 AUTOGRAPH COLLECTORS AGAINST FAKES |
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A Few Tips For The Novice Buyer If you buy an autograph on eBay, there is a very good chance it could be a fake.Here are a few tips to help you avoid buying one of the many fake autographs on eBay.
1) Avoid buying from sellers using private bidding. They will tell you that they make their listings private to stop their customers being poached. In reality, it is so that people with more experience cannot warn you that you are bidding on a fake. 2) Try to only buy from recommended dealers, or ask on the collectors group if you have any doubts. 3) Only ever accept a lifetime guarantee, never 14, 21 or 30 days. If an item is real, it is real. Forever ! 4) A Certificate of Authenticity actually certifies nothing, has no legal meaning and is usually issued by the seller himself. How many sellers do you think will say anything other than "this is genuine" ? 5) Feedback actually counts for very little, so take it with a pinch of salt. If the buyer knew it was a FAKE, they would not have bid. There are fake sellers with feedback in the thousands on eBay ! All this means is they have ripped off thousands of honest customers. 6) Educate yourself ! You will find how difficult it is to get a squad signed top 4 shirt for £50 ! Liverpool and Manchester United players are becomingly increasingly difficult for signing and as such, the time spent compiling a squad signed shirt means they are unlikely to be offered for less than several hundred pounds. If an eBay seller is offering Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United squad signed items on 1 or 3 day auctions every day of the week, then he is, without doubt, selling fakes. He will also be selling them on private bidding. STAY AWAY. 7) THINK! If a total stranger walked up to you in a pub and offered you a signed 10x8 glossy photo of Al Pacino for a tenner, would you trust it to be authentic? No? So why do that very thing on eBay? 8) Check out the sellers other autographs for sale (and sold), if they have A-list and hard to get autographs week in week out, avoid them. No dealer has a limitless supply of Britney Spears, Pacino, Madonna, Ali, etc all the time. 9) If it looks to good to be true, it generally is. There ARE bargains to be had, but a dealer selling an unlimited supply of A list items for a fiver, day in day out ? Not in the real world. 10) A photo of a celebrity signing an item means nothing, think about it. It does not mean that the autograph you will receive is the one being signed in the photo. Many forgers download these pic's from the net to fool buyers. 11) If the seller is selling rare and hard to get autographs at good prices, look at the feedback and see if any of our approved dealers are buying them. NO? Ask yourself why that is, if they were that good (and authentic), trust me, dealers would snap them up. 12) Join our ebay community group AUTOGRAPH COLLECTORS - great advice from some of the most knowledgeable collectors and dealers in the world. 13) Don't be afraid to ask questions. Ask where the seller got the autograph. If bought from another dealer, ask which one. Keep asking questions until you are satisfied with the answers. 14) Be especially careful with multi-signed items, most are fake. If Harry Potter, Star Trek, Star Wars multi-signed posters were that easy to get, every dealer would have them. They all don't, that should tell you something. Remember that almost all our approved dealers do this full time, it's their chosen career. They will do the private signings and the autograph and memorabilia shows. 15) There has been a big increase in signed football shirts, most are fake. Make sure you only buy from registered dealers, there are a few who specialize in sport memorabilia, but very very few will be able to provide you with squad signed items from the likes of the big 4 due to the time it takes to complete them. You can pick one up for £50 on eBay, sure... but it is a 99% certainty that it will be a pitiful, worthless fake. 16) A fake autograph is not just one that a forger has produced on his home computer. There are also autopens, secretarial, rubber-stamped, pre-printed. Most A-list stars will use one of these to send out in the post. John Travolta, Clint Eastwood, Al Pacino, Paul Newman, Robert Redford are just a few who use one of these. Happy hunting folks and remember that when it comes to fakes - together we can beat them. FURTHER READING
How To Avoid Fake Autograph Dealers
AND IF IN DOUBT... CHECK OUT OUR RECOMMENDED DEALERS
ACAF Approved Autograph Seller Membership Number : AD001
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ACAF : PO BOX 1051 : BB9 4BH |
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