[Lordstan]

Guys, Guys, Guys, Calm down.

Look, NO ONE is saying that a proxy signature is authentic. What is being said is this..
There are 2 different categories of unathentic autographs
1) Name signed by a person unknown or unathorized by the person whose name is being signed is a forgery. This auto is not authentic and illegal as the intent of signing the item is to defraud a purchaser out of money.

2) Name signed by a person who is authorized by the person whose name is being signed is a proxy. This auto is not authentic and not illegal with one exception, that I can think of. The reason it isn't illegal most times is that there is no purchase or money exchanged. A ball boy who signed a team ball for Ruth didn't do it so the kid getting the ball would pay more for it, but, more likely, to save the Babe some time or if the Babe had already let the clubhouse or if the Babe was "indisposed".
2a) The one exception is the one that has been described by others already. If the named person(player/celebrity) is being paid, by anyone, to sign items and tells, or pays, someone else to sign the items being paid for, and then represents to the party who is paying for them that he signed them all, then the named person is the one who committed fraud. I guess the person who signed the items could be held as an accessory to the fraud if they knew, but I'm not a lawyer, so I can't say for sure.

All the scenarios above result in autographs that are not authentic.
All the scenarios above result in autographs that may not be considered collectible by the autograph community.

The point being made by David, Steve, and Scott is that proxy sigs and forged sigs are different, even though both are not real.

Carmelo,
The reason you've received hostility is because you are kind of making up rules. What you are saying is like walking up to an animal expert and taking, and then refusing to budge, the position that Polar, Brown, Black, and Pandas are all the same, to you, because they are all bears. While it is true that they all are bears, it doesn't mean that there aren't real differences between them. It also doesn't mean that you want to get caught alone in the woods with any of them.
Same thing goes for proxy vs forged autographs. Both are not authentic, but there are real differences between them. This doesn't mean you want to collect either of them.

Shelly,
No one is saying what those players did is legal or right. What they did, in fact, is probably illegal. If the card companies are paying them to provide their own autographs and they provide something else, I think that would definitely be considered defrauding the company who paid them. The only difference is that the autos signed by the other people are defined as proxy signatures, because the player asked the person to sign it in their place.

Best to all,
Mark