At least once a day we receive an email or phone call asking, "How do I know my autograph is real?"

 

The bad news is you don't.  Unless you saw the athlete sign the item with your own eyes you can never be 100% sure.  However, there are several steps you can take as a collector to try and insure the item you are purchasing is authentic. 

 

 

 

The first thing you should look for is the original authenticator of the piece.   

If it doesn't come with some type of written guarantee that the autograph is authentic, DON"T BUY IT. 

 

Anybody can print up a COA, but there are some things to look for. 

 

First, is it a reputable company.  If the COA is from Upper Deck, Tri Star, Steiner Sports, or Mounted Memories, the autograph is almost certainly authentic.  These companies have contracts with the athletes and bring them in to sign their items in person.

 

OnlineCoa is a third party  authentication company that witnesses every autograph they authenticate.  Anotherwords, their representitives are at the actual signings, but have no financial interest in the signing itself, they are their only to authenticate.  They are not in the business of buying and selling sports memorabilia and autographs, which unfortunately about every other authentication company is.

 

PSA/DNA and Global Authentic Inc. (GAI) are the two biggest companies that do third party authentication that was not signed in their presence,  they usually authenticate vintage memorabilia.  Anotherwords, they did not witness the signing, but they are giving a non-biased expert opinion as to the authenticity of an item.  This is where you have to be careful.  They have not witnessed the athlete signing the piece.  They are giving their expert opinion on the authenticity of a particular piece based on their expertise of handwriting analysis, so the authentication is only as good as the authenticator.  These companies are honest and legit, but they are not perfect.  Most reputable authenticators are forensic handwriting experts who use exemplars as a point of reference.  If your looking to purchase autographs from decesed players, make sure the autograph has been examined by a reputable third party authentication company.

 

There are other reputable companies out there, but do your research.  The larger the company, the more money they have invested in the industry, the more likely it is that their autographs are authentic.  A large company will not risk its name and reputation passing along a fraudulant item, but your local show dealer may not have much to lose, so be careful.

 

Tip #2:  Is there a Money Back Guarantee? 

 

The company or dealer who is selling the piece to you, must provide a money back guarantee if you find the autograph not to be authentic.

 

Once again be careful, and don't let this give you a false sense of security.  Many of the money back guarantees are limited to 7-10 days, which leaves you with little time to have it examined by other authenticaters.  Also, you're probably never going to have the piece reauthenticated by someone else anyway, so how will you ever find out it's fraudulant.

 

If a piece doesn't come directly from a major company (ie. Upper Deck, Steiner Sports, ect.), or major authenticator (OnlineCoa, PSA, GAI) only purchase the piece if the business is willing to refund the money for the item, and any expense you incur having the piece authenticated.  Anotherwords, they will give you a full refund and your cost of taking it to get authenticated by someone else.  This way you can send the piece off to be authenticated by another company at no risk to you.