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REAL Elvis autographs

There has been a lot of confusion lately about Elvis Presley autographs due to a discussion that was recently posted. Elvis is one of the hardest autographs to authenticate as he had so many styles of signatures. After 20+ years of studying his autograph even I can get fooled every once and awhile. What messes up the forger is greed. The autograph gets too consistant for Elvis and they get caught. Recently a VERY good forger popped up and fooled me and others. The good thing is before the forgeries could be sold we figured out the forgeries and put a stop to this person. As you will see in this post "Elvis was consistantly inconsistant in the way he signed and wrote". There are though things he always did that show through though. All I am going to do here is post authentic signatures. I won't be explaining them in any way, that will be for you to do to educate yourselves. I will answer some questions though if needed. Enjoy!

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Permalink Reply by roger epperson on September 10, 2011 at 9:14am

Opps it's very early for me I meant Hank Snow.

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Permalink Reply by roger epperson on September 9, 2011 at 12:10pm

Here is a rushed signature

This is as fine as it gets!

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on September 9, 2011 at 2:21pm

Thanks, but Roger has the experience and knows the comparisons that need to be made here. He can do it when he has time.

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on September 9, 2011 at 3:58pm

I tripped over this website that specializes in Elvis graphs. Interesting.

http://elvispresleyautographs.com/autoghraphs_elvis_presley.htm

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Permalink Reply by Andreas Jensen on September 10, 2011 at 1:19am

Interesting site.

http://static.rrauction.com/content/images/larger/3242/3242242_2.jpg

http://elvispresleyautographs.com/vintage_1956_autographed_rca_reco...

These ones appear to be the same.

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Permalink Reply by Scott Johnson on September 9, 2011 at 5:07pm

Mr. Epperson,
What do you think of the autographed items offered in the Butterfields Elvis Presley museum auction? I was thinking about buying an autograph from someone who has one for sale and just wanted to see if I might get your opinion before browsing turns to buying? Thanks again!

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Permalink Reply by roger epperson on September 10, 2011 at 8:53am

That was what I was going to do over the weekend. I'll check it out and give you my thoughts. In the past they have been very good about their Elvis signed stuff.

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Permalink Reply by kevin conway on September 10, 2011 at 6:05pm

OK, I see now that the Elvis acquired from R&R, I have posted on my site is being questioned. This was Pre-cert by Roger. So, coming out of all this back and forth debate, what is the final verdict? Do I need to send this to JSA ?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on September 10, 2011 at 9:26pm

Kevin,

You were an innocent victim of an apparent campaign--not by Andreas--to destroy trust in respected authenticators and auction houses. Interesting that you bought the Elvis from R&R, since that means that not only Roger thought it was good, but Bob Eaton and Bill White of did, too. They've authenticated Elvis since what...1980? And Rich Consola likely look at it, too--especially if there were any concerns.

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Permalink Reply by kevin conway on September 10, 2011 at 9:34pm

Steve,

The irony is , there are some excellent Elvis signatures studies out there to "educate". But, I don't see any indication anyone took the time to use those, or even make them part of that section of the discussion. I think if they did, they might have noticed this particular signature on the color photo was about as strongly consistent as an "Elvis" gets. INCLUDING, some very specific indicators that forgers always miss (someone on the discussion pointed one out). Instead it seem to all start by a "neophyte" collector, who "thought" they saw a photo on eBay, but wasn't quite sure...?? A case study how these "derogatory" discussions/comments are created and escalated into, ..well what you saw here. . No analysis, no evidence, just a lot of very foggy speculation.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on September 12, 2011 at 6:55pm

Kevin,

You're right. The problem is that since these are autographs, if someone has an agenda they can always cast doubt and cause a lot of damage to legit people and autographs in the process. I think we really need to refocus Autograph Magazine Live! to make it the site it was supposed to be—one where we all worked together to improve the hobby and protect people from forgers.

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Permalink Reply by kevin conway on September 12, 2011 at 7:31pm

Steve,

The guy who made the comment got all his information from a FIVE year old eBay auction. And “thinks” that was the same photo. He is so fixated on some long ago eBay seller he says sold bad autographs, but is only 90% certain. There are so many holes in his story. For example, (as just one example) in my 13 years on eBay I have seen countless “bad” sellers “steal” images of Genuine items to draw people to their auctions, but in the end never deliver the actual item. I had about 10 eBay sellers over the years that took images from MY site, items that seller did NOT actually have. But these beginner collectors and/or eBay sellers don’t have a very wide “prism” to work with, so their view is often very narrow, only seeing the “black & white” of the scenario.

Then this person who commented in this discussion about the Elvis photo, tells me he had other Elvis experts from another forum who agreed with him. You know WHO these experts are? An Elvis CD forum, yes a forum dedicated to collectors of Elvis CDs. And, to give you an idea how credible his sources are, one guy who posted several times “FAKE FAKE” in that forum, states to the affect “the image is too small to make out but I can still tell it is fake”. Wow! How can you even respond to a statement like that? There was NOT ONE single comment that came from someone who appeared to have a CLUE about autographs. Yet this is where he was getting his data to make his derogatory comments here in this forum. Along with a foggy memory.

The reason I rambled on too long here, is this is a classic example of how dangerous “ignorance” can be. How it ruins reputations. Some guy claims he saw a photo on eBay Five years ago, and is convinced it is a forgery because he “thinks” it came from a certain “bad” seller that possibly NEVER even had the actual item, but possibly stole the image from a reputable autograph site ( as one of many possible fraudulent eBay seller tactics). All from people that don’t even have the experience or inclination to do a basic signature analysis. But, rely on inaccurate, outdated, unsubstantiated and unqualified opinions and information.