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U2 By U2 (Again)

I originally pulled this a few days ago, when I thought that the seller might listen to reason. But it appears that he's ok duping someone out of their cash, so I consider him fair game.

Some of you probably remember this topic from last year, when one of the forum members was trying to find an authentic copy of U2 by U2 from either the New York or UK book signings. Well, I stumbled upon this last weekend:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/U2-BY-U2-AUTOGRAPHED-FIRST-EDITION-COFFEE-T...

The "autographs" he suggests look to be authentic examples from the Barnes and Noble signings in 2006 are anything but. Every book has the preprints, even though there are a couple of variations. I contacted him and told him I in fact have the EXACT same preprints (see photo of my book below). I mentioned other problems (Larry and Adam no longer sign in that manner, the books were signed on the same title page, most were personalized, ones that were sold on ebay went for hundreds of dollars, etc.). I pointed out that the way the R's look in Larry show they are not even actual pen strokes. He's STILL not convinced. I tried to help this guy out, thinking that he just didn't know enough about it. Obviously I had it all wrong. Even with the most rock solid proof available that these aren't hand-signed, he won't pull the auction. Granted, he's not stating that they're 100% authentic, but he knows that there's no question that they're not. Pretty unethical, to put it mildly.

Here's my IDENTICAL copy of the facsimile sigs:

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Permalink Reply by Rich on May 23, 2012 at 5:03pm

Ha, yeah. There were no bids until a couple hours ago. I wouldn't be surprised if he was shill bidding his own order up to make it look like there's actual interest.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on May 23, 2012 at 5:31pm

Isn't that magical. Someone just paid $143 for something they could have bought off Amazon for maybe $15.

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Permalink Reply by Travis Christenberry on May 23, 2012 at 5:42pm

I guess if your gonna buy a fake you might as well buy a facsimile fake. A lot cheaper than the real thing as well.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on May 23, 2012 at 7:16pm

Yeah, it could have been a whole lot worse for sure.

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Permalink Reply by J.Seah on May 23, 2012 at 8:25pm

Saw this same book with the facsmile signatures at the flea market for $10.00 over the weekend at Long Beach, CA.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on May 23, 2012 at 9:15pm

They all have it, although there seems to be at least one alternate pattern that has signatures more closely reflective of how the band signs these days. The Mullen and Clayton are updated to modern-day examples, while the Bono looks more like a Bono sig than the somewhat awkward example above.

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Permalink Reply by Travis Christenberry on May 23, 2012 at 8:36pm

What do you think the deal was with that "silver smear" on his Bono facsimile? Done by the seller or someone else?

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Permalink Reply by Rich on May 23, 2012 at 9:04pm

I think it's a printing error of some sort. Looks like the ink splattered more than it was smudged. The seller thought that was some sort of "proof" that it was really signed, then after several emails mentioned that he was able to scratch some more of the ink, which was somehow supposed to really prove that it was hand signed.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on May 24, 2012 at 10:21am

The more I look at it, the more I realize that they look like early 80's examples, which is also a dead giveaway that the 2006 book is not authentically signed.