[drc]

In an interview for my wesbite a few years ago, I specifically asked James Spence about modern certified auto cards and authenticity. He said, other than a few issues, the autographs he'd seen looked good. So overall, he gave this area a thumbs up. This was back when he head authenticator at PSA/DNA.

Most of the big issues I've heard of are where the sig is a vintage cut from a check or whatever, not where the athlete was paid to sign. I have heard of one or two instances, where the athlete had his brother or whomever sign and I believe Jack Kemp used an autopen on one card-- but these aren't rare odd events and weren't even baseball.

In short I wouldn't be a blind, nothing-can-go-wrong buyer, but the area is one of the safest areas for authentic autographs, as the the signer is under contract to sign and often there was a card company witness to the signing. With the major card companies (Topps, Fleer, Donruss, Upper Deck, etc), you should be the safest. And, of course, it's always a good thing to ask questions like, "Does this look like Nolan Ryan's signature? Let me compare to some of the signatures."