Authenticity is Everything

Billie Holiday Autograph

I purchased this 78 vinyl record purportedly signed by Billie Holiday from an RACC trusted seller. I recently submitted the item to JSA for authentication, and unfortunately it did not pass.

I originally submitted it in person at a show here in CA a few weeks ago, and I was disappointed by how carelessly the item was handled during intake. When I received it back, there were fingerprints all over it. I contacted JSA immediately to report the condition, and they did expedite the review process.

Yesterday I received their letter confirming that the autograph did not pass authentication. I’m extremely disappointed and unsure what my next step should be, or if anyone here might be able to offer advice.

Prior to purchasing the item, I did my research and examined the signature characteristics—such as the looping of “Billie” and the shape of the “H” in “Holiday.” However, upon further inspection, the signature appears to have been written in ballpoint pen. Additionally, the Blue Ace label is known to be a bootleg label, and this particular pressing seems to have been released slightly before the time of her passing.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin yesterday

Pug, every TPA makes mistakes. Every one of us makes mistakes. And sometimes knowledgeable people disagree on authenticity.

We don't know who at JSA examined it, of course. We know Roger did, and he liked it. I did, very carefully. I am very confident it is real. It was simply signed to look good and fit completely in the space Billie signed in.

You seem emotionally invested in this autograph being a forgery. And your authentication is based on "Holiday", not her entire name. That is not full, proper authentication, period.

We disagree, period.

Ryan gave his conclusion. It's not in the original post; it's in the discussion.

You gave your conclusion.

I gave mine.

If anything new that's truly material comes out, or someone new comes in and reignites the discussion, we can talk about it. If not, all of our arguments have been heard and argued to the point of MAGAs and Lefties in the bar, still arguing Trump at 1:45 AM.

My bar closes at 2. So finish arguing now.

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Permalink Reply by Ryan W 17 hours ago

Steve, I agree completely. Pug isn’t going to change my mind, and I’m not going to change his.

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Permalink Reply by a pug called eva 11 hours ago

Steve, I totally agree with you and Ryan. Let's put this discussion to bed.

It's perhaps worth mentioning that I did look at the "Billie" part in a post on 5 April. I'd have been happy to elaborate on the points I made but I'm more than happy not to.

This multi-faceted discussion has given me a lot. Most of all, I've been able to get to know Billie's autograph better than that of practically every other signer whose autograph I own. This, in turn, has allowed me to understand and appreciate my own "Billie" more than ever before. In fact, if I had the necessary IT/graphics skills I would actually quite fancy preparing a signature study for Billie. As far as I know, that would be a first.