Help with an ali

[MikeKam]

Originally Posted by SetBuilder

99% of all Ali signatures for sale are fake. Not only is his signature easy to forge, but he had Parkinson's. I would avoid all Ali signatures. Every single one of them unless you have a letter that it came from Ali himself or his family. Find something else to do with your money. Fund a business. Help a charity.

I don't understand such a blanket statement.

Ali signed tons, there's probably an argument for his signature being the most widely available of any high profile celebrity/athlete ever (I'm not including the Bob Fellers of the world here). Authentic examples of his signature are easy to obtain if you really want one.

Yes, Parkinson's distorted his autograph to where it became quite jagged instead of the free flowing autograph that he had previously. Nonetheless, other than really late examples (I believe he stopped signing in the late 2000s) these are still autographs that can be authenticated. Those late 2000s autographs are also ones that were signed in the presence of companies like PSA and Online Authentics and come with proper documentation - authentic. His pre-90s autographs? Even easier to authenticate!

Saying something like you should avoid all autographs of one of the most celebrated human beings of all time just seems naive.

I like the pamphlet in the OP (which is probably the item that Ali signed the most of and you can buy for <$100 easily) but would like to see a better photo.

[1treasuretrove]

Originally Posted by MikeKam

I don't understand such a blanket statement.

Ali signed tons, there's probably an argument for his signature being the most widely available of any high profile celebrity/athlete ever (I'm not including the Bob Fellers of the world here). Authentic examples of his signature are easy to obtain if you really want one.

Yes, Parkinson's distorted his autograph to where it became quite jagged instead of the free flowing autograph that he had previously. Nonetheless, other than really late examples (I believe he stopped signing in the late 2000s) these are still autographs that can be authenticated. Those late 2000s autographs are also ones that were signed in the presence of companies like PSA and Online Authentics and come with proper documentation - authentic. His pre-90s autographs? Even easier to authenticate!

Saying something like you should avoid all autographs of one of the most celebrated human beings of all time just seems naive.

I like the pamphlet in the OP (which is probably the item that Ali signed the most of and you can buy for <$100 easily) but would like to see a better photo.

I was actually going to reply to the same quote above as well. I would agree that there are many, many Ali fakes on the market - in fact, over 50% on eBay at any given time might be fake. However, Ali was a gracious signer and even as his health declined, he continued to sign in high quantity. Ali also did many, many private signings and was never really that hard to obtain.

Interestingly enough, Ali is one of the few cases where his autograph actually went down in value after he passed away. After he passed, more and more autographs were made available and the supply drowned out the demand. 8x10 photos that used to be easy $400 sales became tough to sell at $300. Items such as pamphlets and paper cuts can typically be had at $100-$150 now, far less than a few years ago. The reason for this all is the fact that he is far from a tough autograph - many exist and they are readily available.

As for authentication, I don't believe it is that tough. It would be pretty easy to develop an evolving timeline of this autograph and up until the last decade, they were pretty consistent. Anyways, he did have a nice signature back in the day - it got smaller but somehow kept it's flair in the 90's.