I am going to point my finger to who I feel needs to take in part, the blame for fake autographs.

Comment

Comment by mike aring on September 12, 2010 at 7:08am

there was bogus stuff out there before ebay, but ebay has made it grow 20 fold!!! it's disgusting.

Comment by roger epperson on September 12, 2010 at 6:31am

I just don't understand why celebrites get so mad about being asked for autographs. I'm sorry but that's part of your job. That's part of the price you pay to earn millions of dollars a year doing nothing but playing music or acting. To me it would be like a printer getting angry because he got ink on his hands. That's part of the job! I do though believe that EBay is the cause for all of the forgeries that are now out there on the market. EBay gave the forgers a license to steal and these large galleries and web sites took it to a higher level. It has gotten so way out of hand that it is difficult to put a stop to it. But rest assured we are trying.

Comment by mike aring on September 9, 2010 at 7:08pm

i don't think that celebrities know or even care that their autograph is forged!

Comment by john reznikoff on September 9, 2010 at 1:59pm

Great post and very valid

Comment by Stephen Duncan on September 8, 2010 at 7:32pm

Follow up: I agree 1000% that a celebs job is to entertain. They do not owe anyone ever an autograph at any time. However I ask just two questions from a celebrity.......
a) What is your opinion on the amount of people forging your signature and selling them to your fans?
b) Are you willing to be part of the solution?
Just curious............thats all.

Comment by mike aring on September 8, 2010 at 6:34pm

I'm going to start by saying that I agree with you wholeheartedly. But i'm also going to point the finger at us sellers, either good dealers or bad dealers.
good dealers because we sell for the most amount of money we can possibly get for our "Hard to get autographs." I'll add that all autographs are hard to get, no matter how nice any celebrity is. But i'll say it's us because our high prices for autographs makes someone want to sell a fake autograph. Whether it's a $20 Alice Cooper autograph or a priceless beatles complete set. The high dollar value makes it inevitable to not attract people trying to make a quick buck. Do you know how many people have just told me "don't work so hard, just put it on there yourself."? now, these are people that know nothing of the business, and would never get into the business, but that's a common mentality. I even heard people tell Dale Earnhardt Jr. that they were going to keep the autograph they had just gotten from him but because it was such an easy autograph to fake that they were going to fake some pictures and sell them on ebay and pay for their whole weekend (not kidding, they actually told this to Dale himself). Joke or not, this is also a common mentality. So if these are common ideas, and now one of these people has an old Led Zepplin album and saw what people were willing to pay for this, what's to stop them from signing the album themself and wander into a pawn shop or autograph store and sell it far below the $1000 price tag they can see all over the internet (complete with a story of meeting the band backstage in the 70's at some concert). And if this works, why not try out their beatles records, or guns and roses or any number of old albums that they can't play on a record player anymore and can't sell for even a buck??? Then there's the guy who buys those albums and knows they can get a great value out of this item with little investment. now this forgery is out in the open, getting recycled from buyer to seller to buyer to seller. You have any idea how many pawn shops I've walked into all over the world to buy guitars (i used to collect guitars and go to pawn shops all the time, just to have them try to rip me off) and i would see just one autographed item, but it was far from real? now how did this pawn shop end up with this thing in the first place.
Then there's the bad dealer, who after years of buying from the same forger, knows exactly what they are selling- junk- but they've gussied up this piece of sh#$ to look great and get a high dollar amount out of it. There are dealers out there who have no idea what they are buying, and there are dealers that know exactly what they have. The dealers who have no idea, they are trusting their friendly neighborhood forger, who's leading them down the wrong path. But it's the ones who know they are wrapping a pretty bow around a turd and calling it gold. These guys go so far as to "educate" their buyers and their best customers on how to spot a forgery.. why, because they know what they have is crap and are trying to lead a customer into their web. I've heard stories of dealers telling people that they can tell a forgery because the celebrity, once they have touched a photo or album, leave their fingerprint on the item. but they never have a way of seeing the fingerprint themselves or showing it to said customer. odd.

now, to my agreement. Yes, I believe that celebs are to blame too. But not because they don't stand up... that's not their job.. Their job is to just entertain. Pre ebay, there were celebs who didn't sign... for many other reasons other than ebay, and all the entertainers that you are so fascinated with today, were nice about signing way back when... I once had robert plant sign so many items for me that i turned to index cards. once had metallica (the whole band, not just one guy) sign an entire roll of posters that i got from a local radio station in a weekend (that's 50 plus of the exact same poster) and now james is super tough and i've heard stories of him not signing at all any longer. but now these people are tough because of the internet sales and the dreaded "ebay." There were also artists that were tough pre ebay for any number of other reasons that had nothing to do with selling an autograph. I don't think you'll see celebs do anything about forgers till it actually hurts their pocketbook anyway. but to expect them to stand up and do something about it... just ask victoria beckham about that one... she went into a shop in london and said that her husband (the equally famous david beckham) did not sign an item sitting in that store's window and made a big fuss over it... turns out david did sign that item and she got sued for quite a bit of money for defamation. It's not worth it when they can be wrong, when court costs money and the negative publicity as well... it will all look like that particular celebrity has a money angle in it no matter what...

if you want to get upset at the celebrities personally... get upset that they send out fakes everyday... in the form of in the mail autographs. secretarials, ghost signers, having their sister sign their mail (like john travolta told people he did) or their kids sign their mail. that's really the only reason to be upset at celebrities...

and if you want to see how tough an autograph is to get.. watch this video..
http://www.paulmccartney.com/news.php#/2005/2010-09
mike

Comment by mike aring on September 8, 2010 at 5:55pm

http://www.paulmccartney.com/news.php#/2005/2010-09

Comment by scott on September 7, 2010 at 6:41pm

I saw Chelsea Lately at the Fox Theater in Atlanta. If you bought her book at the event, she would sign it after the show. We got two and were very happy to get her autograph.

Comment by Tim Henderson on September 6, 2010 at 5:38pm

I would love to see that! Preach on Stephen!

Comment by Josh Board on September 6, 2010 at 4:44pm

I have a set line I use now. Followed by instructions for the celebs.

I was at an event with Adam Carolla. We were backstage, and I pulled out a Crank Yankers DVD for him to sign. As he signed it, his "personal assistant/agent" said "Yeah, how much are you going to sell this for?" I first said "Oh yeah, I'd get a lot on eBay for a Carolla autographed DVD." He laughed. his agent didn't. And as he continued to sign, I said "Thanks, Birchem" (the characer he played on that puppet show/crank caller thing). This lets him know, that I know, the product. I didn't just go buy it for $2 at a used DVD place.
I then tell the person, "Ya know, if you're worried about if someone is going to sell it, you have to feel out the situation better. I had one DVD. What would I benefit by getting one item signed? If I was an autograph dealer, I'd have 10 headshots, or 10 DVDs, in a briefcase."

If they seem like they're listening, I say "You can also personalize, or say to any fan 'I have a rule where I only sign one a piece, unless it's a charity function.'" What that does is---deters the dealers, and the fans are still happy, because they got their one.

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