Earlier this week, I posted on the Autographs subreddit about a Jim Henson autograph that I'd recently purchased from an online estate sale. It was previously owned by a man with a collection of autographs nearing 2,000 or more. (see post in question, https://bit.ly/33pl3GR ) 

Unfortunately, this failed authentication with AutographCOA.com, failed to impress a fellow Redditor, and received "unlikely to pass full authentication" from Beckett.com (in that order).

However, I do have a second Jim Henson autograph that I purchased via an eBay auction some years ago. It came directly from a collector in New York state. For my piece of mind and to satisfy my (diagnosed) anxiety, I submitted it for the $10 pre-certification at Beckett.com. To my dismay, it also came back as "unlikely to pass full authentication."

So I went immediately back to eBay and got back in touch with the seller. He had earned my trust when I purchased the autograph and I wanted to be reassured. Last night, after a few emails exchanged back and forth with this person who had acquired the autograph, I wrote down the following:

The following things are true, as told to me by the seller. I have no reason to believe he's lying. He has proven himself to be a very trustworthy individual.

He attended a meet-and-greet event, promoting Muppet Babies merchandise, at a department store (possibly Macy's) in New York City. He acquired Jim Henson's signature on a Bert toy puppet, an Ernie toy puppet and on a poster for Muppets Take Manhattan. Later, he purchased a glass case to display the two toys in his home. The Muppets Take Manhattan poster later fell off a wall, damaging it. He later had the autographed portion of the poster professionally framed for redisplay in his home. Twenty or so years later, he sold the framed portion of a poster via an eBay auction (to me). As of October 2021, he had the two signed toys authenticated (in person) with AutographCOA.com.

During the course of our emails, he stated that if I wanted to return the autograph because of my lack of confidence (and Beckett being unable to authenticate it). I said that I did not want to return it. It can also be noted that the seller is a graphic designer who has collected other items that I would love to collect myself, including original comic art and other autographs.

In order to believe the autograph of JH is in any way fraudulent, I have to believe all of the following:

The seller is lying about having attended the event at the department store where Jim Henson appeared. He forged Jim Henson's signatures on two toys and a Muppets Take Manhattan poster. He also purchased a glass case to display the two toys with the fraudulent autographs. In order to make the autograph worth less, he damaged the poster and had the autographed portion professionally framed for display in his home. Then he decided to sell it 20+ years later. He later managed to get the two fraudulent autographs on the toys professionally authenticated at great cost to him, despite being fake.

I think you would agree that this strains credulity. Moreover, scammers do not generally return emails years after the transaction was completed or offer to buy back the item in question.

I would love to be able to authenticate the JH autograph, not only for my own piece of mind but because I've started on this journey and now I want to finish it. Also, it'd be nice to have it authenticated if my surviving relatives (I have no wife or kids but I have nieces and a nephew) want to sell it after I'm dead. It would be nice if it could go to another Muppets fan who could then have confidence in its authenticity. A copy of this post, along with my message history with the seller and his photos of the authentication letters for the two toys, are going to go into a file folder once I am done with this episode.

What makes this all the more frustrating is this: Jim Henson had two different ways of signing his name. Sometimes he wrote the J with a loop, (e.g., https://imgur.com/a/Lt3vB5F ) and sometimes he signed his J with a diagonal line instead of the loop ( https://imgur.com/a/mfd2AFM ). I obviously don't know why he would sign his name one way on one occasion and a different way for something else. On the day the original owner of my Jim Henson autograph got the two toys and the poster signed, Jim Henson signed his name two different ways ( https://imgur.com/a/fYM4DE9 ). Here's one that Beckett authenticated that does have the loop on the J: https://ebay.to/30f6KDh ... The other three Beckett-authenticated JH autographs currently on ebay have the diagonal line J. 

I appreciate any and all advice or feedback that this forum can provide. Please be kind. I've had a terribly stressful week. (I hate the holidays).

Thank you for reading.