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Noob here. Looking for help to see if TFA Poster with Abrams, Lucas, Williams, Ford + more is legit.

Hi all,

I'm new around here and I'm also new to the collecting scene.

I remember when TFA premiered in December there were quite a few Theatrical Posters signed by the cast, crew and George Lucas. I can't tell you how desperately I wanted one of these but could not afford it at the time.

Flash forward to today, I have some money saved up and I saw one of these pieces on Ebay.

But before I drop 1.5 grand on this thing, I figured someone on here might be able to help me see if these signatures are legit.

Many Thanks in Advance

This is the listing:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/162109381661?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&a...

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These are the initial questions I asked the guy:

Hello, due to your feedback rating I see you are new to eBay.

I am interested in this piece but I have a few questions.

First of all, where/when were these signatures obtained?

Did you obtain them yourself? If not where did you get this piece from?

Who has issued the COA? Can I look it up online for myself?

Item says 31x44 including the frame. I'm assuming that the poster itself is a 27 x 40 original theatrical poster correct?

I cannot consider purchase of this item without these details.

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This was his response

Hello:
Thanks for your interest in one of our items.
The majority of movie posters from current films (1990s and up) are obtained in signing sessions. Movie actors have a contractual obligation with the studios or their agents to do signings. It’s part of their deal. So don’t expect there to be a great story behind the signings of movie posters. And if there were a great story behind it, that poster would go for thousands of dollars (i.e. a poster signed after an Academy Awards after party, etc…) We know that this particular poster was signed on set, and there must be at least 100 or so in circulation.
The dimensions of the poster include the frame, but the poster itself is standard theatrical 27x40.
Like any other antique/collectible dealer, we obtain our posters from known distributors in the USA and the certificate is issued by Antiquities of California. You can visit Antiquities at www.antiquitiesca.com to verify their legitimacy. Antiquities of California and Antiquities of Las Vegas have been in this business for over 30 years. Their shop in Vegas is in the Caesars Forum Shops, just to add some extra credibility.
The numbered decal is issued at the time of framing and will be logged after framing. Once you obtain the poster, any 3rd party assessor or authenticator can access their database to get confirmation of it’s authenticity.

To further assure your buyer protection, we take returns of up to 30 days to give you enough time to do your due diligence if needed. And you are fully protected under eBay and Paypal.

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And this was my response to that. Have no received a reply yet.

Hi thanks for your response.

I will look into this further but for now I just have one additional question.

You said this poster was signed on set.

The theatrical posters were not designed and printed until well after principal photography was completed.

Additionally, George Lucas famously did NOT visit the set of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" at all.

Can you please clarify this?

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Permalink Reply by Pete Bendu on July 12, 2016 at 9:43am

As you have likely already figured out, this is 100% a forgery.

Remember all those posters that you saw with the fancy holograms and Letters from the studio? They were all fake too.

You were lucky not to have the funds at the time the film premiered, as it saved you a nice chunk of change.

Being new to this Star Wars world of autographs, please feel free to ask around about who I am. If there is a collector of Star Wars autographs that you know online or elsewhere, they can likely tell you who I am.

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Permalink Reply by Pete Bendu on July 12, 2016 at 9:55am

The seller may not even know that he bought a bad piece, so knowing where to point the blame on these fake posters has been quite tricky.

Every major film release in the last decade or so, has had these exact same faked studio hologram posters flood the market at the time of the premiere.

On a side note, and just for your knowledge, there was indeed a small signing of the TFA cast all on posters for charity giveaways and the like. There were no holograms and no letters of authenticity.

The only signers were JJ Abrams, Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley signed "Daisy", Adam Driver, John Boyega, Lupita Nyongo signed "Lupita", Oscar isaac and Gwendoline Christie.

As you can see, each signer signed the same way in the same places with the same pens. No Lucas, no Fisher, no Daniels, no Pegg. Exactly 8 people signed these actual charity posters and they were signed during the Press junket. No one is sure how many were signed, but they were handed out to cast, crew and Disney executives for donation to their charities of choice or for Radio contests or the like.

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Permalink Reply by Mike T on July 12, 2016 at 10:09am

Good on your for checking here first!

All the signatures are forgeries, and if you search around for Antiquities of California, you will see they are a well known forgery outfit.

To my knowledge, Lucas did not attend any of the premiers, and I have seen very few TFA items signed by him.

You might be thinking of the charity posters that were signed when the cast first arrived in LA. They look like this, for the most part, give or take some of the placement of the autographs:

A poster where all the signatures were obtained in person by a collector looks something like this, and if one of them were to come up for sale, I would know the seller.