You can read a little about this in the about me page but in essence in the memorabilia World it is all about buying from a trusted source. No amount of Certificates of authenticity can ever be better than buying from a trusted source.
That does not mean you won’t get a certificate from me as you will from this site but that is only because I know people LOVE a COA and quite often want them to sell an item on.
You could look on eBay or other channels now and search memorabilia with certificates of authenticity and a large proportion will be fake.
A quick FREE lesson here is that if you are looking for a signed item (say a pele shirt) and it is cheap, then there’s a reason for that and whilst you might be a very lucky person buying of someone who is losing money the chances are its a fake.
I have sold hundreds of items over the years at corporate and charity events alike and to date I have not had an item returned. I have refused to buy items of people several times before because they have had fake signatures and this does not make for happy people BUT that’s the way it goes.
I will swap items I can get in bulk with other a couple of trusted memorabilia companies who have things I cannot get and they will be items from private signings which are where each autograph is paid for.
I use certain auction houses who have in house authentication teams to verify the items before they get bid on but even then if I am looking at a specific item I will do some research myself to check the autograph as best I can.
It is also worth noting that peoples autographs can change over the years and there are the likes of Frank Sinatra who changed his a few times along with various other stars. Even with these changes though there is always still a stroke pattern and angle of writing that the experts can pick out and advise on.
There is also a difference between a paid for autograph and a generic in person one and this is because if you see stars walking down the red carpet at a Premiere and they are signing for hundreds of people most look like very quick squiggles as they want to be in to the Theatre but if they are booked to signed a number of items and being paid for each signature they will no doubt give the unrushed signature (although modern day footballers and other sports stars have lost the ability to sign their name in any legibility).
Celebs who know their brand will mostly have a nice autograph, such as David Beckham, Michael Jordan, Elton John, David Jason etc.
Feel free to ask a question, but always remember to be nice as manners cost nothing.