A huge collection of bogus autographs for sale

[RichardSimon]

A few days ago I received this e mail, sent off my website.

"offer of items = I have a large number of signed index cards that I wish to sell. Multiples of all (if interested I can total each celebrity). Lennon, McCartney, Starr, Pie Traynor, Munson,Presley, Reggie Jackson, Alston, Yawkey,J Robinson, O`Malley,Greenburg, Gomez, Pistol Pete Maravitch,D Dean, Hodges, Stengel, Pluckett, Paige,Leonard, etc. Pile stands 4 plus inches.
Plus, I have many signed paper cuts as well."


I asked this seller (located in upstate NY) for a full list and quantities (I was then going to ask for pics) but received a return e mail which said he would send me the entire collection for my offer.
Well in all my years of buying and selling I have had, on occasion, a seller who will send out his items for approval. I have never had someone try to fake me out on a collection of this size. I realized the possibility existed that it could be fake stuff but I did think that this collection was real.
Today the collection arrived.
All the illustrated ones are in quantities and there are many other names which were in this collection.
The quantity and variety here is mind boggling. This guy must have spent many, many hours with this.
See for yourself.

[tazdmb]

This is laughable, did his child "sign" those autographs.

[khw]

hey how much for the thorpe i need it

[gregr2]

WOW!!

or as Shelly would say " "

[gnaz01]

Who is Lonny Liston??

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by gnaz01

Who is Lonny Liston??

The "Brunch" Rickey is my favorite.

[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by khw

hey how much for the thorpe i need it

Make me an offer

[RichardSimon]

My reaction to this was obvious but to me the stupidest ones are Tom Yawkey on a gold HOF plak and Jimmy Collins (about a dozen of those in this collection).

[RTK]

Originally Posted by tazdmb

This is laughable, did his child "sign" those autographs.

That's exactly what I thought and I know nothing about authenticating signatures.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by RTK

That's exactly what I thought and I know nothing about authenticating signatures.

Which should be an education for some of us. The forger was at least looking at real signatures and trying to copy them - Ott and Robinson, for instance. Other than that, it's obvious they are fakes, due partially to their general appearance - modern items, blue ball-point pen, etc.

On the other hand, the 'Lefty Grove' piece fooled all the initial responders, even thought there was almost zero attempt by the forger to copy genuine signatures. It did so because the forger concentrated on making the piece look old.

[sycks22]

That Clemente auto is one of a kind, you should've jumped on that

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by Runscott

..... The forger was at least looking at real signatures and trying to copy them ..........

Where would the forgery business be without exemplars?

[William Farrell]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

Where would the forgery business be without exemplars?

The Clemente is a scream. I think it was copied from a Topps card, possibly the 1971 (I don't have them in front of me currently).

One thing to remember about exemplars, never bank on comparing signatures to just one, reliably authenticated or not.

There are plenty of autograph guide books published with faux exemplars, either unknowingly or done intentionally as a spike (to protect against plagiarism), and the professional services make enough errors to assure comparison to any one exemplar daunting, to say the least.

Exemplars should be used as an overview, and the more professionally graded ones you look at for comparison, the better the chance of referencing good ones and throwing out the bad, if you just pick one to study.

Also, examining scans of signed pieces, no matter how detailed, are sometimes an inadequate endeavor, authenticating in person, the first step being examining the piece for anachronism (wrong manufacturing date for the lifetime of the signer) sometimes ruling out even moving on to consider the signature itself.

[Mr. Zipper]

I love the index cards all scanned next to each other... the further amplify the fact they were all signed by the same hand.