Hello All,

Here are some suggestions for the new collectors. I am sure this list can be added to (call for additions!). It is just some things I thought of at the moment. In sum, shop around with an educated personal agenda with deliberate criterion. Knowledge is protection and power.

In no order:

Open a new folder and collect as many scans of known exemplars as you can of the subject noting venue, item, ink/pen, condition, sale date, price, # of bids etc.

Check as many online sales records and closed auctions as possible for like material (format (SP, ANS etc, size, condition vintage, signing style, contrast, placement etc.) and interpret the results. Is the still original or some copy photo? That sort of things - always buy the best example you can.

Run the sellers name through the Search Engine here.

Using Yander, Google Image Search TinEye and the like to locate any other images online of this item - you may find previous sales data or the same item for different amount from the same or different sellers on other platforms. Many sellers have different prices for the same item on eBay than in their own online store. Look for that.

Assume everything is an overpriced forgery and work from there.

Purchase last - after learning what is considered good, better and best. Knowing the usual inscriptions, dedications, pens, placement, type of item normally encountered, condition, even ink colors...knowing what it should look like and cost all give you the power of choice. Knowing the prices - what to expect to pay for what example, is paramount. Know your subject in every way. We have just seen a Joplin for sale that was released well after her death. There are many examples like that. Would so-and-so even sign that photograph? And so on...the item below reveals a disparity between the photograph and the credit for example. This can simply be observed and researched. It also bears a 1952 signature on a 1931 photo...I can't think of a signed photo of Lugosi in character as Dracula from those later years that was not taken at that time - C. 1947 on.

Here is an example recently brought up that exemplifies a lot of what was just mentioned and be easily avoided following some of the advice above:

This is a pastiche cut postcard created from an original 1953 SP and then cut and pasted/paired with a photo from 20 year earlier by a different photographer than credited on the cut.

$2,995.00

And then there is this 8" x 10" engraving by Goode on heavy card stock,  which was much less

"...commissioned by Lugosi from famed movie star portraitist Henry B. Goode (1882-1966),  boldly signed in blue fountain pen in the 1930s. The image was a favorite of the star's, given to dear friends, and would later be featured in Modern Monsters Magazine #2, issued in June of 1966..."

"...The drawings and oils [seen here] were generated by my grandfather, Henry Goode (pronounced "Goody"), who began painting boats sailing the blue Danube in Budapest at the age of 4-1/2. His art education continued on in Budapest, Paris and New York. Though he immigrated to the United States when but a teen and settled in New York, eventually he played cello in the New York Philharmonic orchestra with Victor Herbert; he also became prominent in the field of dress design.
It wasn't until he came to California in 1922 that landscape paintings and pen and inks of the classic silent screen and early stars of the 1930s and 1940s became his primary focus..."

$1,500

Which is preferrable?

Here is what the postcard really look like when I bought it for several hundred dollars - note the contrast and smudge. The photo was by Edith Sharpe, who was not the photographer for the Dracula photo added to the pastiche cut card. The signature style, sans "e" accent and much later in execution, is clearly 1952 and not 1931, as on my print.

Here are some links to some older threads on the same topic, starting off with a "golden" oldie:

Tips From an Old Time Collector Posted by SilentsGolden

This one I wrote but bears reposting I think:

Do You OWN Research. DON'T Trust TPG Blindly. Details & Dates D...

There are many, many more threads to read...

Here is something important brought to the fore recently by our own Eddy:

THE known secretarial style Joan Crawford featured on the PSA/DNA "...

This "authentication" of "Jackie Gleason" cost $50!

Some other general notions:

Don't buy on an empty stomach - literally or figurately.

Remember, there is NO RUSH.

Never buy "under the gun" or with little TIME (ending auctions etc.).

Deciding to say "NO" is an art.

Good prices fade, quality does not improve.

Avoid the bad sources. 

Give "stories" the weight they deserve. Ink speaks loudest.

"Photo Proof" is only good when you can see the exact item signed in the hands of the subject - like this: