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McCartney guitar in charity auction

A local church is having a charity auction this weekend. The big item up for grabs is a guitar signed Paul McCartney. After reading the thread about bad items ending up in charity auctions and knowing zero about Beatle related items, I humbly ask for opinions on this one.

If questionable, I'll email the church to find out who supplied the items and the COAs. Other items for auction are a Sly Stallone signed boxing glove, and signed photos of John Glen, Mickey Mantle, and Charlton Heston.

Thank you!

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Permalink Reply by Lofty on April 25, 2014 at 7:46pm

I'm a new forum member, and would just like to say well done to everyone who have contributed to this thread. Whilst it is unfortunate to see charlatans 'laundering' autographs by using the Church as a means to legitimise their dodgy forgeries, the manner in which you have come together to lend your assistance freely is an inspiration. What a great outcome! Well done to you all. May it continue.

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Permalink Reply by Brian on April 25, 2014 at 8:52pm

Hi Lofty - Welcome! I'm fairly new as well. This all started with me seeing an article in the paper and thinking the items might be too cool to be true. Having seen Roger Epperson's article on charity scams, I thought it was worth looking in to. I had no idea if the McCartney signature was good. But I knew people on here would. And look how everyone was ready to jump in and help. Pretty damn cool. Again, welcome aboard!

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Permalink Reply by Lofty on April 26, 2014 at 2:17am

Full kudos to you, Brian! I read the thread from the start, and it was great to see it evolve. With a bit of investigation work and the internet - and through forums such as these - it's a swindler's worst nightmare! :)
Thanks for the welcome, and all the best.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Gregory on April 26, 2014 at 12:27am

Amazing and huge respect to John and Steve and to everyone for doing this. Let's hope many other churches and charities read this and stop using Charity Grow and get Anthony Nurse put in jail.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Kasmar-AutographPros.com on April 26, 2014 at 7:10am

http://www.newstimes.com/local/article/Church-returns-McCartney-gui...

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Permalink Reply by Rock G III on April 26, 2014 at 7:21am

That made me smile.

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Permalink Reply by Cogo on April 26, 2014 at 7:25am

Great work by everyone! I´m proud to be a member of this site!!!

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Permalink Reply by Bruce Juice on April 26, 2014 at 11:39am

If you go to their website: http://www.charitygrow.com/about/

They show satisfied auction "winners" holding up fake Rolling Stones and Springsteen guitars, and a really bad Bono signed drawing among other things.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on April 26, 2014 at 1:09pm

That Bono sketch is pretty epic. Bad enough they sold these poor people crap. They also have to embarrass them with photos of them proudly showing off their forgeries.

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Permalink Reply by Josh Board on April 27, 2014 at 12:38am

Brian, I've never said this to another man before (not even my dad), but...I love you, man!!!

Now, can somebody PLEASE answer a question for me? What do the charities do, once they decide NOT to auction these items. Please, please, please...tell me, that instead of sending them back...they tell the charity to go piss off, and if they want the fake items back, they can sue them for them. Let THE BAD GUYS, take us, the good guys -- to court, to get bogus things back. Then, we can COUNTER SUE, and maybe the wheels will be set in motion. Otherwise, they'll still keep doing this crap!

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Permalink Reply by Brian on April 27, 2014 at 5:56am

I love you, too man!!! When I saw the initial article in the paper, the headline in my head was "small town church to auction off some of the most commonly forged autographs." I'm sure every person on here would've been just as excited to bring the discussion to the forum.

Steve might be able to comment. Once all the experts got involved, I was more than happy to step aside. But, I thinkCharityGrow came and picked up the items as stipulated in their contract. Sure, the church could've held the items and potentially got into a huge/expensive legal battle OR they could move on and channel that time/energy/money into putting food into the local food back. Which was the original intention. I wish they could make an example out of CharityGrow since they got busted in the act. But, I can't blame them for not wanting to get into a pricey legal battle, either. Especially if we, the collectors, aren't going to help fund the fight.

To be honest, there was a window of time this was all a little aggravating. I spent 30 minutes on the phone with the newspaper and it felt like the 2nd article was going to be them naming ME as the person going on record saying everything was fake. I had to beg them not to do that. I don't know anything about McCartney, Mantle, Stallone, Glen signatures. I just knew between everyone's opinion on here and the ties to Autograph Store, it was worth looking in to and talking to some experts. Then the cavalry (Steve, Roger, & John) arrived and progress was made. Before they got involved, I joked with my friends - the headline was going to be "Local man ruins church auction."

Moral of the story: If you see something, say something. But be ready to bang your head against the wall for a little bit. But, as we all know, its worth it.