HOW CAN YOU TELL THAT THE AUTOGRAPH DEALER ON EBAY IS SELLING YOU FORGERY?

by Danny Cariseo

The dealer above, the proud owner of the wonderful faux McGwire signature (do the comparison) was contacted by a AU101 reader with the rock solid information that what he was selling was indeed a forgery. A very poor forgery. Luckily enough, the dealer who had three McGwire items total removed them after hearing the news. How did this honest dealer come to own such a wonderful forgery? He bought them from a guy (for close to nothing) with the understanding that they were authentic. If only everyone acted like this dealer, fraud may be cut in half. The truth of the matter is, fraud exists on internet auction sites like eBay and Amazon where a person can have 200-300 McGwire autographs at one time and nothing will happen to him.

Dishonest dealers are growing. There are always these statistics. Statistics like 'for every crack dealer that gets arrested, four more go into the business'. That goes double for autograph dealers. The horror stories I could tell you would blow your mind. The unpoliced nature of these auction sites have destroyed this hobby. At one time, forgers used to be proud of their work. They used to be skillful people with pens as their weapons and if they fooled the biggest auction houses, they would feel a certain amount of satisfaction. Today they create by the truckloads the example which is to the left of the real one. Here is how you can tell that the dealer you're about to buy from sells forgeries.

1) TIGER WOODS, MARK MCGWIRE and MICHAEL JORDAN. The dealer who continues to offer these three figures sells forgeries. All three men are very very difficult signatures. Tiger Woods does not sign golf balls or flags with no other signatures on them. He likes to sign pieces of paper, hats and programs pretty much. He is a very kind signer, mostly looking out for children. McGwire is hounded wherever he goes and he knows the value of his signature and pretty much lives by the same rules as Tiger. Sign items that have little or no value. Jordan signs for Upper Deck. His signature is very very easy to forge. The fake dealer will always have a nice arsenal of these three autographs because, why bother with the lesser stars when you can guarantee and sell these big names. One guy on eBay had 300 signed Mark McGwire baseballs! 300 of them! He sold them through a dutch auction, sometimes 65 to a dutch auction and he showed a scan of a very nice looking ball (for $ 69), but when you took it out of the box, you got a ball that looked like a dog signed it.

2) THE LOW MINIMUM BID. Especially on the three guys above. I've seen Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan signed 8 by 10's for a low minimum of $ 50. Now something like that can easily fetch $ 500-600 in a legitimate auction atmosphere. Online auctions are legitimate though. Anyone with a piece of paper, picture or pen can prosper and make their riches. $ 10 minimum bid for a Jordan? I've never met Jordan, but I've been told to go to hell by the likes of Dale Ellis and Ron Harper. Basketball players are very unwilling to sign and from the stories I've heard about Jordan (he's tough and has the whole security thing going) why would you sell a Jordan signed 8 by 10 with a minimum bid of $ 10. $ 50 for a McGwire ball? Authentic McGwire balls have been selling for $ 600+ of late.

3) THE UNENDLESS INVENTORY. Look at their other auctions. Too good to be true? It probably is. Guys who sell forgeries don't necessarily utilize such outfits as "Upper Deck" or "Steiner", but will still guarantee their autographs 100%. They will have the best signatures in the business. They won't bother with Melvin Mora or Janet Leigh when they can whip out a Mike Piazza baseball or a Alfred Hitchcock picture.

4) HARRISON FORD, MEL GIBSON, LIAM NEESON, Rosie O' Donnell, Winona Ryder and more. A lot of the Hollywood elite are notoriously bad signers, but these dealers on eBay continue to bring forth piles and piles of signed 8 by 10's as if they had these celebrities kidnapped in their basement. I've heard horror stories about the names listed above. One guy waited seven days to get Mel Gibson on a shoot in Florida. Why didn't he just buy a signed 8 by 10 on eBay for $ 10? Celebrities should do something about this. It's gotten out of hand. Think about it. You are Julia Roberts. An outfit takes an 8 by 10 picture, blank, from say "Mystic Pizza" and signs your name to the stack and puts it on-line and gets whatever he can for it. Wouldn't you be bothered by this? Especially since 30-50 other people are doing it as well. I've met Paul Newman. When I asked Paul for his signature, he walked right by. he didn't sign one autograph. Why does one dealer on eBay have 8 signed 8 by 10's with a minimum bid of $ 14.95? A day after the Academy Awards, this dealer had 8 posters signed by the entire "American Beauty" cast. No scans, minimum bid $ 19. Each one sold for about $ 120-170. A week later, he had more, different movies, "Fight Club", "Mission Impossible", "Good Fellas". All you need is a $ 1 blue sharpie and $ 3 poster to make your fortune. Something has to be done about this.

5) TYPE IN THE NAMES I JUST LISTED and make a list of all the dealers that fit into the criteria of the "ENDLESS INVENTORY". Keep those dealers on file and when you want to make a purchase, look at the list. Especially when it comes to the $ 50 McGwire ball and the Tiger Woods balls.

6) REMEMBER, COA's MEAN NADA. Just because a Certificate Of Authenticity comes with an item, does not make it authentic. NOT ALL. Find a dealer that doesn't give one out. They all do and there's a reason why their the size of tiny squares of toilet paper.

7) AVOID FORENSICS. There is a reason why they are banned from eBay. Ebay is starting to realize that this is a growing problem. The first step was to eliminate the disease that has infested the hobby and that's cleaning up those who have no business being in the business to begin with. Those who tell people that an item is good or bad without an education in the autograph buying or selling business. They sit behind a desk and say "yup, that looks like my exemplar" and pass an item, even though the item that they authenticated was signed on an item that came out years after that person's death. It will just be a matter of time before you get to see them printed nicely in the FBI reports. Many authenticating companies have been shut down, while the long time experts who get criticized for never having taken a class in forensics live on with praise. They are also hired by major auction houses like Christies and Sothebys. Now why didn't they use forensics if they're so good?

8) HIGH FEEDBACKS mean nothing. I love those dealers who use the excuse that their honest because of the 2000 positive feedbacks. In most cases if they have a never ending inventory that the have been getting away with murder. Ebay Powersellers love telling the world that they belong to this elite class. Again, Stans was the most noted eBay dealer selling fraudulent autographs and he had 2000+ positive feedbacks. It's called 2000+ people who trusted him and thought because they got their autographs within the seven working day schedule of when they sent their check, that they are satisfied.

9) YOU NEED A BIRTHDAY PRESENT, you've been putting it off and the person has everything..How about this autographed baseball signed by the Donner party! After all, he likes baseball and he loves trying different foods and even once ate Monkey Brains while on vacation in Sudan!...avoid Online auction sites and go to Kaufman's and buy a tie. If you want to buy an autograph for him, get a piece of paper and sign it yourself. Without the proper education in this business, you are only wasting money. Think about it; with Mark McGwire, about 9.4 of every 10 are fake and the ones that are legit, are expensive and therefore you'll pass on it trusting the words of a "bridge salesman" who claims he got it himself even though there are three letters missing in the signature. That means for every 100 Mark McGwire autographs on eBay, only about 6 are real. Do you think you'll be able to pick out the correct 6?