What to Watch Out For When You See Autographs For Sale

If you love nothing more than collecting the autographs of your heroes then you must ensure that you are always on the watch out for scams and fakes. Sadly there are a great number of people who have autographs for sale which are in fact just copies of the real thing. You can never truly know whether or not what you are buying is a fake or not and the best rule of thumb here is that if you are at all suspicious, don’t buy it. Knowledge can help you out too and here are some of the signs that you may be looking upon an autograph which is not genuine.

Auto Pen

Auto pens are used by people like politicians when they are required to sign a huge number of letters and documents. These pens simply copy the autograph of the person who is signing and then copies it identically on each document. Unlike an authentic autograph however an autopen uses the same width and rhythm of the each line and this is how you can spot that it has been created by one of these pens. Autographs are very often irregular which is why you can spot these easily.

Pre-Print

A great way to see if something was pre-printed with an autograph is to hold up the picture or the poster to a light and if the autograph lights up the same as the rest of the picture, it is a fake. Autographs are always added later which means that they should show up a purple color when you do hold it to the light.

Stamping

Another smart way in which people try to fool us with fake memorabilia is to create a stamp of a person’s signature and then simply stamp each product that they want to. Thankfully this is also quite easy to spot and you need to investigate fully if you believe that the autograph has been stamped on, rather than it being a genuine autograph. The edges of the autograph will be thicker than the center and the ink will have more than likely bled a little around the edges of the lines. If you see an autograph like this then you should be suspicious.

Forgeries

Forgeries can be easy or difficult to spot, it really comes down to how good at forging the person is. In most cases however we can spot these forgeries because they look as though they have been written very slow and very carefully. This is of course not how most people sign their name and most do so with speed and with reckless abandon. If you see lines which stop and start or looks shaky, it is likely that it is a forgery and you should leave it alone.

Remember that if you are at all suspicious about an autograph and there is no validation of authenticity, it is best to assume it to be fake and leave it alone.