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let me preface by saying that i mean no disrespect and am only asking out of sheer curiosity.

what are the qualifications used for deeming someone here an autograph expert? is it years of experience? proven track record? other?

i'm impressed by (and envious of) those who have the ability to spot fakes. thank you for your opinions and information...

Good question ! I waana know the answer to that too

Hi Nathan and Carol!

Thanks for asking!

There's no specific criteria to which we pick Autograph Experts, such as "you must have collected autographs for 10 years" or "you must collect in person", etc. No, no! Every now and then, if I see a potentially good AE, I would browse through all of their posts and judge how often they compare autographs, how often they visit this site, how accurate their comparisons are (do they just say "it's authentic" or do they post in person examples or any other accurate things like that), etc. {thumb2} So, you could have collected for 3 months and could still end up as an AE (ok, 3 months is a bit short so you would've done a lot of research!). Also, if you post your comparisons, you should always post where you got your pics from (website address/link) - even the date of photos taken of a celeb signing the photo! So if you think you know what you're doing, pm me, jasonw or guilder1st - we're always looking for new AE's, but not anyone! {thumb2}

Thanks!
zanne

There is no criteria whatsoever.

You just PM admin or a GM and ask to become one, and then a poll is set up and the Moderators vote yes/no.

Or sometimes you can just PM admin and he'll promote a member directly to "Autograph Expert" without a poll.

So basically being an autograph expert is no different from being a Moderator, just your username is red instead of orange.

Of course, there are some Autograph Experts who do know a lot about the subject, however probably the 2 most knowledgeable ones got banned (although yes, one was understandable)

And as proof to back my point up, there was an AE who couldnt ID autopens, and stated things were secretarials and his examples were nothing alike.

So yeah, in short, being an AE means nothing anymore, and when people make threads saying "I want to hear from an autograph expert only", it makes me laugh.

No disrespect intended, but thats how I see it.

Regards

MrKennedy AKA Andy316 ex-Autograph Expert

P.S -

Like stated, I was an AE for a year, in recent months being active on this forum for over 50 hours a week, but was banned when I asked admin to stop promoting unsuitable members. Go figure.

And while they wont admit it on the forum (as they'd probably be banned/demoted), I know of at least SIX Mods who agree with every word I've just said.

interesting...thanks for the info