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DanI've had this argument with my neighbor but like any profession, you take the time to learn the business and learn about handwriting. There are SO many factors in authenticating and while your signatures may vary slightly, basically it's the same (if you know what you are looking for) and a good authenticator or serious collector will keep 'exemplars' on file of the many variations of a particular celebrities' penmanship. But the most trusted factor on authenticating is the mind and the eye. I've seen literally ten's of thousand's of examples of some signatures that I can pin-point through a glance and base a decision. And there's always: 'a lifted pen', 'slowness in the signature', 'odd loops or turns', 'an unusual pen turn, 'even misspellings', and 'inks that don't fit the date' and where a celebrity has signed his signature hundreds of thousands of times, the forger only practices it a few dozen times before he goes to work on a photo or baseball. Like everything else, it's all about education (I'm for making authenticators go to college and get certified!) and while I don't know the signatures of everyone (I couldn't authenticate Marilyn Monroe or the rock band 'The Strokes'), nor could I pick out a true Gucci purse from a fake or pick out an authentic Modigliani painting or one done by master forger Elmyr de Hory, I feel confident in my autograph decisions. After all, my neighbor is a chiropractor. I know I can't go into his office and start working on shoulder blades, now can I?