Are Steiner holograms compromised?

On July 21 of last year I wrote about a suspect Derek Jeter autographed hat with a Steiner hologram. In the interim, there have been more scattered reports of suspect items bearing Steiner holograms.

This item is currently on eBay with a highly suspect Mariano Rivera autograph and bearing a Steiner hologram.

 

I'm not implying any wrongdoing on the part of Steiner because it is clear they are a reputable company who sells authentic material. But have their holograms been compromised? Is someone counterfeiting them or have dishonest people devised a way to remove them from authentic items without damage and place them on bad items? 

Steiner has a very valuable reputation to protect and they need to get to the bottom of this. As I wrote in my previous post, if collectors begin to lose confidence in first party autograph distributors like  Steiner, it would be a significant blow to the entire market.

Are authenticity holograms secure enough?

Here is a "Derek Jeter" signed hat on eBay with a Steiner hologram and generic Steiner card, which states "Derek Jeter Autograph."

At best, this signature is highly suspect. Additionally, it appears to be a cheap knock off hat -- note the oversized NY logo and it is probably an adjustable cap as well. Is it likely that Steiner is selling Derek Jeter signed items on unofficial merchandise?

So, this leads me to believe it is either a real Steiner hologram removed from another item or a counterfeit Steiner hologram. Either way, it does not bode well. As reported on Net54, it seems that bad items are appearing with otherwise credible holograms with more and more frequency.

If they are counterfeits, Steiner, MLB and the third party authenticators need to go after the sellers and find out where they are coming from.

If they are legit holograms removed from other items, these holograms are not secure enough and need to be redesigned so they tear apart if removed. I know from personal experience I had a Steiner hologram fall off of a game used ball with only a tiny fleck of the backing being damaged.

A lot of collectors only trust items from supervised signing such as Steiner, MLB, TriStar, etc. If the credibility of these holograms comes into question, these collectors will leave the hobby and that is bad for all of us.

Steiner COA with half fake Rivera

Authentic Steiner Rivera signature with suspect inscription.

I recently saw this Mariano Rivera signed ball on eBay with a Steiner hologram and COA card.

In my opinion, the signature is 100% legit as one would expect from Steiner. However, something wasn't quite right about it. I think the "Enter Sandman" inscription has been forged.

The inscription appears tentative and does not match well with authentic exemplars. Further, the postioning of "Mariano Rivera" could indicate that it was signed with no intent to add an inscription below the name. Often, Rivera will sign higher on the ball when he plans to add an inscription below.

Authentic Steiner Rivera with authentic inscription

For your comparison, I have included a Steiner certified ball with an authentic "Enter Sandman" inscription.

Sadly, the lesson is that we must closely examine everything. Crooks are out to make money every way they can... including adding fake inscriptions to authentically signed items.