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Permalink Reply by Chad Kessler on March 27, 2017 at 2:02pm

Philip Seymour Hoffman - this was Signatures In Time (usually incredibly reliable) but I've looked at other in-person/PSA-DNA authenticated pieces that look nothing like this one so I almost have to side with PSA/DNA on this one....

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Permalink Reply by Chad Kessler on March 27, 2017 at 2:04pm

Will Smith - also circa around 1998 - from Sign...Here - also fills me with fear considering I have at least 60 photos I purchased from Greg before he sold the business....

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Permalink Reply by Rich on March 27, 2017 at 5:14pm

Do you mean the "Sign Here" referred to in this post?

http://live.autographmagazine.com/forum/topics/sign-here-autographs...

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Permalink Reply by Brian Keeling on March 29, 2017 at 8:37am

My very first job was in an autographed memorabilia store owned and run by one of the most "reputable" dealers in Las Vegas when I was 17. I was so naive I thought anything on any wall in any memorabilia store in the world was real because who the hell would have the audacity to put forgeries on their wall in their place of business and sell them to people?

Some of my bosses customers were some of the most well-known lawyers and doctors in Las Vegas whose commercials I used to see on TV. One of his clients was a former mayor of Las Vegas. He also had two important city council members as his customers... My boss had a reputation as a reputable dealer but I started seeing very shady things around the shop. I remember one day he had no less than 100 mini helmets, unsigned, sitting on top of the glass cases when I left and closed the shop at 6 p.m. when I came back the next day every single one of these mini helmets was signed by somebody. Another time there was a blank Chicago Bears helmet in the store, and I'm a big Bears fan, and this was a helmet that was different because it had the face cage like a linebacker. I thought it was cool, so I had this helmet on my head all day walking around the shop...I closed up the shop at 6 p.m. and when I came in at 10 a.m. the next day, said helmet was signed by both Dick Butkus, and Gale Sayers.

This taught me never ever ever to purchase the reputation of an autograph dealer. My boss was a great guy with a great personality and he didn't seem like a criminal d-bag but he was.

I became obsessed with learning how to authenticate autographs myself and I developed my own style. I use 4 or 5 authentic examples to try an authenticate the one I'm thinking about purchasing by searching for a signers habits. I also value the opinions of a lot of the posters on this website. They can be very helpful. This method has served me well. I have bought hundreds and hundreds of pictures submitted them to PSA DNA and very few of them have come back to me without a sticker and a cert.


Buy the graph not the paper

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