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Permalink Reply by Dan Morris on September 5, 2020 at 1:14am

Previous discussion on this seller is here:

https://live.autographmagazine.com/forum/topics/spyrograph-and-cels...

A real mix of good, bad, and secretarial signatures so best to post any items here before purchasing!

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Permalink Reply by Collette on October 25, 2023 at 3:09pm

In July 23 I emailed Jonathan Button of Regis Autographs with the intention of purchasing a Patrick Swayze autograph as a gift for my sister. I explained to him that I had already had an unfortunate experience purchasing one before contacting him, so asked did the autograph he had come with a certificate of authenticity. He responded to me promptly saying that he did not provide COA’s, but rather a “guarantee of authenticity” from himself instead. He told me there were two authentication houses in the US whom he trusted, but owing to the expense involved in sending the volume of items he has in his collection, he didn’t ever bother to do so.

I replied saying that I would still like to gift my sister an autograph accompanied with a authentication certificate, and so asked him if I were to purchase the autograph he was selling and got it authenticated independently, what authentication house did he recommend that I send it off to. He advised either JSA or Beckett. In all honesty I had already done my own research on which authentication houses were considered most reputable, but was asking Jonathan Button which one he would recommend as a kind of test of his confidence in the autograph and it’s ability to pass an authenticity review. This would also help me figure out his general trustworthiness.

So I bought the autograph and sent it off to Beckett in Plano, Texas. This cost in excess £100 inclusive of packaging and shipping etc.

It took around 2 months for Beckett to review the item, so you can imagine my huge disappointment when they came back to me saying that they deemed the autograph to be an inauthentic forgery. They included a detailed report outlining the many reasons they had arrived at this conclusion. Some examples included an inconsistent slant to the lettering of the signature and indications that the pen had been lifted on and off the page at multiple points, indicating that the signature had been written in multiple stages rather than a continuous and fluid movement.

So I contacted Jonathan informing him of the unfortunate outcome and asked him for a refund. To be clear I was not asking for him to reimburse me the authentication costs I had unduly incurred, although it would have been perfectly reasonable of me to have asked, as this man knowingly sold me a fake autograph despite knowing that I was going to attempt to get it authenticated. He agreed to refund me the £220 I had paid if I sent the autograph back, at a cost to myself however. Furthermore, upon reviewing the initial email exchange we’d had prior to my purchase, I noticed that he had detailed acquiring the autograph in 2016 at the London Piccadilly theatre. However this is an absolute impossibility as Patrick Swayze died in 2009. Unfortunately I did not notice this discrepancy until after the fact, but when I asked him to explain it he just simply said it was a typo.

I was happy to leave the issue right there as long as Jonathan was true to his word and refunded me once he had received the autograph back in the mail. He did in fact refund me, however he also sent me a nasty little email after the fact.

In this email Jonathan said how I was “distrustful” and “odd” to have “gone behind his back” to get the autograph authenticated by Beckett. He further added that Beckett “made their money by failing items”.

As you can imagine I found these comments to be absolutely mind blowing given that it was Jonathan himself that had recommended Beckett to me, and their authenticity process works as such that they are paid the same amount regardless of the items eventual ascertained validity. Furthermore, I clearly stated prior to purchasing the autograph that I intended to send it off for review.

Jonathan then went on to say that he would be re-listing the item for sale on his website, as he had “total confidence” in it. I am of the opinion that his intent to re-list the item was his actual reason for sending me an email full of confusing and contradictory statements. I feel this was his attempt to justify and legitimise the fact that he was about sell what he knows to be a proven bogus piece of memorabilia.

I appreciate that this was a very lengthy post but felt it necessary in order to explain the full situation and the risks involved with dealing with Jonathan Button of Regis Autographs based in Bognor Regis, UK.

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