Autographs, the Internet, and the advent of Kitchen Table forgers
As someone who has been dealing in autographs since the mid 1980’s. It has been fun to the explosion of the hobby and business of collecting. While demand and interest in signed celebrity items has sky rocked over the years. It has also created a dark side with unscrupulous actors taking advantage of this demand and creating a dark underbelly to the industry and has breed a legion of “Kitchen Table Forgers”.
The internet created a great environment for legitimate commerce but at the same time has enabled these thieves to take advantage of unknowing fans. Selling non authentic memorabilia by the thousands across all online venues. This is not to say that the internet is the sole marketplace for these items but the anonymity inherent in online commerce and the non-face to face nature has allowed the proliferation of this behavior. The tools that many marketplaces reply on such as feedback ratings are sadly not a valuable tool in weeding out bad actors. If a consumer is getting a great deal on what they believe to be authentic autographs why would they leave anything but positive comments. And this gives a veneer of legitimacy to these bad actors.
The question of how to defend against this is a very difficult and complex with no one answer. I have one particular forger in mind as I give my first piece of advice. If someone is selling highly desirable autographs that normally sell for $200-$500 and are willing to take $20 you need to stop and ask yourself why? Perhaps its someone who is selling at distressed prices for personal reasons or does not know the true market value. In this case you would be getting a great deal and thus is the allure of buying the item. Take a look at the items that the seller is offering and if you see that week after week, they are able to offer the same items at bargain basement prices ask yourself how did they obtain these and ask questions. Most disreputable dealers will have ready made answers for the incredible windfall of items they are offering and an accompanying story often involving inheriting the items from a deceased relative. Many people do acquire items through these means so it can be difficult to peer through the lies of these accomplished scammers.
Not offering a Certificate of Authenticity of any type should be a red flag although these are only pieces of paper at least it is a start many disreputable dealers offer none. Ideally a COA should have a Name and contact information for the entity backing the item. Looking at past transactions and seeing a pattern of sales or celebrities and prices that don’t make any sense takes a little bit of digging but is a valuable first step in weeding out these sellers. Also contacting them before the purchase and asking if they guarantee the item being purchased will pass third party authentication and how they answer the question will also give you some idea of the legitimacy of the seller. Often these bad actors will bad mouth the outside authenticators and in some cases correctly so. But it is at least one tool available to the consumer.
Looking at available examples of signatures on the market thought to be legitimate is another tool although a more difficult one to utilize since few of us qualify as handwriting experts but some basic research can help us determine if the signatures look close to other known examples or are way off. Not looking exactly the same does not necessarily mean they are not authentic, but it is a starting point to ask more questions from. A seller being able to show that they have in fact at some point interacted with the celebrity in question is another indicator that you may be dealing with someone who has in person autograph experience. Again, this is not guarantee of authenticity but helps along with these other tips to create some guideposts to use in our purchasing decisions.