web platform www.Isitreal.com, cooperation with
eBay, the civil lawsuit of the Schmolt auction firm against a well-known
collector and distributor, attacks against Isitreal, and the future composition
of the expert team.
Following the
cooperation in 2005 between eBay Germany and Isitreal on which eBay had
published the “eBay Autograph Guide” wrote by Isitreal, the relationship
between the counterfeit department at ebay.com in the USA and Isitreal became
deeper and more productive. Since 2007, eBay has implemented numerous projects
to prevent forgers from dealing in false autographs through eBay. According to
information available to us, several hundred sellers have since been barred
from dealing via eBay – primarily from the USA, but also on international eBay
sites. In addition, thousands of auctions were forcibly ended. The situation in
the intervening years has continued to improve. Now thanks to eBay's efforts,
several areas of autograph trade, including US sports and space flight, are now
nearly free of fraud. However, the percentage of falsified autographs in the
entertainment industry remains very high, and several very large dealers have been
barred from future trade. In addition, very active participation by serious
sellers has greatly improved the situation. Isitreal continues to put forth
effort to strengthen cooperation with eBay, and hopes for future participation
by eBay as well in using available means to prevent and inhibit autograph
forgery.
Regarding the lawsuit
against a German collector currently pending by Schmolt auction house (see
article: Vom
Paulus zum Saulus ?! - Strafverfahren gegen langjährigen Autogramminsider), the Isitreal team
wishes to clarify the following: it was very clear upon publication of the
catalogue, according to all members of the core team, that the autographs on
offer contained a surprisingly high percentage of obviously fraudulent
autographs. These concerns were shared with Axel Schmolt as well as the other
team members, such that Isitreal was quickly informed of the scale of possible
fraud, and was able to offer clarification on the issue for Schmolt Auction
House. At the time, not only did we not know, we didn't even suspect who might
turn up as the provider of the set of questionable autographs – ultimately
someone who consulted with us occasionally since 2005, and who at the time was
very active in our and other German forums in the fight against fraud. But even
if we had known the name, it would not have changed a thing: Isitreal would
have intervened in the Schmolt affair just as insistently.
The Isitreal team has
decided to only work in the future with the six experts who make up the core
team in Germany and Switzerland and to waive the cooperation with the auxiliary
experts who were previously involved in consultation with the team. We like to thank Stephan Daniel, Tom Kramer, Brandon Mysinger and Jim
Stinson for their support and educational work in the past. The collector biographies
of the six experts who will remain in the future will be updated and extended.
In additional, the Isitreal team will meet every 2 years henceforth.
Because the public
forum provided by Isitreal regularly led to often intense discussion and
accusations from both serious and non-serious collectors and traders, Isitreal
has decided to close the forum. In recent years, discussions in the forum
devolved into lawsuit threats from the USA, libel, threats of sanctions from
international collector clubs, and a massive hacker attack in 2007 on the
website www.Isitreal.com. In addition, Markus
Brandes' work at Isitreal seems to have provoked the hacker attack on the
international website of the German work group of autograph collector AdA1986
early in 2009 - a website he maintained. However, in order to give visitors and
readers of Isitreal the option of expressing themselves, all news articles will
now have a comment field (Write Comment) where it is possible to offer one's reactions
and discuss the content.
The Isitreal team is
agreed that the strategy followed to date – based on clarification and
information to fight fraud in the autograph trade – remains effective and
appropriate, and will continue on this path as consistently as possible in the
future.
