Authenticity

The old addage "You get what you pay for" has never been more true than with buying celebrity autographs.

Some stars are very hard to get autographs from and because of this, they fetch a very high price. Our prices our not cheap, but our items are authentic. Just ask yourself how people are able to sell these rare signatures for such low prices, especially places like ebay. If the price seems too good to be be true, then it probably is.

Authentic Sean Connery and Jodie Foster autographed Photographs (to name two stars) are worth alot of money, They are very rare signers, and as such are highly collectible items. They can sell for over $200 each in American auction houses or at charity auctions. You can often see these stars autographs being listed on places like ebay for between £5 and £25. How can they sell these rare signers for that price and still be genuine.

We suggest that you be wary of those sellers who sell these autographs at such low levels and have seemingly never ending supplies of top stars. In all likelihood, their autographs will not be genuine. Some of the photographs that we have seen for sale are hopeless fakes! They do not even look remotely like the authentic signature. It might well be that the seller does not realise this and has himself bought the item in good faith, but that does not change the fact that you will not be buying an authentic item.

Current celebrity autographs are among the most difficult signatures to authenticate in this hobby. Many stars change their autographs frequently (lucy Liu being a prime example of that), and in most cases, there are numerous factors that can dictate the quality of an in person autograph. Were they standing, sitting, running down the street, getting out of a car or signing up against a brick wall when it was signed? Did they use sharpie, paint pen, ball point or pencil when they signed? Is it a "quick signature" or a "full signature"? For the most part, you need to have numerous examples and a lot of experience to authenticate current celebrities. Many times, it comes down to the credibility of the "source".

It is true that internet and online auction companies have opened up a whole avenue for collectors around the world. Unfortunately this is also the case for forgers trying to make a quick buck. This has, in turn, caused a large number of authenticity problems.

Last year the FBI gave the following warning :-

"While it is impossible to definitely estimate the percentage of forged memorabilia, most industry experts concede that over half of the autographed memorabilia is forged. In fact, some cooperating subjects and memorabilia experts believe that up to ninety percent of the memorabilia on the market is forged."

As collectors ourselves, we want to promote authentic collecting and we do not want you to waste your money on fakes. We also do not want to unduly worry you, there are of course several good sellers on the internet, of which we like to think Signaturesigned is amongst the best. We simply suggest that you always ask yourself the simple question: Is the sale/reserve price realistic or is it too low? You would be a little suspicious of someone who was selling a famous painting for a fraction of its true retail value - we just urge you to exercise a sensible degree of caution.

First and foremost we are collectors, who want to keep the hobby free from fakes.