I recently purchased an entire archive of Secretary of the Treasury under Truman, John W. Snyder. Going through this archive has been enlightening on a number of levels. Illustrated here are some examples that will be valuable to Truman collectors and are published for the first time.

1. March 3, 1939 Authentically signed by Truman as Senator
2. May 2, 1940 proxy signed letter "Harry S. T. by BWT" unquestionably signed for the Senator by his wife and future first lady Bess…

This WILL be another great show.

I will attend to cover it! Check it out if you like Faeries, Pirates, Wizards, Dragons, and much much more in this genre!

http://www.renconvention.com/w hat.html

Plus stay tuned for more info by me on the Farpoint Convention a couple weeks ago.

I interviewed Lauire Holden…

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https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/74133554?profile=original

With the expansion of information found on the internet, it's likely that many of these unknowing buyers are going to eventually find out that they've been scammed from one of the many major autograph forgery dealers out there.  With this being said, it's absolutely not too late no matter how much time has gone by for you to seek redemption.

First, be sure the items you purchased are 100% forgeries.  Start by doing a Google search for the seller's name along with the word "Scam" "Fake…

Can someone answer me this question, or give me some insight as to why this is being done?

There is a dealer on Ebay that goes by the name "frogtown". They are a book dealer that has gone heavily into buying autographs at auctions, at prices that are high end auction prices. Once they win the item it is posted on Ebay at an unreal price.

I get the fact that this is good for the auction house, it's seller, and that it's a free country, but "Why?"

Is it…

Assume the autographs are fake.

I can tell you with my decades of experience in this industry and having researched and examined millions of autographs, the greatest majority of autographs you are going to consider purchasing are going to be fake.  The FBI documented that their estimation is around 80% of online autographs are fake.  I can tell you with the premium names, especially in rock and roll music autographs, the % of forgeries out there is much higher.  While…

Authenticity is everything in autographs. Some are satisfied with certification by certain third-party authenticators, and others don't like or use any of them. Many particularly don't like them issuing opinions on autographs they've sold.

The more orderly the marketplace and the safer we make it for collectors, the more the autograph market will grow.

So here's the question:

Is it time for the autograph hobby to set up official expert authentication boards in each…

Ms. Russell passed away today.  She was scheduled in a couple of weeks to appear at the Hollywood Autograph Show in Chicago in a couple of weeks.  I did luckily have a chance to meet her and get her autograph in Chicago in 2005.  She was a great person to talk to and a nice lady.  

[Editor's Note:  Dave Wakefield photos were added Feb. 23, 2011]

February 22, 2011—In 2009 and 2010, the Internet Autograph Dealer Alliance (IADA-CC) published several articles about…

I was watching one of those Antique Roadshows type of reality shows. It deals with people that go to storage units and buy them at auctions (the ones that people abandon). They often find autograph stuff in those.

They found what was claimed to be a "First edition" copy of Gone With the Wind, signed by the author. They had it checked, it was deemed to be a forgery. And the book wasn't "first edition."

(the Nazi handbook they had was real, and sold for around a thousand…

Hello,

In a few weeks, I'm on television with my collection !!!

The people from the TV have make there reportage at my home this afternoon !!!

Tukufu Zuberi (left) of PBS’s “History Detectives” interviews Westport, CT autograph expert John Reznikoff University Archives. Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

A PBS “History Detectives” series crew spent last Monday with University Archives' president John Reznikoff…