[Mr. Zipper]

In my view, it takes a proactive effort. You can't become really good by passively looking at an autograph on occasion. You need to look and study a lot of autographs over time.

* Set up daily ebay searches and review the auctions. Eventually you will begin to see the differences and patterns in autographs between legit sellers and suspect items. When you see a certain signature and know what seller it came from, you know it is starting to click.

* Ask questions of experienced collectors. I've learned a lot here by simply reading the threads and asking questions via private message.

* Don't just focus on the "shape" of the autograph. That is only one part of the equation.

I have been collecting and studying space autographs for many years and have written and contributed to a number of studies. It took years of active studying and looking at thousands of exemplars. Now, I can look at certain autographs and know within a year or two when it was signed.