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BEWARE... FAKE JSA COA'S ARE IN THE MARKET PLACE... HERE IS THE PROOF.....

After many years of speculation the proof is finally here.

I recently purchased a Matt Barkley signed USC jersey with JSA coa off of ebay. There was no clear photo of the coa, hologram or any mention of the coa number. I did however buy the jersey based on the fact that it was "authenticated" by JSA.

Please allow me to back up just a little bit. I have been collecting, selling and doing autograph signings for almost 20 years so i am in no means new to the whole autograph and "authentication" process.

At any rate I received the jersey in the mail within 4 days, once I opened the jersey I immediately realized that the signature was indeed a counterfeit. I am not by any means claiming to be an autograph expert or a Matt Barkley expert for that matter however without even comparing the signature to an "authentic" one I can tell that it was slowly signed with many stops and skips. I then was examining the coa card and being around the hobby for almost 20 years and seeing coas from JSA since they opened their business I realized that the feel of the paper that this coa was printed on was not the typical paper normally used for the JSA coa, I then decided to grab one of my own JSA coa's to compare to and this is where it all started to come together. (you will see from the photo's I post below)

I then decided to look on ebay and compare the signatures to others certed by JSA (because I am not an expert on Matt Barkley signatures). I came across a listing from another member selling a Barkley jersey so i pulled up the listing. I was surprised when I noticed that the coa number was in fact the same coa number I had on my jersey. After comparing the coa's I noticed the big mistakes made by the printers of these fake coa's. You will see this in my photo's that I post below.

ABOVE IS THE ORIGINAL EBAY LISTING FOR THE FAKE JERSEY WITH FAKE COA...

HERE IS THE REAL JERSEY WITH REAL JSA COA. NOTE THE COA NUMBER..

HERE IS THE FAKE JSA COA AND FAKE SIGNATURE (THIS IS NOW IN MY POSSESION)

HERE IS A CLOSE UP OF THE ORIGINAL JSA COA AND HOLOGRAM, PLEASE NOTICE THE (F42843) NUMBER ON THE COA AND COMPARE THIS COA TO THE ONE POSTED JUST ABOVE (THE FAKE ONE)..

HERE'S A CLOSE UP OF THE FAKE COA

HERE IS A CLOSE UP OF THE REAL JSA COA AND HOLOGRAM. NOTICE HOW PERFECTLY THE LETTER "F" LINES UP WITH THE NUMBERS..

HERE IS THE FAKE JSA COA, NOTICE 1) THE FONT IN THE NUMBERS AND HOW THEY ARE PRINTED ON TOP OF THE CARD AND NOT STAMPED INTO THE CARD LIKE THE JSA CARDS. 2) NOTICE HOW THE "F" AND THE NUMBERS ARE NOT LINED UP AS IT IS WITH THE REAL COA.

(apparently I cannot upload any other photo's for some reason because I have many more but I must have uploaded too many already on the site???)

I would like to clear up that this is in no way a shot on JSA, the purpose for me posting this is to inform other buyers that there are fake coa's out there in the hobby and what to look for when buying an item already authenticated. I can assure everyone that this is most likely not the only fake coa on the market, I am sure that there was not only 1 coa and sticker made only for a Matt Barkley jersey. I have heard that PSA/DNA has had the same issue which is why they now have a hologram burned into the coa's however no one has ever pointed out what to look for with the fake PSA/DNA coa's, hopefully it's as easy as this was to figure out.

I would also like to add that I did speak to a field agent from the FBI both yesterday and today and in fact have a meeting in Manhattan on Friday with a field agent from FBI.

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Comment by Scott Paul on September 26, 2012 at 8:22am: Peter, thank you very much that is great information. I just recently got back into collecting after about 25 years. Most I collect myself in person. The item I bought was only $29.95 an 8x10 signed by Al Lewis. I had never gotten a chance to meet him in person. I passed on many autographs by him but snapped at this with JSA stamp on it. The work that you and others do on this site is invaluable.

Comment by Michael T on September 27, 2012 at 1:52am: Any comment from JSA on this?

Comment by Michael T on September 27, 2012 at 1:54am: BTW the numbers not lining up with the letter on the COA is not enough to determine a fake COA (in my opinion) as I have seen legit JSA COAs with misaligned numbers. Just an FYI.

