Posted By:
Jon CanfieldI am an autograph collector and as stated above, you just have to put faith in the reputation of the authenticator but even more importantly, you're own judgment.
I am not a fan of Spence - I've had him tell me an autograph that I had signed in person was an "obvious" fake. I felt that if he was so sure an autograph I knew was authentic was an obvious fake, how much does he truly know. That being said, obviously I am the only one who knew it was real and Spence doesn't know me from the next person. I guess it would be better having an authenticator refusing to authenticate a real autograph than having an authenticator authenticate a fake autograph.
Unfortunately, the market has come to a point where the market demands 3rd party authentication, no matter how imprecise the authentication process is. At the end of the day, the person who is authenticating your autograph is only giving an opinion.