When The Signer Says "Fake" It Is Fake

Last night I came across a tweet regarding a Damian Lilliard autographed photo on eBay, here is the auction link. What made this an interesting tweet is that it was being retweeted by Damian Lillard who said that, even though it was verified authentic by Beckett, the signature is a fake signature. When compared to other authenticated Lillard autographs it is very obvious that the one up for auction is not real.

Sellers Selling Fake Autographs Using A Trusted Service

Seeing things like this makes me sad. When Steve Irwin passed away in 2006 he had only one official autograph and that was in the 2002 Dart the Crocodile Hunter release. I had opened a box in 2002 and was fortunate enough to pull relics of both Steve and Terri but their autographs alluded me and now if you find one of his 2002 Dart autographs they are usually in the $1000 range and higher so I have scratched owning one of those off my list but from time to time I still like to look.

This signature is currently up for a BIN of $599.99 and is a perfect example of how authentication services are allowing unscrupulous people to take advantage of specific services by giving an appearance of being real. I am not putting the blame on any specific person, I am not claiming the seller is complicit in any attempt to scam or cheat. This may have been graded long before this item was even in the seller's hands. 

This is not Steve Irwin’s autograph, I have been watching his signatures since at least 2002 and I can 100% guarantee that this is not the Crocodile Hunter’s signature. I don’t know if there is another person named Steve Irwin who is signing pieces of paper and I am just assuming this is supposed to be he Steve Irwin we all know and love. No matter what the case is, at some point someone used PSA/DNA to grade the autograph only, not to authenticate it, and now someone is selling it using the actual term “authentic”.

Most people looking for Steve Irwin’s autograph will know it is not real, there will be people who also look at the flip and see that is says “Auto Grade Only” but someone along the line is going to jump at the price, they are going to see the PSA/DNA flip and the seller using the word authenticated and think it was just him writing out his name instead of signing and buy a fake.

For comparisons, here are authentic Steve Irwin autographs including one where he did print his name so you can see the difference.

A PSA/DNA with an actual authentication tag. The Irwin’s were quite big on sending signed post cards or photos to people who made donations to the Australian Zoo as a thank you so I am confident this is real.

A JSA authenticated 8x10, the inscription was written by Terri but still they both signed the photo.

A 2002 Dart Crocodile Hunter autograph card, this one is real no question

Here is a clip where he signed his name and then printed his first name. Now I cannot state with certainty that this is his autograph but it does appear to be correct in appearance.  

I know this isn't like a situation where someone is just cranking out Carrie Fisher autographs and selling them for a couple hundred a piece but it does bother me that someone worked the system to confuse and take advantage of another person. 

Two More Additions To The Panini Autopen Scandal

Time to add a couple more autopen autographs to Panini’s list.

After the announcement that Dak Prescott used an autopen on stickers that Panini used for his redemptions from the 2016 Panini Prizm release some people have begun checking on other Panini sets to see if this is not a one-time occurrence and a person on the Blowout forum found that Brian Kelly, from Florida Georgia Line, used an autopen on the stickers that Panini used for the 2014 Panini Country release. Another person found that Kelly’s bandmate Tyler Hubbard also used an autopen for the stickers that were used in the same release.

The use of an autopen is not Panini’s fault, that is on the athlete/personality that are signing the cards and stickers, but what is on Panini is that on more than one occasion these autographs have passed through people’s hands and nobody did anything about it. One or two autopen autographs can understandable slip through without being noticed but in the case of Kelly and Hubbard we are talking sheets of perfectly signed autographs that are on the same location of every sticker and signed with the same pressure, same start and stop location, same little swoop and loops and same angle every time. This is a situation of seeing and not caring, a QA issue.

At this point collectors are just looking for any autograph sequence that may look similar as a way to nail Panini, though this isn’t only a Panini problem, this a Panini only problem right now.

A Little Scandal For Panini

Another scandal within the hobby, this time coming from 2016 Panini Prizm and the accusation that Dak Prescott has been using an auto-pen to sign his signature for redemptions from the set.

