Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mark Saunders on March 23, 2023 at 5:16am

JSA is terrible at Beatles. 

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Permalink Reply by BallroomDays67 on March 23, 2023 at 7:31am

They don’t have anyone who can recognize even one bad signature out of a full set of forgeries in a style that has been around for 40 years?

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Saunders on April 29, 2023 at 6:52pm

That's when they should send it to Frank Caiazzo. 

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Permalink Reply by Jim Cushman on March 23, 2023 at 9:21am

Yup... Joe Long strikes again!

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Permalink Reply by Bruce Juice on March 24, 2023 at 10:59am

What's the best "tell" that it's a Joe Long?   As many collectors unfamiliar with his fakes might think these are real. 

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Permalink Reply by BallroomDays67 on March 24, 2023 at 11:23am

The things that first catch my eye are the “R” and “S” combination in Ringo’s signature, the “OHN” portion of John’s signature and the “MCCA” portion of Paul’s signature. They all have a distinctive look about them, especially when together in a set.

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Permalink Reply by Yony Mark on March 28, 2023 at 10:22am

Man, I'm reading these posts and getting so much paranoia. I mean, I have so many autographs that I got thanks to this website, some have JSA COAs, but reading that even JSA letters of authenticity could be wrong? Makes me feel scared...

How do you guys even know about these forgers who pass JSA ?

I have some autographs (not Beatles) that I got from Discogs and eBay, etc. more heavy metal stuff from bands who do lots of signings. But after browsing this Beatles forum, I'm starting to doubt my ability... 

How do you guys keep track of this?

Are there any other bands which get these types of super-sophisticated forgeries? (Other than the fab 4 and the Led Zep ofcourse)

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Permalink Reply by Yony Mark on March 28, 2023 at 10:26am

I mean, what I usually do when I want to buy an autograph from a band is:

1. Check if it's for sale on their official website, or through a merch store like Newbury Comics

2. If not, check if it was for sale at some point. If it was, eBay and Discogs are loaded with re-sellers / flippers.

3. If not, check if this is a band that does signings frequently. Say, like Megadeth, Kreator, Drowning Pool, etc.

Regardless of the option I choose, I always compare with lots of examples from online, sometimes with JSA and AutographCOA certified ones. For most bands, its super easy to find the real stuff out of the fakes.

Is this a good method of comparison?

Like, if I were a Beatlmanic, I could've been duped to buy this "signed" note... they're not together for over 50 years, half of the band is dead, and the ones who are alive rarely do sign stuff.

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Permalink Reply by BallroomDays67 on March 28, 2023 at 10:39am

I can’t blame you for feeling paranoid. In this case, it’s a well-known forgery style that has been around for decades, and it has been discussed on this site a number of times. It should be one of the first things that an authenticator rules out when authenticating Beatles autographs.

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Permalink Reply by Yony Mark on March 28, 2023 at 10:56am

Ohhhhh, okay, if it's been around for decades, and has been shared many times, that's something else.

But other than cases like this, is my method of comparison any good? Like, I have over 300 autographs, out of them like 10 are from eBay and Discogs, which I got after I did lots of comparisons and was confident enough.

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Permalink Reply by BallroomDays67 on March 28, 2023 at 11:52am

It depends on the exemplars you’re using. If you’re using in-person exemplars and ones with good provenance that you’re studying over time, familiarizing yourself with known forgery styles and watching eBay and following auctions, I think that’s the best that you can do on your own. If you’re depending too much on TPA opinions, I think you could get into trouble.

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Permalink Reply by Yony Mark on March 28, 2023 at 12:13pm

Yeah, I'm doing exactly that - Mostly I focus on looking into in-person stuff and trusted sellers and groups. For bands like Megadeth you have lots of in-person examples all over the internet. Same for almost all the bands I listen to.

I'm less of an auction fan, since lots of auctions tend to have fakes, but again, depends on the item - I've bought some stuff from auctions after being confident in the item being genuine.

Yep, the TPA opinions have their fair share of misses from what I've noticed. I've stopped relying on Beckett for example, since I've seen some Megadeth forgeries authenticated by them. I use mostly AutographCOA and sometimes JSA.

Thank you for commenting and sharing your opinion :)

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