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Originally Posted by tjisonline
I don’t think anything is safe with third party autographs except for those items people know for a fact were signed by athletes. Assume that’s why we always have to remember authenticated autographs or just an opinion.
We probably staring at the tip of an autographed card scandal. Plus it’s not all by scrupulous people. It’s been known for decades that famous athletes such as Willie Mays had their wives signed check, letters, and autographs. Then we hear stories about operational bullpen, the recent alleged Jason Kelce signing scandal w/ a Beckett employee involved.
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This is why I stayed away from signed vintage for as long as I did. I've always thought it was hilarious that people think anyone, even the best, can determine with any sort of accuracy at all whether or not a signature is authentic. I would love to see a confusion matrix from a large sample of known authentic and fake autos. I think it would blow everyone's minds.
Bad fakes are obviously easy to detect. I'm sure some signatures are difficult to duplicate, but I'd wager good money that a large percentage of the people reading this thread could duplicate a Mickey Mantle signature after practicing it for an hour and could get it past authentication nearly every time. I know he signed a lot, but I don't think he signed nearly as much as what's out there today. I wouldn't be surprised at all to learn that half of all signed Mantle cards are fake.