Justin Chris Priddy – Vice President

A native of Orange County, California, Justin received his first autograph at a local card show from then LA Dodger hero Kirk Gibson in 1988 shortly after the World Series and has been hooked ever since. Frequenting Southern California card shows, collecting vintage and in-person autographs since 1988, he began to flock to Angel Stadium in 1993 to extend his in-person collection. He continued his chase for in-person signatures through the 1997 baseball season, when he geared toward less intensive collecting. Being exposed to a wide spectrum of both vintage and contemporary signatures early on began to cultivate his enduring study of autographs. While attending Cal State University Fullerton where he studied business management, Justin got his start as an autograph authenticator for a nationally recognized authentication company based in Southern California. Starting in October of 2003, he would soon become the company’s Senior Authenticator and later the Director of Authentication for their memorabilia division. Overseeing the certification of over 500,000 items submitted for third party verification and signed in the presence signatures during his tenure, Justin gained valuable insight working with the industry’s top experts, dealers, and collectors.

In 2006 when HBO Real Sports conducted an investigative report on autograph authentication companies, Justin was one of only two national authenticators that correctly identified the fraudulent signatures when they were submitted for review. As a featured columnist in the hobby’s oldest publication, the Sports Collectors Digest, Justin has authored several signature studies, including: Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Cal Ripken Jr., Mark McGwire, Joe Jackson, and Grover Alexander. After leaving his position of Senior Authenticator, shortly after Independence Day in 2007, he briefly continued as a consultant through the start of September attending the last four trade shows the company would attend in the calendar year. He currently serves as the moderator for the GameUsedUniverse.com Autograph Forum, one of the industry’s principle message boards designed toward memorabilia. With the formation of Autograph Certification Experts, LLC (ACE), Justin brings an ecumenical acceptance as one of the industry’s top experts in autographs and is well established as one of the most consistent and accurate authenticators in the autograph industry. Along with his wealth of knowledge Justin also brings one of the largest autograph exemplar libraries to the ACE brand.