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Beatles Magical Mystery Tour set- copy?

There are a lot of great items available at auction this next week and I recognize most of them from the last 20 years but this new one on R&R has got me doubting myself and could use some help.

It looks great but a little too familiar... anyone remember this one that was signed for the boy in the opening scene of the movie that sold at Bonhams like 5 years ago and again at Gotta Have It last year...

Is it possible that these were signed immediately after each other? There are extremely subtle differences in each signature but they are 99.9% identical. I would love to hear your thoughts.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on July 15, 2018 at 11:24am

Good eye, good memory, Ryan. These are far too close for comfort.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on July 15, 2018 at 12:00pm

We've seen similar to this before.

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on July 15, 2018 at 12:34pm

way too close

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Permalink Reply by michelle on July 15, 2018 at 12:35pm

dead spooky

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Permalink Reply by BallroomDays67 on July 15, 2018 at 12:55pm

There are quite a few subtle differences, but seemingly too many similarities.

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Permalink Reply by michelle on July 15, 2018 at 1:07pm

my personal belief is that there are too many beatles sets being sold for by auctions for them all to be authentic , after all there were only a finite number that could have been signed

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Permalink Reply by Ryan on July 15, 2018 at 1:11pm

Ok, here are the 2 spots that I think prove that they are copies.

1.) The first G in George has the exact ink splatter in the exact same spots (although one is signed in black and the other in blue). Different pens, identical blotting problem?

2.) The McC part of Paul's comes to a point at the top of the CC in the first one while the same spot in the 2nd one looks as if the point has been "erased". Did Paul make the exact same shape but cut it short, or did the pen go dry and then start up again right at the right spot coming back down the C? Don't think so.

This is exactly why I save photos of all the sets I've seen over the years. People are getting pretty good at this!

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on July 15, 2018 at 1:22pm

What if these are within reason if signed at the same time?

What about comparing other known genuine examples that could have been signed at the same time to see how similar they can be to each other?

For instance, comparing McCartney's "High in the Clouds" autographs. Are some so similar they look spookily identical?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on July 15, 2018 at 1:29pm

I think my original opinion was probably wrong. There are a lot of small differences.

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Permalink Reply by Ryan on July 15, 2018 at 1:35pm

Yeah, that's what I originally thought but here are a couple other examples that were signed with the same pens and they're wildly different. I don't know if I've ever seen two beatles sets they are as close as these.

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Permalink Reply by Ryan on July 15, 2018 at 1:40pm

Also, as I have noticed over the years, George never seems to write over or even near the others' signatures. He usually goes out of his way to separate his auto from the others and will most often sign smaller to avoid intrusion. This one seems to almost run into the others and is huge. There is no order or flow to the order of the signatures. Usually by 1967 they are in a "vertical list" style unless there is a restriction in the space available. Not the case here.