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Taking them all down

I was recently named as a victim in a forgery case. I purchased a fake Adrian Peterson autographed mini helmet, many years ago, from a fake company DM Sports World run by a Joshua Shores who will now be paying out 2.5 million dollars in damages to the countless people he ripped off. Since I received this email I have gone through all my autographs researching the COA's, reading blogs and making phone calls, sadly it appears I have been cheated more times than I care to name. I am a collector. I love to meet the athlete (which I have been blessed that my autographed jersey's have all been signed in person) and get the autograph not to resell but have long planned on handing everything down to my nephew or my son. That has all been broken as I look and question 90% of my collection. But I have every intention of bringing the people who are so willing to cheat others by selling fake items using the names of athletes and others to the same justice Joshua Shores now faces. I have contacted Marketing Directors for several of the items in question and will have the person who signed the item authenticate it. Athletes are used to people asking for their autograph not asking if the autograph in front of them is actually theirs. People who cheat us all are also cheating the athletes and they aren't very happy with it either. If you have a story please share it on this blog.... I will keep everyone posted.

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Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on February 2, 2017 at 8:42pm: Welcome to Autograph Live, Steven. I'm sorry you've been burned. Thanks for telling your story and wanting to do something about it.

Please feel free to post the autographs you have for opinions. Our members have different areas of experience and you can get great input here.

Something to be aware of is that signers are often not good at telling their autograph from a good forgery, or even their own signatures sometimes, so it's often best to get a second opinion as well.

Comment by Eric Keith Longo on February 2, 2017 at 8:43pm: "...Athletes are used to people asking for their autograph not asking if the autograph in front of them is actually theirs..."

This might bear repeating in context of the sentence preceding it. If I had a questionable Ford or Pacino and I had a choice of asking Ford & Pacino or one or two of the members here, I know who I would ask.

Comment by Steven Phillips on February 2, 2017 at 9:03pm: Example: I have a Kurt Warner mini helmet. I really question the authenticity now. I contacted his charity and will be sending a helmet to them, not to get signed but to be verified. He has an auction of his autographs to raise money. I'm sure based on who I spoke to that Kurt Warner will not be happy if someone is selling knock off fake graphs using his name taking money away from his charity.

If being named a victim in a forgery scheme has taught me nothing, it's taught me people who do this can be prosecuted. Research Joshua Shores... GAI and Absolute Authentic Autographs are first on my list.

Comment by Jason Toney on February 3, 2017 at 7:57am: Sadly it seem when one finally gets taken down 2 more forgery dealers pop up. Just to many new collectors buying or ones who don't do the research before purchasing are still buying the junk they sell but the sites like this one calling out the bad dealers does make a difference. They've definitely helped me before i wasted my $ a couple times.

Comment by CJCollector on February 4, 2017 at 6:24am: Steven, thank you for posting this and your fight to "bring them down."

All of here at AML have been exposing sellers of forgeries (and phony authenticators) for years and we will continue to do so.

Great work!!!

Comment by CJCollector on February 4, 2017 at 6:57am: Steven, I see you mentioned GAI on your list.

GAI went bankrupt in 2009 after authenticating thousands of forgeries.

Comment by Steven Phillips on February 4, 2017 at 10:50am: Yeah I'm learning that now. I see that Global Authority has taken over. I have so many GAI graphs.. I haven't bought an autograph in years. What do we know about Elite Sports Marketing and Play - Ball?

Comment by CJCollector on February 4, 2017 at 10:51am: Steven, are you referring to Play Ball Authentics?

Comment by CJCollector on February 4, 2017 at 11:01am: Steven, the new company is actually Global Authentics.

Comment by Steven Phillips on February 4, 2017 at 7:40pm: Yeah Christopher Play Ball Authentics.. attached are pics of 4 helmets I bought long ago before I even realized people could be so greedy in this business. Please pick them apart. The Tom Brady is Play Ball Authentics. Kurt Warner is Gridiron Authentics. Dan Marino is J&T Authentics and Elway is S&S sports. I've been non stop on the computer researching these frauds.