The forger is the key as he produces the product, but the authenticator is just as important to entice a fraudulent sale as even the uneducated consumer understands a degree of risk when purchasing an autograph, but if it comes with a certificate from a handwriting expert, forensic or one of those outfits that exist to pass what everyone else fails, this may sway them to trust the seller.
If you are uneducated, can't you see why someone would purchase something with the assumption it's authentic when you hear useless words like: CERTIFIED! GUARANTEED! 100% AUTHENTIC! EXPERTS!
This convicted seller (hurrah!) got perhaps an extreme sentence because of stupidity. Buy from one and sell on the other? But he is one of hundreds and hundreds that make a living on eBay in exact same fashion. But getting one is better than getting none, so this is a good thing for the hobby. A start, and hoping that others follow on the blotter sheets. And perhaps sway people to stop selling forgeries and perhaps this will bring attention to fraudulent auction houses, sellers and authenticators who have survived way too long and passed so much crud into the collecting community that will remain in collections and passed forth for the time we are on earth. Forgeries never find the trash bin. They get passed on to dumber people.
DanC
|