I thought I had a tremendous find!
 

But it turns out, nope. :(
I stopped by an antique place today that I've been meaning to get to. Asked if they had any sports items or images. The guy says he's not sure. After browsing through several rooms, I came across a Mays poster (I'll post a new thread about that), and a CSC Dan Marino plaque. I told him about the forgery and we talked awhile. Then he remembers a box of auto'd cards he picked up a few years ago and brings then out. Over 100 and he had another box or two! I leafed through and found some certified issues and mostly 80's cards. He let me take home these to research. I'm not sure of about 4, (not shown) but....

It appears our FL gang has taken to using older cards to do give credence to their dirty work.

The operative word was thought.
:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

If it is a forgery, their Reggie Jackson is really good.

I was thinking the same thing

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Stop, if there is real one I will pay double. OMG all the the same person. So Reggie must had fun forging everyone else.:eek:

The shapes of the Reggie is OK but it is sooo forced. Some of the others are laughable. Yuk!

That Ryan is laughable.....though I think I'd be fooled by the Killebrew

You're right, but most don't even get Reggie's shape even close, especially the R, so I'm fairly impressed. The others in the picture just plain suck.

I was struck with a feeling of deja vu. A number of these autos remind me of ones that came out of Ohio in the 1980s, done by a former batboy.

Here are the three of the four I couldn't outright reject. Brock is bad, Killer I literally cannot see.
Some possible problems that bother me a little:

1. Stan: The 'M' connects to the 'u'. the 'n' has a double hump.
2. Cal: The 'al' starts too high on the 'c'
3. Yogi: The start of the 'B' is a little low for normal
4. Reggie: almost too smooth?

Jim, I agree about the Berra and will add that of the 14 or so Berra autographs I have (mostly all in person and some from his website) over the course of 25 years, non of them have that rounded an E or come across the B on the bottom quite so much or with such a gap between the bottom and the top of that cross over towards the E. I even have one that he signed a bit larger on a magazine to match the size of the Mantle that was already there and he didn't do either of those things. Heck, I got some from him just a couple of months after he had his major fall, and non of those were like that either.

Yogi always has a small, frugal autograph. I've never seen him sign that large on a card. In addition to the letter formation problems you mentioned, that caught my eye instantly.

The Brock actually looks good, and the Cal looks like a legit late 80's version. However, with as many awful forgeries that you've shown, I wouldn't touch a single thing out of this collection.

My problem with the Brock: Most of his 'B' s start with a downstroke and the 'r' has an extraneous loop.

As I said before. the Cal is a really tough call for me, only because I have never seen him start the 'a' that high. It is actually touching the 'C'. If someone has an example, it might be the tipping point.

Looks like the forgers have gotten worse. The Pujols and Snider are laughable

I dont think these where from a modern day forger. This could have been done by five year old trying to learn to write. Meaning sloppy and just plain bad.

Here are 3 I think are good
 

Two I'm pretty confident, one a little iffy, one bad. I'll let you guess which 3 :)

What about their use of "high end" cards. This isn't something I see a lot of. Some are chase cards that would sell for $20+ if they weren't defaced. :confused:

Also some of the older cards were in NRMT-MT condition, not the type you'd typically see TTM.

The only one I thought had a chance was the Glavin. I dont know these guys but was just comparing there autographs that where certed to those above.

Absolutely not a late 80's version. His autograph was no where near this abbreviated in the late 80's. More like the style of a late 90's to current version.

Ripken is by far the largest part of my collection. I agree with you in that I have never seen the "a" touching the "C". Also of significance is the curve of the lower part of the C. This is inconsistent with his "C" that typically tapers out at the bottom becoming more linear or flat, and I believe that it has always been that way.

Totaly agree. Why would you go near that garbage. Every signiture is qustionable. :confused:

None of those are $20+ cards or high end cards.

The guy who has been penning these got kicked off ebay a few years ago and then moved over to Overstock auctions. I'm sure Chris has documentation about the original seller. His items are found on ebay from time to time from people who thought they got a good deal and are looking to flip.

Yeah, these weren't, but there were some 1/5, 1/10, etc in the box. You know the "Platinum super double dog dare non-refracting refractors". And there were a number of company issued autos that had low pops. I recall McCovey, Ortiz, Hamilton and some basketball hockey and football players that I wouldn't know if they introduced themselves.

These are 5-10 cent commons at best

Brent, I am aware of that (although .50 to $5 would be more accurate :) ). I was speaking about some of the hundreds of others that were in the boxes. I only pulled a few examples of ones I knew were bad and some I wasn't sure of, based on the clarity of the autograph.

When I brought them back I told him that based on the ones I looked at (and the opinions of those on here):
Some were definitely authentic (5-10%) The bulk of which were company issues.
Some were likely authentic (5%) No big value to any of them
The bulk were fake (85-90%)

The rest (other sports) most likely fell into the 95/5 bad/good ratio and weren't worth looking at due to the Stinson Rule.

I have over 40 in-person Cal's ranging from 1987-present, so I may have mny time frames wrong. Definitely older than his current version, these days he has far fewer letters and a bigger J.

FWIW I have several in-person Lasordas that look like the one posted as well.

Yup, pretty confident on the Lasorda and Glavine. I have found a few examples that match the Yount, but it is atypical. Francona is a dud.

The Yount has all the characteristics of his graph. He's one of those guys that signed a bunch as a player, and under so many varying circumstances, so it'd be hard to be swayed one way or the other by subtle variances. Was he sitting down, standing up, walking, in a crowd? Hard to say without knowing the circumstances around when it was signed and under what conditions. That said, I don't hate it, but I'd probably wait for a different one.