Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Edward Lopez on May 22, 2017 at 8:31pm

Well, Eric, I don't know what else you have done about this ebay situation whether you advised the seller or not.

My being an ethical ebay seller myself I see it as a kind of unofficial duty to alert the seller to your post here. Perhaps the seller, like most sellers on ebay, did not do your kind of research but, of course, if he did and he is an honest seller he wouldn't have listed it. I'm not saying he is defrauding. But now that I brought it to his attention and put a "watch" on his listing, I'll see if he does the right thing and revise his listing accordingly and ask a price that is more compatible with Autopen or printed signatures.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on May 22, 2017 at 9:03pm

As I recall seller was notified, shown three different versions with different placement and never responded. It is an extremely obvious Autopen - I will not listen to any "I did not know" nonsense. It is as blatantly obvious as an embossed facsimile.  

But you need only see one - not three - yes the signature matches, and with black fine tipped ink sigs in books etc. that is important (sometimes to need to see a second), but here the tells are to seen in a single example. You should not even need any loupe. The curves are clearly jig-jag for one (a better scan would this this plainly - I don't have one handy). The mechanically even indent, even the ink color.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on May 22, 2017 at 9:05pm

I must add, anyone buying a Garland for a decent sum of money ought to recognize this Autopen immediately. I don't understand how people collect anymore without the ability to ID live ink, especially in hand. 

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Permalink Reply by Edward Lopez on May 22, 2017 at 10:24pm

Frankly, I blame ignorance. The average person is not familiar with live vs. fake autographs. Someone may want an autographed item, finds it and buys it. They may not do comparison shopping, they may not view completed listings to see the price differences, etc. They hit and run. And they may never know that what they bought was misrepresented. And ebay will side with the seller because it's a buyer's responsibility to ask questions before they buy. But who knew?

When my wife okayed my selling her White House replies (and the other autographed items) I became aware of identical Clinton signatures by looking at the other listings and that's when my eyes were opened. A little late as I had known about Autopen signatures for 10 years! Those memories are gone!

I've been in a fog for 10 years because I just read my Frank Borman ebay listing and I tell Frank in 2007 that I was familiar with the Autopen spikes that I "recently" discovered! I don't remember any of that!

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on May 22, 2017 at 11:06pm

"But now that I brought it [this thread] to his attention and put a "watch" on his listing, I'll see if he does the right thing and revise his listing accordingly and ask a price that is more compatible with Autopen or printed signatures. - Edward Lopez

Hmm. And I guess I'll see if he is a vindictive maniac intent on hurting my eBay business by bothering me or bidding under another ID and leaving me a negative feedback for writing this thread. What was the gain in notifying him?

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Permalink Reply by Edward Lopez on May 22, 2017 at 11:48pm

I had no idea of your problems with the seller. Since I appreciate when other sellers point out mistakes I may have made in my  listings, very rare, I thought of just doing a good turn. Should the seller not revise his listing I'll advise ebay. As a buyer, I don't like to see dishonest sellers hurt me or other buyers. I didn't gain anything but had satisfaction that I took action to make ebay a better marketplace, as much as I hate ebay.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on May 22, 2017 at 11:51pm

But I had no problems with the seller at all. I hope that remains the case now...

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on May 23, 2017 at 5:08am

Many people do many things in a quiet manner. You might have considered indulging in your experiment with this seller and enjoying the same satisfaction - without bringing my name into the situation. That's about all I have to say about this. 

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