I have been blogging and writing magazine articles about autograph collecting in general since the mid-90s. I can't believe it's been almost 25 years!

My latest adventure is trying my hand at videos. While I am a professional authenticator specializing in astronaut autographs, my videos will be a mix of space-related and more general for a wider range of interests.

With that, I invite you to check out the first episode of "Collectibles Chat," which focuses on removing a Mickey…

On April 12, 1961, Soviet Air Force pilot Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space. Launched aboard his Vostok spacecraft, Gagarin orbited the Earth and beat American Alan Shepard into space by 23 days. 

On March 27, 1968, Yuri Gagarin was killed in a training flight crash at the age of 34.

Despite not being as much of a "household name" as Alan Shepard, John Glenn or Neil Armstrong, Gagarin is a tremendous historical figure and there is strong demand for his…

Astute collectors know that crooked sellers use phony proof pictures to sell their fakes all the time. They steal images from other signings, pluck a photo from an internet search, and so on.

These so-called proof pictures rarely prove anything, but in this case, it proves the item is a fake, or at least, it is not the same photo that is being offered!

Here is a photo supposedly signed by Joe DiMaggio, Whitey Ford, Billy Martin and Mickey Mantle.…

What are the top five most dangerous space autographs? What space autograph is fake 75% of the time in my opinion? You may be surprised at some of the names.

I wrote the attached article for the Fall 2014 edition of the UACC magazine, Pen & Quill. I am pleased to share it here for your reading…