This morning I was looking through my saved sellers list and I noticed something odd about a couple of Cam Newton autograph cards that one person was selling so I did a general search for Newton autographs on eBay and noticed that he has two different signatures. The most notable differences are the placement of the capital “C” in the beginning and the “t” at the end.
Signature One: (Real?) On-card, equipment and photo autographs
Signature Two: (Fake?) Sticker autographs
What stood out is that the signatures that are on-card match up with signatures that can be found on photographs, jerseys, helmets and footballs. This signature also matches up with his autograph on the 2011 Topps RPA cards, which were signed in front of a Topps employee.
The signatures that were done on stickers are noticeably different which leads me to believe they were signed by someone else. I know that it is common place for clubhouse signatures but this was just odd, I have never seen them this uniform before.
I went through dozens of web sites and hundreds of autographed cards, pictures, helmets, jerseys and footballs today. Some of the autographs were done in person, some were TTM and many were authenticated by various groups. On-card autographs, pictures and equipment were signed one way while sticker autographs were signed a different way. I did come across one UDA football signed with the odd signature but all the rest matched up.
Panini, Topps and Upper Deck each had cards with different signature while Leaf appears to only have the questionable autograph. Press Pass cards have me uncertain because while the questionable autograph is easily discernible someone signed some of his Press Pass cards using a mixture of both autographs.
Panini:
2011 Panini Crown Royal Silhouettes (Real)
2011 Panini National Treasures (Fake)
Topps:
2011 Topps Football (Real)
2011 Topps Platinum (Fake)
Upper Deck:
2011 Upper Deck Exquisite (Real)
2011 Upper Deck SPx (Fake)
Leaf:
2011 Leaf Metal Draft (Fake)
Press Pass:
2011 Press Pass All American (Not Sure)
2011 Press Pass Saturday Signatures (Fake)
2011 Press Pass Saturday Signatures (Questionable/ mixture of both)
In the age of sticker autographs it has become easier for friends, family or an agent/employee to sign the autographs. Gone are the days were a company rep would deliver the cards, watch as the athlete signed the cards and then package everything up and send it back to be packed out. Now sheets of stickers are mailed out or handed to an agent along with an agreement asking the athlete to agree to sign the cards themselves and we know how that works out.
The best advice is to stick with autographs you know to be real and do research if you are unsure.
Additionally I pulled up a number of images showing his signature on 8x10 photos, jerseys, helmets and footballs. You will see that they all match up except for the last image which is the UDA football.
These last two images are UDA authenticated footballs, the first one has the autograph that appears authentic and matches up but the second football (Even shown with its COA) has the autograph that I believe to be signed by someone else.