When I first saw this story appear on Twitter yesterday some people were saying that it was Beckett/BGS who notified Panini and wouldn’t grade the autograph on the card(s) submitted. I have not found any additional information regarding BGS being the first to find the issue but there is no question that Dak did not sign at least some of his cards.

EDIT 7/5- It was verified by Ryan Cracknell this morning (7/5) that it was BGS that did notice the issue and it was Beckett Authentication's Steve Grad who notified Panini. 

These are $350+ cards of one of the hottest rookies of 2016, Panini really mishandled this one. The back only says that they guarantee the autograph but in this case they cannot even do that. This isn’t an isolated incident of questioning an autographs authenticity and this isn’t a Panini only problem either. The only way to really counter things like this is to have a company rep witness the individual signing but that isn’t going to happen.

Too Good To Be True? Yup

Have you ever wanted an autograph signed by a 12-year old LeBron James? How about an 8-year old Kevin Durant? Well now you can according to one scammer he has a collection of 1996-97 Skybox Autographics that some how includes players who were not even out of middle school at the time.  To cover his ass the scammer is saying the cards came from a bulk storage but that they appear genuine.

A seller named pmitch_82, who somehow has over 6000 feedback with 100% positive feedback, is selling cards that he is claiming came from the 1996-97 Skybox Autographics set. Other players he is selling as part of the set, Carmelo Anthony (12-years old in 1996), Chris Paul (12-years in 1996), Dwayne Wade (14 years-old in 1996) and Derrick Rose (8-years old in 1996).

The cards are all signed with the same blue ink, except Allen Iverson, and some people on the Blowout Forums are saying that it appears that the autographs are not real but may really be facsimiles. What is even scarier is that every one of the cards have bids with the LeBron James card currently sitting at $112 and Charles Barkley at $100 even.

For the record, none of the players he is selling even appeared on the 1996-97 Skybox Autographics checklist and this includes the players who were active at the time like Barkley and Shaq. For comparison my 1996-97 Skybox Autographics Steve Kerr autograph is below.

Another Case Of An Athlete Not Signing Their Own Autographs

Another case of someone else signing for an athlete, this time it is Takkarist McKinley’s autographs in 2017 Panini Contenders Draft and 2017 Panini Elite Draft. Panini is offering replacements to anyone pulling a McKinley auto from either of those products but it should be noted that they have not stated what they intend to replace his autographs with or when.

I am not sure how they figured it out because he just signs “Takk” and they all look the same. He did recently have surgery on his dominant arm so I can understand why he wouldn’t want to sign the cards but he should have just waited instead of having someone else do it. These people are being paid to sign autographs and if they accept a contract to sign they should treat this as a job and do their damn work they agreed to do. He signed for both SAGE and Leaf but that was before his surgery and both companies have come out since Panini’s announcement and said their McKinley autograph cards are authentic.  

Faker Fakes Fake Autographs

EDIT- I have found two more accounts: Here and Here

I was doing some Star Wars searches on eBay and came across a new listing Carrie Fisher autograph card from Russia with a $1 starting price and was surprised. I added it to my Watch List planning on comparing the signature to one of her certified signatures. I finally had the chance and it is faker than fake took a look so I took a look at the seller’s other items wondering what else they had and every single one of the autograph cards was clearly counterfeit. Some were close but most were nowhere near what the signature should look like.

There was a third account that was selling the exact same type of items and was also from Moscow but eBay cancelled all of their sales and banned the account. Two of the accounts were opened in 2011, one of them was the banned account, and the third in 2016. To add to the humor is that one of the Carrie Fisher autographs (Topps Star Wars Attax pictured above) from the banned account just showed up on one of the other accounts. I am going to go out on a limb and say that Carrie Fisher never signed a Russian Topps Star Wars Attax card let alone two and they just happen to both show up for sale within a week of each other.

Here are the two sellers: Seller #1 and Seller #2

Take a look at the items, they are all signed by black marker on the bottom left side. When I started watching the accounts about 10 days ago all three accounts were selling similar cards too; Star Wars, Twilight, George Bush and Anime. I did report both of these accounts. I am bummed that at least 33 people bought these items and even left positive feedback, some people just want to blindly accept autographs as real.