Comment by Peter leone on September 27, 2012 at 7:53am: Michael,

You are 100% correct, However I do not recall saying that the numbers and the letter not lining up was the determining factor of this being a fake coa.

I did however state that on the real coa the numbers and letter line up and the fake one do not to clearly point out that there is in fact 2 cert cards with the same exact numbers and are not even close to looking the same .

I understand an arguement can be made that JSA could have possibly reprinted a cert card or the machine could have printed 2 cert cards with the same number. But explain there being 2 holograms printed with the same exact number. Not likely..

Also JSA does NOT reprint cert cards they will just re-sticker the item and issue a new card. Also if the same machine printed 2 of the same cards the font size and color would be exactly the same. Furthermore take a look at the hologram's the font size on the numbers are not the same either. Also it just so happens that 2 items with the same exact numbers just so happen to be on 2 totally different items that don't even look alike? Very doubtful.

Trust me on this one, I did all of my homework and collected all of the facts before I put this together so that I was 100% sure before I brought this to light.

Comment by Michael T on September 27, 2012 at 1:40pm: Peter, I was not stating that you are wrong just clarifying that misaligned numbers and letter are possible on a real cert as well.

Comment by Scott Paul on September 29, 2012 at 12:07pm: This raises an interesting point does JSA have a system of verifying their own labels etc that is less than the $20 and up price they normally charge for a new item? I would think it would be in their interest to do so at lets say the $10 per item range to authenticate their sticker is genuine. Otherwise it will get to the point that their stamp of approval will be meaningless if fakes of their coa continue. For many autographs it would really eat into the value if you have to verify or have an item stamped again.

Comment by Steve Zarelli on September 29, 2012 at 7:24pm: Nice work. Thanks for sharing.

Comment by DB on September 30, 2012 at 4:01am: Peter - you might want to edit the subject as you have a title that says ... here is the fake one in my possession but underneath it you depict the $299 one.

This seller seems to fall into the pattern that McKnight has cited on a number of sellers on ebays. The only difference is you can get a read on the cert number magnified but the cert is very distorted as a result.

even with trying to mitigate the printing discrepancies away there can't be two EXACT JSA Stickers selling the exact same item. Since this seller follows the McKnight "pattern" it would appear to me a correct conclusion has been reached. btw this would be trademark infringement and I trust someone has alerted Spence.

However, I further muse as to would anyone have picked up on this being a fake COA if it had been clearly depicted?

Comment by DB on September 30, 2012 at 4:04am: incidently, This listing (221122905031) has been removed, or this item is not available and as such the sale has been cancelled.

Comment by Peter leone on September 30, 2012 at 1:36pm: Scott, I am not a big fan of the "Stamp" only because there is no true way to verify that they actually authenticated the item because there is no upload in the database. I understand why they have a cheaper way which is the "stamp" because if something has a value of under $20 why would they copy the stickers, however to someone that does'nt know any better they would'nt think twice because they see the sticker and just assume everything is ok.

I am not sure if anyone has seen it or is aware of the situation but a couple of years ago there was a slew of items listed on ebay with the "stamp" which had a value far above the $20 and were placed on 11x14 photo's and 16x20 photo's which JSA would not do. The most notable signature were Ichiro and Jeter which would never have a "stamp" no matter if it was a 3x5 index or 8x10 photo because the value is far more than $20.

DB, I did notice that once I posted the title but it was too late for me to change it. I am new to posting on here so I did the best I could with posting this subject.

I am not sure what the "McKnight pattern" is can you explain that to me?

The Numbers were distorted in the listing which is why it was'nt until I had the actual jersey that I noticed that the other jersey with the same number was also listed on ebay at the same time. I picked up a little on the coa card once I had it in hand because the paper was not the same as the real cert card but it was'nt until I saw the other jersey listed that I noticed there was 2 jerseys with the same numbers.

I was also notified that the listing was removed by ebay today however I contacted the seller the day after I contacted the FBI about this stating that I in fact contacted the FBI and that the jersey was being turned over to them this past Friday. The seller did refund me and had nothing to say about the jersey itself. I am assuming that the listing was removed because ebay was contacted by the FBI about this jersey which is now in the hands of the FBI as of this past Friday.