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Are these Babe Ruth, Gehrig, Presidential, Monroe, etc...autographs real?

I was looking through some older autograph offerings from a known dealer and I saw a few autographs listed from stars and celebs that have been talked about here. So, It made me wonder, are these items that were sold in the past real?

Here are the scans.

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Permalink Reply by john reznikoff on December 8, 2011 at 1:33pm

The Presidents are in my opinion, unskilled forgeries.

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on December 8, 2011 at 3:02pm

Thanks John!! How many years ago did these types of forgeries start showing up?

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Permalink Reply by john reznikoff on December 8, 2011 at 3:19pm

Within the last decade, I think.

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on December 9, 2011 at 3:59am

It seems that we are all so focused on scanned images from the internet that we often miss things that are only in print. Perhaps it's due to the fact that the printed catalog is dying out. One cannot deny that the printed catalog often becomes an important tool to look back at retrospectively as a reference tool. These images are all randomly selected from a somewhat known dealers catalog that was issued several years ago. I'm wondering what % of the items in these catalogs are authentic. I will post more images as soon as I can.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on December 9, 2011 at 5:56am

What dealer...Coach's Corner?

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on December 9, 2011 at 1:56pm

No Steve, these are from a dealer who is still active today. These are just from one catalog. I wondered if they compared to coach's corner items. I really want Brick or Zipper to look at the Ruth.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on December 9, 2011 at 5:50pm

I don't feel comfortable commenting on Ruth. Chris Williams is probably a better candidate for that.

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Permalink Reply by roger epperson on December 9, 2011 at 11:29am

The Morrison forgery shown here started in the late 80's.

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Permalink Reply by john reznikoff on December 10, 2011 at 5:39am

I am not comfortable commenting on the Ruth/Gehrig either though it may be good especially if it came from Mastro. I can ask him. The scan is not great and the only thing that may be funny is the slightly darker little loop at the bottom of the "B" . Also the top loop of the "L" looks a bit long.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on December 10, 2011 at 8:15am

The listing doesn't say the Ruth came from Mastro. It just quotes Bill Mastro on the rarity of Ruth Gehrig balls. I don't know if it's good or not, but they'd have to be fairly obvious forgeries for me to be able to tell with confidence.

What do you think of the Einstein? It looks like the "A" was signed as if they were intending to sign the entire autograph at a different angle, then changed their mind for "Einstein." The A's also not slanted right like I'm used to seeing, and it's crossed too high. I just looked at 20 "A. Einsteins" and didn't find one A remotely similar.