Would you like a Jordan autograph for a couple bucks? Each account has one.

Hopefully I wont get any shit for this one, but I think I found the person signing the cards LOL

Why Do Signatures Have To Be So Difficult To Collect?

 Besides sticker autographs the only thing worse than your favorite athlete having a crappy signature is your favorite athlete having someone else sign their autograph for them. One of my favorite upcoming NFL rookie this year is the Chicago Bears Ka’Deem Carey, a University of Arizona product.

 

When he was still playing for the University of Arizona Ka’Deem had a very unique, and highly collectable autograph. He signed a large “K” with “deem” along the upstroke of the “K” and his full last name. Here are a couple of examples that he signed, some have been signed in person while others were PSA/DNA verified. Notice he signs his full name plus adds the inscription “Bear Down” and/or his uniform number even on the shoe. Each "K" matches, the "d" is lower case not capital, the "C" and the "Y" match on each item. These are items he has signed between 2011 and 2013.

 

 

When he signed for Upper Deck, Press Pass and Leaf prior to the NFL Draft he cut his signature down to a craptastic “KC” which can be seen in this 2014 Leaf Metal Draft card that I picked up back in April. Other players have done a similar change to their autographs when they were heading in to the draft/just drafted in anticipation of having to sign a ton of cards once they made it in the NFL.

 

He are a couple of his other UD, Press Pass and Leaf autographs that are available. If he were not one of my favorite U. of Arizona players I wouldn’t pick up any of his autograph cards because these are horrible signatures that rival Chris Johnson’s “CJ” signatures. These cards were all signed in 2013 and early 2014 prior to the NFL Draft.

 

You can imagine my surprise when I do a search of the recently released NFL licensed Topps and Panini products and I see signatures are that are quite alien. What is even more disgusting is that there are signatures within the same product line that do not even match. None of which match anything that he has signed for the past 3 years

 

Here are four Bowman cards, all hard signed and I am sure they all say something along the lines of the signing being witnessed by a Topps employee but I am having trouble believing that. I realize that a signature may have slight changes from card to card but not this significant. Going down the line:

 The “K” looks different on three cards (the mini and X-Fractor are a bit similar) and none of them match the way he used to sign the “K” for years.

There are four different “D”, four different “C” and two different “Y”. Only the “Y” on the Bowman Refractor looks correct to the “Y” he has signed for years.

 

It looks like Panini at least used stickers from the same sheet or at least signed by the same person because all of the cards that I have seen all match up to each other, though are still incorrect from Ka’Deem Carey’s original signature.

 

At this point I am done purchasing Carey’s autographs, his signatures are either a crappy “KC” or fake. At least I know the “KC” was signed by him while his newer signature is completely up in the air as to who signed it.

To Good To Be True

I collect Ken Griffey Jr. cards and memorabilia, which can be very difficult task for a collector on a budget. To keep my costs within reason I stick with his base cards, inserts and common relics along with a couple of figures to add to my collection. Over the years I have added some bigger autographed items like jerseys and bats but these have been on special occasions.

 

So in my search for reasonably priced Griffey cards I came across a 1990 Post Griffey card that had been autographed. What caught my attention is the autograph, it is a fake. To make it worse is that the card is PSA certified; once again the people at PSA have failed the collectors. I checked the cert number and sure enough PSA has it listed as an authentic Griffey autograph.

 

This guy is currently selling three Griffey autographed cards and there are three different signatures (none of them are real) on the cards but this one is the most obvious fake and the only one that was authenticated by PSA.

 

As bad as this autograph is, it has fooled three bidders already with a day left in the auction. I guess when people see PSA or Beckett certification they assume that it is authentic without giving it a second thought not realizing that these companies get hundreds, if not thousands, of cards to grade and authenticate each day and fake cards do pass through.

 

The best defense is knowing what you are buying, spend some extra time and do the research.

Which Is Which?

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.