Authenticity is Everything
The Penguin John Lennon Signed Book 1973
Hi everyone! I bought this John Lennon signed book about 9 years ago. I posted it here on AML back then. At that time, I think everyone who commented on it said it was absolutely authentic. It also came with an LOA from Beatles super collector GARY HEIN back in 1999. I believe Gary was a very highly-respected Beatles collector who owned Hein’s Rare Collectibles. I think he even contributed to articles on Beatles autographs.
Last year, I put it up for sale on eBay, and I did a Quick Opinion with Beckett. Becket returned a judgement of “LIKELY TO PASS FULL AUTHENTICATION”. I decided to hold on to it and took it off eBay. Well just last week I reposted it on eBay. I received an offer, but then the potential buyer stated he did a Beckett Quick Opinion and it came back, “UNLIKELY TO PASS FULL AUTHENTICATION”.
So what do you all think? Personally, I think this is CLEARLY AUTHENTIC. I’d also like to know who does Beckett Quick Opinions because I think sometimes they are young part-time employees who sometimes error on the side of caution. BUT MISTAKES LIKE THIS REALLY HURT SELLERS who are selling authentic items. I’m pretty sure that if I sent this in for Full Authentication, it would easily pass. But in the meantime Beckett just ruined a sale for me.
So is this authentic like I believe? And why did Beckett return “Likely To Pass” to me, but “Unlikeky To Pass” to someone else? It’s very frustrating.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by BallroomDays67 on
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It still looks good to me. I don’t have any confidence in their Signature Review service.
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Permalink Reply by James on
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Thanks, Ballroom. I don’t have much faith in these QO services. And they can really be detrimental to sellers when they just throw an opinion without much consideration. I guess that’s why they’re “quick” opinions.
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I feel confident this would pass PSA/DNA, JSA, and Beckett for full authentication. Do you feel the same? And is there one authentication service you would recommend over the other among those three services?
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Who knows. Keep in mind that a nice Ringo signature cut from the signed edition of “A Day In the Life” failed both PSA and Beckett. Anything is possible. Also, if it’s submitted to Beckett, it could possibly end up with the same authenticator who issued the Signature Review. I honestly wouldn’t know which of the three to recommend.
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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on
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"Keep in mind that a nice Ringo signature cut from the signed edition of “A Day In the Life” failed both PSA and Beckett. Anything is possible."
+1 I remember that. A good reminder never to cut.
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Permalink Reply by JDZelenka on
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It's an oft forged era for Lennon and I have looked at a lot over the years and owned a few. It is extremely wayward even for him but the inscription and date are clearly his handwriting. So it's a thumbs up from me. You would need a judgement from Frank Caiazzo or Tracks to convince me of otherwise.
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Thanks, JD. When you say “extremely wayward even for him” what do you mean?
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I would take that to mean very atypical or the like. Hand and doodle look fine to me too but it might be a hard sell to another, or perhaps affect price. This is a tough period as noted above.
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Thanks, Eric. So it’s a tough period because of many Lennon forgeries? Or for sellers in general? Or both?
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The signature is large and not much care has been taken in the letters formation so it looks atypical for the period. That was what I meant by wayward. The reason I say it is a difficult period is because John's signature had changed a lot since the 1960s with a different capital J in the 70s and as the decade progressed the signature became more scribbly and abbreviated. This is a gift to forgers who have something less substantial to try to copy and can try to pass off scribbly forgeries as scribbly John signatures.
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+1
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Permalink Reply by Raul Serrano on
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In my opinion, this is John's signature and handwriting. It's probably a bit rushed, but it has the basic elements to be considered genuine.
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