by canadagraphs1 » Sat Jun 11, 2011 1:41 pm
If you collect sports autographs- then the other posters in this thread are right. Stick to the pack inserted autographs. Theres a low chance of them being fake...although I know from talking with at least 1 players bother in the past, even those arent 100% legit.
If cards arent your thing...be verrry careful on ebay. Even as someone who occasionally sells on there myself, I dont recommend it as a place to build a collection from. I would say probably 25-50% of the stuff on there is fake, and that rate goes even higher if you are only going for marquee people.
Forgers, more often than not make major mistakes that out them & should be notable warning signs to avoid them. Mostly, its their greed. I recall 1 guy that was doing a specific sport, had over 500 photos up, every week, but only of the top 30-40 names. Thats an average of 10+ of each guy, EVERY WEEK. As someone that was in 1 of the cities with some of the best access to the players of anywhere I have been, I can tell you, its impossible to have that type of continual inventory of only the elite names. So if the autograph you see is from a seller who has 15 autographs from someone you know is known as an incredibly hard autograph, be very wary, if he has several from TWO OR MORE incredibly hard signers week after week, well, I dont have to tell you what to do.
Dont ever put faith in a COA either. They are junk. Completely useless & not worth the paper they are printed on. The main reason for this is because the courts wont accept them as any type of authentication or proof of terms from the seller, because they have been often found switched up with fake items, and reproduced themselves. So dont ever put stock in a COA as "proof".
I suggest trying to stick to sellers who at least can verify some or all of their items by proof pics/pics with. At least if they show they are out there, getting the items done, and they have an extensive selection & they also dont have a store of ONLY elite top grade superstars by the fistfull, good chance they are probably real.
Again, however, all of these suggestions & tips are not 100% flawless & etched ins tone. There COULD be some magical autograph hound who has some magical system for getting mountains of items signed from hard signers over & over again. But its unlikely IMO. Same as there could be a seller who legitimately goes out there day in & day out, shows proof of his escapades, is selling a reasonable selection, but still forgers. But, its unlikely IMO.
This discussion might have also garnered more replies with suggestions if you told those here what it is you are looking to collect. Movies, TV, sports, music, other? That can make a difference on who replies & with whch sellers too.
If you collect sports autographs- then the other posters in this thread are right. Stick to the pack inserted autographs. Theres a low chance of them being fake...although I know from talking with at least 1 players bother in the past, even those arent 100% legit.
If cards arent your thing...be verrry careful on ebay. Even as someone who occasionally sells on there myself, I dont recommend it as a place to build a collection from. I would say probably 25-50% of the stuff on there is fake, and that rate goes even higher if you are only going for marquee people.
Forgers, more often than not make major mistakes that out them & should be notable warning signs to avoid them. Mostly, its their greed. I recall 1 guy that was doing a specific sport, had over 500 photos up, every week, but only of the top 30-40 names. Thats an average of 10+ of each guy, EVERY WEEK. As someone that was in 1 of the cities with some of the best access to the players of anywhere I have been, I can tell you, its impossible to have that type of continual inventory of only the elite names. So if the autograph you see is from a seller who has 15 autographs from someone you know is known as an incredibly hard autograph, be very wary, if he has several from TWO OR MORE incredibly hard signers week after week, well, I dont have to tell you what to do.
Dont ever put faith in a COA either. They are junk. Completely useless & not worth the paper they are printed on. The main reason for this is because the courts wont accept them as any type of authentication or proof of terms from the seller, because they have been often found switched up with fake items, and reproduced themselves. So dont ever put stock in a COA as "proof".
I suggest trying to stick to sellers who at least can verify some or all of their items by proof pics/pics with. At least if they show they are out there, getting the items done, and they have an extensive selection & they also dont have a store of ONLY elite top grade superstars by the fistfull, good chance they are probably real.
Again, however, all of these suggestions & tips are not 100% flawless & etched ins tone. There COULD be some magical autograph hound who has some magical system for getting mountains of items signed from hard signers over & over again. But its unlikely IMO. Same as there could be a seller who legitimately goes out there day in & day out, shows proof of his escapades, is selling a reasonable selection, but still forgers. But, its unlikely IMO.
This discussion might have also garnered more replies with suggestions if you told those here what it is you are looking to collect. Movies, TV, sports, music, other? That can make a difference on who replies & with whch sellers too.