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REAL Elvis autographs

There has been a lot of confusion lately about Elvis Presley autographs due to a discussion that was recently posted. Elvis is one of the hardest autographs to authenticate as he had so many styles of signatures. After 20+ years of studying his autograph even I can get fooled every once and awhile. What messes up the forger is greed. The autograph gets too consistant for Elvis and they get caught. Recently a VERY good forger popped up and fooled me and others. The good thing is before the forgeries could be sold we figured out the forgeries and put a stop to this person. As you will see in this post "Elvis was consistantly inconsistant in the way he signed and wrote". There are though things he always did that show through though. All I am going to do here is post authentic signatures. I won't be explaining them in any way, that will be for you to do to educate yourselves. I will answer some questions though if needed. Enjoy!

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Permalink Reply by DB on September 9, 2011 at 8:08am

can you post the picture or identify the R&R auction number & lot? The good news is that if it is from R&R then they typically stand behind their sales.

Roger, imo, would be the one I would put in the 1st position for validation purposes when it comes to Elvis and the myriad of variations. There are others as well but Roger is here and has been helpful in the past and I suspect will be in the future.

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on September 9, 2011 at 8:20am

Roger's point about Frank and the beatles is valid. the other extreme are the third party authenticators that claim to be able to authenticate anything and everthing. that is why you see secretarials "authenticated" as real. Because they do not take the time to study and learn each and every signature they render an opinion on. In Roger's case, because he specializes in Rock and Roll, I would trust his judgement on for example, an Elvis signature, more than I would trust one of the big guys, because he spends the required time to learn as much about the signing habits as is humanly possible. Unless you get it in person, you can never be 100% certain. So your next best bet is to get an educated opinion. Roger will provide that.

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Permalink Reply by roger epperson on September 9, 2011 at 8:29am

Oh grand one Greg,

Now this is a person who understands the hobby. Learn from him, very cool, smart and level headed comment.

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Permalink Reply by roger epperson on September 9, 2011 at 8:38am

Please remember DB that the item here never was sold, delivered or returned by the customer. I was discovered That night when the auction ended. I will talk to those involved and see what kind of blog we can set up so the collectors will not get burned. Also take note that this forger was VERY good, just too consistant and greedy.

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Permalink Reply by DB on September 10, 2011 at 1:41am

Good pick-up Roger. Saved "by the bell" so to speak.. doesn't matter when they are caught so long as they are caught and removed. What triggered the 2ndary review if that can be shared. The consigner of the item most likely wasn't amused though. I always like looking at the specific item since I have horded many of the R&R catalogs as well as historical access then saving the picture for future non-authentic comparisons. What catalog/item# was it?

that would be a worthwhile blog while hopefully not aiding and abetting the forgers and their friends.

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Permalink Reply by Scott Johnson on September 9, 2011 at 8:47am

My point about Caiazzo was that I was wondering if there was someone out there that only did Elvis autographs. I understand it would be easier to just authenticate a few select autographs and mistakes are going to be made because it is only human nature. I still trust r&r and I have bought a couple of items from Roger in the past. I just want to make the best decision I can and purchase from someone who will stand behind the authenticity. It is hard to distinguish if the items on eBay have sellers who are willing to stand behind the authenticity and who has to authenticate the item in order to get your money back if you suspect the item is not authentic. I have looked at a few Elvis documents and still haven't felt totally comfortable, but with his checks I feel a little more comfortable and I know that there supposedly are not that many out in the marketplace.
As far as the auction number of the R&R Elvis I am not really sure. I deleted the email and don't know if it is listed under the completed auctions section. They told me when the seller had shipped more Elvis photos in to be sold that the suspicion began and that the seller was happy with the selling price even though it was much less than a legit signed photo should have gone for. If the seller hadn't been greedy I and they might have never known. At least they didn't follow through with the sale just to make their commission and I applaud them for that.

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Permalink Reply by roger epperson on September 9, 2011 at 9:21am

Great response Scott. Unfortunately there isn't enough money in doing just one autograph to make it worth the time it takes to learn and keep up with the forgers. Then you have people who attack your every move and then lawsuits start and more money is spent and next thing you know that authenticator decided to do something else. We just learned that from the best and most trusted authenticator of space autographs known to this world. His presence will be deeply missed to those who collect space. It tends to be not worth the constant attack from people who are either, not knowledgable in the field or who are selling forgeries and making up false statements and posting them all over the internet. It was the reason I stopped doing this site a few weeks back. I don't need the grief for doing something to help people for free. People like Greg on this site will go to any lengths to try to find and over expose a mistake I may have made. Never would he write about all the hundreds of thousands of dollars I have gotten collectors back from forged items. Never would he write about the hundreds of authentic Elvis items I have passed over the past 20 years. Instead he takes the Stephen Koschal path and tries to find an error you may have made in your past and sensationalize it on public blog sites. Sorry for the sopbox but your point was well taken. Thanks again Scott for all your support.

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Permalink Reply by Matt on September 9, 2011 at 10:45am

Don't leave Roger. You already saved me $150 in the two days I've been here :)

This isn't exactly directed at Elvis, I'm sure it still applies, but does every autograph (from one celebrity) have one thing that is always spot on the same? Like for instance let's take the three Elvis pictures you posted in your original post. Right after "El" I see three hills and then the "y" begins. Would this be something to look for? Or do you use a different method to compare signatures?

It just seems so hard to guess if something looks legit or not because a number of things could have happened while signing. The King could have been rushed and just scribbled instead of signing it nicely. Or maybe he was bumped while signing (maybe why the "y" is so messed up in the first picture?) Or maybe it's just a shaky-handed forger?

Not sure if any of that made sense but I guess my main question is what is the #1 thing you look at when you first try to figure out if something is authentic or not?

Sorry if this noob question is not cool haahaahah

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Permalink Reply by roger epperson on September 9, 2011 at 11:23am

Matt,

I'm not going anywhere for now. Thank you for the kind words.

Elvis is by far one of the hardest autographs to authenticate. As you can see the many variations he made even during the same period makes it so very hard. Bob Dylan is probably the hardest, I have studied him though the most. He's my favorite, ok add Tom Waits. The very first thing to look for in an Elvis autograph is that the "E" in "Elvis" is NEVER taller then the "L" following it. There may be one oddball one somewhere that someone with way too much time on their hands may be able to dig up and agrue about but that is the #1 rule of thumb. You will see that in all of the examples I posted. Hope that helps.

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Permalink Reply by Matt on September 9, 2011 at 12:13pm

Oh wow I totally see that. Gracias :)

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Permalink Reply by Kyle M. on September 9, 2011 at 4:21pm

I have a question. Elvis was known to be really nice and sign a lot. How many real ones do you think have survived and are out there in the world?

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Permalink Reply by roger epperson on September 10, 2011 at 8:49am

From I was told he was very friendly, some of the TCB weren't as kind though. It's hard to make a guess as to how many authentic ones survived as I don't think that even a quarter of the ones given out have ever hit the market. From 1954-58 he probably signed thousands of things. He toured as an opening act for Hank Sr. and people would "settle" for Elvis's autograph as Hank was tough to get near. Then add to it the 60's where he was a movie star then the 70's when he was mainly playing Vegas but also toured endlessly. Who really knows?