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Authenticity is Everything
Regis Autographs
Hi I’m writing this post as a warning to forum members regarding a UK based autograph seller. Many members may have already purchased items from him before but hopefully this post prevents anyone else doing so in the future….
In July 23 I emailed Jonathan Button of Regis Autographs with the intention of purchasing a Patrick Swayze autograph as a gift for my sister. I explained to him that I had already had an unfortunate experience purchasing one before contacting him, so asked did the autograph he had come with a certificate of authenticity. He responded to me promptly saying that he did not provide COA’s, but rather a “guarantee of authenticity” from himself instead. He told me there were two authentication houses in the US whom he trusted, but owing to the expense involved in sending the volume of items he has in his collection, he didn’t ever bother to do so.
I replied saying that I would still like to gift my sister an autograph accompanied with a authentication certificate, and so asked him if I were to purchase the autograph he was selling and got it authenticated independently, what authentication house did he recommend that I send it to. He advised either JSA or Beckett. In all honesty I had already done my own research on which authentication houses were considered most reputable, but was asking Jonathan Button which one he would recommend as a kind of test of his confidence in the autograph and it’s ability to pass an authenticity review. This would also help me figure out his general trustworthiness.
So I bought the autograph and sent it off to Beckett in Plano, Texas. This cost in excess £100 inclusive of packaging and shipping etc.
It took around 2 months for Beckett to review the item, so you can imagine my huge disappointment when they came back to me saying that they deemed the autograph to be an inauthentic forgery. They included a detailed report outlining the many reasons they had arrived at this conclusion. Some examples included an inconsistent slant to the lettering of the signature and indications that the pen had been lifted on and off the page at multiple points, indicating that the signature had been written in multiple stages rather than a continuous and fluid movement.
So I contacted Jonathan informing him of the unfortunate outcome and asked him for a refund. To be clear I was not asking for him to reimburse me the authentication costs I had unduly incurred, although it would have been perfectly reasonable of me to have asked, as this man knowingly sold me a fake autograph despite knowing that I was going to attempt to get it authenticated. He agreed to refund me the £220 I had paid if I sent the autograph back, at a cost to myself however. Furthermore, upon reviewing the initial email exchange we’d had prior to my purchase, I noticed that he had detailed acquiring the autograph in 2016 at the London Piccadilly theatre. However this is an absolute impossibility as Patrick Swayze died in 2009. Unfortunately I did not notice this discrepancy until after the fact, but when I asked him to explain it he just simply said it was a typo.
I was happy to leave the issue right there as long as Jonathan was true to his word and refunded me once he had received the autograph back in the mail. He did in fact refund me, however he also sent me a nasty little email after the fact.
In this email Jonathan said how I was “distrustful” and “odd” to have “gone behind his back” to get the autograph authenticated by Beckett. He further added that Beckett “made their money by failing items”.
As you can imagine I found these comments to be absolutely mind blowing given that it was Jonathan himself that had recommended Beckett to me, and their authenticity process works as such that they are paid the same amount regardless of the items eventual ascertained validity. Furthermore, I clearly stated prior to purchasing the autograph that I intended to send it off for review.
Jonathan then went on to say that he would be re-listing the item for sale on his website, as he had “total confidence” in it. I am of the opinion that his intent to re-list the item was his actual reason for sending me an email full of confusing and contradictory statements. I feel this was his attempt to justify and legitimise the fact that he was about sell what he knows to be a proven bogus piece of memorabilia.
I appreciate that this was a very lengthy post but felt it necessary in order to explain the full situation and the risks involved with dealing with Jonathan Button of Regis Autographs based in Bognor Regis, UK.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on
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Always run the sellers name(s) through the search engine here. You might have avoided this problem. :-(
This was $250 this year at RR with the Buyers Premium and pre-certed by BAS:
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With a search you might have seen this from last year:
"...I have a feeling that if an item were to fail TPA after purchase it might be hard to get a refund out of them..."
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Permalink Reply by Collette on
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I did see this post but there were also other comments on other posts saying they had purchased from him before. I’m not actually involved in the autograph hunting arena generally, I was trying to purchase one as a gift, so I’ve been learning a lot of lessons in my endeavours. And to be clear I have actually had a refund. My issue is his conduct after the fact, his intention to re-list the item and make money from it and the fact that he knowingly let me pay for authentication on an item he knew for certain would fail because it was fake.
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"...My issue is his conduct after the fact, his intention to re-list the item and make money from it and the fact that he knowingly let me pay for authentication on an item he knew for certain would fail because it was fake. ..."
His conduct is not surprising - the majority of people would never have sent it to BAS so he is mad his gamble did not pay off. Next time just get a Quick Opinion to help guide you, and post the item here for review before purchase.
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My pleasure to try and help Colette. I am sorry this happened to you and sorry about the gift - you meant well.
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Permalink Reply by Eddy on
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Is Jonathan Button well known in the hobby? I only ask because he has a tremendous amount of material in his inventory and, with that kind of 'autograph footprint' across various genres, I would expect his dealership to come up more often in discussions.
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Well he has a lot of positive feedback on his site but I don’t think it’s legitimate if I’m honest. He stated that he was well known but as you say, there’s not a lot out there on him considering the size of his collection.
He is extremely unprofessional and his email responses to me were absolutely littered with spelling mistakes so this doesn’t present the image of legitimacy. Just stay away from purchasing anything off him as I think he creates his own forgery’s
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I've never bought from him before. I did make an inquiry not so long ago to ask about a signed photo that looked like it may possibly have had some trimming. I asked if it was indeed trimmed or if this was a scanning issue. He responded that he has 7 boxes with names that began with the same letter as my signer and did not have the time to look for it since I hadn't yet bought it. He said he would pull it to examine for me if I went ahead and first purchased it.
Very curious model of customer service...
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Very strange indeed. Expecting someone to purchase something that they have concerns about in order to alleviate their concerns is pretty pointless.
I am of the opinion that he’s just a chancer (although not a very intelligent one) that is trying to see what he can get away with.
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"...Expecting someone to purchase something that they have concerns about in order to alleviate their concerns is pretty pointless. ..."
That is one of the crazier things I have read today. The trimming should have been noted when seller had it out to scan and describe. At the least it indicates condition is not among his priorities, but sales are.
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