Troy Aikman

[chriscollector]

Is it authentic? I got a success from him yesterday. I got a sticker, small felt pennant, 200 team photo, new schedule, and a 8x10 b&w signed in black. In all my years i have never had a problem in determining if it is authentic, AP, PP, or sec but this one has me stumped. The autograph looks slighhly different than the photo finish, and a spot is lighter than the entire signature but it still has me stumped. Even if I upload the photo it will not help with opinions because I uploaded into my system and it make it even harder to tell?
What's your opinion?

[whosurdaddy]

Is it authentic? I got a success from him yesterday. I got a sticker, small felt pennant, 200 team photo, new schedule, and a 8x10 b&w signed in black. In all my years i have never had a problem in determining if it is authentic, AP, PP, or sec but this one has me stumped. The autograph looks slighhly different than the photo finish, and a spot is lighter than the entire signature but it still has me stumped. Even if I upload the photo it will not help with opinions because I uploaded into my system and it make it even harder to tell?
What's your opinion?

Aikman has been sending out Autopens.

[chriscollector]

The thing is with an AP, you always have the small mark at the end, from the machine when it lifts. Every Ap has one. Also you can see from the preasure of the machine, on the back of the picture an outline of the signature. This has neither, and the final reason i am against the Ap on mine, the ink flow isn't the same throughout. It's not from the marker running out, or an imperfection from the machines speed. Where the K meets the M in Aikman it is seperated. You can see the pen was liften from the paper then placed down again to finish the signature. I've have never ever seen an autopen that stops in the middle of a name and starts again. An AP machine has a metal plate of the persons signature. It works as a frame/plate or whatever you may describe it as, of the signature. The machine follows the cut in the metal plate with the arm that holds the pen, so it's all one continuous movement. The when it's done it moves to the lower right and lifts off leaving the stray mark you always see. So it's impossible to have a miss in the middle of his name.
I did hours of research yesterday when I got it comparing all kinds of his autograph and it really seems authentic. I know about him using AP recently which is why I started my research. I got about 7 examples (various photos, and times they were released) of his autopen and it's different in many ways, most of the AP examples i found were in the same position on the photo's. I compared to his in person and it's almost exact however there are differences (no autograph is exactly the same every time), and I even found old team photos the pre-prints from the old style team pics where everyones signature is on it. I'm really confused. The only thing I can say is I am almost 85% sure it's not AP, and 95% it's not PP.
I'm open to all opinions, I never really have questions about my successes, but this one is cerainly a tough call. What really makes me question it is the letter I wrote. It was very personal, and I had spoken with him through email months back so I wrote him to let him know I was sending him a package. About 2 weeks after I shipped it I got an email back , it only read. " I got your package. Thanks. I'll be in touch shortly." So I'm not sure what to think. Also I got alot of extras in the envelope, a pennant, 2000 team pic, sticker, schedule, media/bradcaster schedule, dallas cowboys star car window decal,and the 8x10 B&W. Most recent successes were 5x7. And I havn't seen anyone else recieved the photo i got, it's from the 98 season.

[whosurdaddy]

Not all Autopens leave a small mark at the end. Especially the newer versions and they don't always leave a signature outline on the back of the photos. Just because it's an autopen doesn't mean the signature has to have the same ink flow. That depends on the writing instrument in the machine. As far as breaks in a signature, an autopen follows a matrix if the signature of the person has 4 breaks in their signature then indeed the autopen will lift each time. So if Aikman has now decided to send out a different autopen version and this time he has signed his name with a break between the K and M the autopen will do this as well. What you have could be authentic or a different autopen version. Can you post a pic. of yours on here? Definately would like to see it.