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Harrison Ford. Need opinions, please.

Here is a Harrison Ford I received as a part of a trade awhile back. At the time, I had no reason to suspect it. Recently I have had a number of negative responses to it's authenticity. I am requesting members here who know Ford's signature to chime in. Is the genuine or is it so atypical that reasonable minds would have serious doubts. Thank-you.

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Permalink Reply by Joe W. on July 18, 2020 at 6:10pm

I appreciate all the responses. It was not my intention to highlight or badmouth the source although I did include the COA because it is a part of this piece. It does have the matching sticker on the back of the photo and it did come from the person directly.

Here is the dilemma. It failed to be verified by any of the big three authentication services and also an up and coming service(advertised on this site) rendered it inconclusive. That's four in total.

So what does one do when an "authentic autograph" cannot be verified by an independent service? I understand there are collectors who could care less about that but the number of those with that viewpoint is dwindling with each passing day.

I did reach out to see if there was some way this could be exchanged. And, since I have no need for an autograph which cannot be verified, I even suggested to consign it back to the original party to be sold. No conditions on selling price. I just wanted to move on. I understand the person's reputation and he would definitely have better luck finding a new home for this graph than I ever could.

Am I being unreasonable?

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Permalink Reply by hbw60 on July 18, 2020 at 6:36pm

I'm not surprised that the major authenticators wouldn't certify it. I wouldn't expect them to, because it's so atypical. However, I feel that most modern Fords are too messy to be authenticated, unless they came from a private signing. So it's expected if you're getting it from a dealer who gets them on the street.

However, I think the K9 COA is more valuable than a Beckett certification. A good forgery can fool even the experts, so third-party authentication is never a sure thing. But getting the signature from a strongly reliable source is something that can be trusted more easily. K9 isn't nearly as well-known as Beckett, which may hurt your chances of a sale. But I think it's definitely got some value.

If you're looking to just be rid of it, I might even be interested in buying it. I already have three Fords, so I'm not actively looking for more. But I don't have a ToD photo yet. I'll send you a PM.

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Permalink Reply by JXE on July 18, 2020 at 7:16pm

Ford is capable of signing unrecognizable in person autographs on the street. I'm sorry to keep quoting Pete every time I post in a Ford thread, but that's who taught me Ford. If you look in this thread, he gives examples of how on the street, all of the standards of his autograph get tossed out the window:

https://forum.rebelscum.com/threads/authenticating-harrison-ford.10...

These three images from that thread have some similarities with the piece in question:

https://forum.rebelscum.com/legacy/imagepopup.php?imagename=http://...

I can tell you that Ford is so sloppy that one time a friend of mine got me an Indy 12x18 on the street that was so incoherent he decided to wipe it and get it signed again later. It looked worse than this autograph in question.

That's where the reputation of the collector comes into play, and K9 has the best reputation around for in-person Ford street autographs. Street autographs won't always be pretty. I suspect K9 priced it accordingly when it was originally sold. I mean, what's the other option when that's the signature Ford gives you? Put it through a paper shredder? My friend who went back for me for round two did that as a personal favor. Otherwise time is money for in person collectors.

And that's what you're looking at: an autograph that won't meet the standards to pass a reasonable authentication checklist by most TPAs (because they are likely comparing it to strong sit down examples), but an autograph that has a certification with a reputation of an in person collector behind it that's better than the one that the TPAs can issue (and, again, this has traits of other really sloppy in person Fords). If it were mine I wouldn't be in a rush to get rid of it. I think you have one you can be comfortable with in your collection so long as you're okay with the fact that this would sell for a fraction of what a sit down autograph would sell for. But there will be a market for it because many people who are looking for in person Ford autographs probably know K9 already anyways.

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Permalink Reply by Joe W. on July 18, 2020 at 7:28pm

I understand that in person autographs can vary greatly. Perhaps this line should not be part of his guarantee.

"Each item will come with my authentic K9GRAPHS hologram, guaranteeing it's authenticity, and also that it will NEVER fail a 3rd party authentication. "

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Permalink Reply by hbw60 on July 18, 2020 at 7:36pm

On the other hand, if that's his guarantee, then you should have no problem returning the item since it failed. If he refuses to take it back, then that line definitely shouldn't be on the guarantee. But if he's a man of his word, then it's good news for you.