Some third party authentication companies will glance at your autographed memorbillia and instantly tell you it's not genuine, but not before charging you a huge fee to do so.
Make Sure You Do Not Fall Victim to Third Party Authentication Companies.
How hard is it to find an autograph exert? Most autograph experts work for themselves. They need all the time it takes to determine whether any autographed item is genuine or not. Proof, most professional autograph dealers will spend all the time it needs to study an autogaph before placing it in their inventory. It is pretty scarce to find a spurious item in a profesional autograph dealers inventory.
You should find it safe to purchase an autograph from a dealer who has been around for at least 20 years. In those years they shold be happy to share their knowedge with collectors. The dealer has hopefully shared their knowledge by writing educational articles and a book or two. CAUTION, THERE ARE A FEW EXCEPTIONS and when they are bad, the are very bad!
The creating of instant experts is called by some "The Steve Zarelli Syndrom." This was when an auction house badly needed an expert on "astronauts" and suddenly found an individual, a member of the old defunt UACC to be an instant expert of astronauts. After some years of seeing the persons name, he is accepted by some as an astronaut signature expert. What's overlooked or just unknown is when a so called expert passes a well known common forgery of a Neil Armstrong autograph and somehow it gets ovrelooked. I never met or have spoken to this Steve Zarelli.
The "Steve Zarelli Syndron" continues today.. Have you seen the list of names on PSA/DNA's COA'S? I have passed on the names to several high profile autograph collectors, dealers and even an auction house. NOT ONE RECOGNIZED A SINGLE INDIVIDUAL. TRY YOUR LUCK.
George Renaud
Mike Vibronek
Tom Poon
Alan Dicker
Jeremiah Moreno.
One dealer responded and said this seems like on the job training. Will you send your George Washington signed document and have one of these names give their opinion and you be charged $500 or more? In addition, the signature on the COA is not readable and does not appear to be one of the names listed as an "expert."
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