Avoiding the Pitfalls

But when you collect, you must be vigilant; counterfeits are legion!

Until the early 2000s, many American companies made a living from the autograph trade—too many companies. The FBI began investigating this lucrative business that was enriching a good number of limited companies. And then came the crash, a market purge. Dozens of companies were unmasked, prosecuted, and convicted. Fakes, forgeries, and counterfeits everywhere. Pallets of fake autographs! This industry took a hard hit. It was necessary. Today, the number of survivors can be counted on two hands at most. Those who have passed the benchmarks of recognition, those who were able to prove that what they brought to market was authentic, those you can trust. They are so few in number that I will even mention the best among them:

- JSA, James Spence Authentication: they know their stuff when it comes to sports history.

- Beckett: mainly specialized in sports autographs, but also manages the entertainment field.

- Celebrity Authentics: they only sell cinema items, and have the significant distinction of providing a hologram and, in 97% of cases, a photo of the personality signing the item (photo, poster, object...). I don't know of any better guarantee of authenticity.

- PSA and PSA/DNA, Professional Sports Authenticator: also specialized in sports autographs, they sometimes authenticate stars from the big screen. This company was actually created in the late 90s in response to this necessary cleanup in the world of autographs.

- SWAU, for Southwestern Adventist University: a very serious company that only markets or re-markets authentic items. I discovered them late and am pleasantly surprised by the quality of their offerings.

- Then there are these two companies that are also "secure": RadtkeSports and Pristineauctions.

Companies identified by the FBI and blacklisted everywhere:

• A&J Enterprises
• Aladdin Collectibles
• All Sports Cards & Memorabilia
• Autographs by Mail
• Baseball Card Barn
• General Pictures
• Grand Slam Memorabilia
• Hall of Fame Sports Gallery
• Hollywood Don’s
• Hollywood Memories
• Jungleka98
• Laura’s Cartoons
• LLN Enterprises, Autographs by Mail
• Madison Sports
• Power Sports
• Reel Memories, Hollywood Memories
• Round Five
• Smokey’s
• Sports Cards
• Sports Legends Memorabilia, American Memorabilia
• Sportstop
• Stardust Collectibles
• Truly Unique Collectibles
• Universal Engineering and Development Company
• Wall of Fame
• When It Was a Game.

Companies banned by eBay:

• Ace Authentic
• Coach’s Corner Sports Auctions
• Christopher L. Morales
• CSC Collectibles
• Donald Frangipani
• Forensic Document Services
• Hollywood Dreams
• J. DiMaggio Co./J. DiMaggio Company
• Legends Sports Memorabilia
• Nathan’s Autographs/N.E. Autographs
• Nicholas Burczyk
• Pro Sports/Pro Sports Memorabilia
• RareandSigned.com
• Robert Prouty
• R.R.’s Sports Cards & Collectibles
• SCAA/Front Page Art/Angelo Marino
• Slamdunk Sportscards and Memorabilia
• Sports Alley Memorabilia
• Sports Management Group
• Stan’s Sports/Stan’s Sports Memorabilia
• TTA Authentic (formerly STAT Authentic)
• Universal Memorabilia
• XMI Authentications
• USA Authentics.

Companies and private sellers reported by eBay to the FBI:

• Catch a Star/JMC Distributors/J&M Sports Cards/Mike Bowler (all of Oceanside, Calif.)
• Classic Memorabilia/Hollywood Dreams/Hollywood Collectibles/David Tabb (of Santa Ana, Calif.; not to be confused with any other firms)
• Del Mar Sports Cards/Jon Hall (San Diego)
• Framed Images/Richard Laughlin (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)
• Front Page Art/John Marino, Gloria Marino, Kathleen Marino, Greg Marino, Angelo Marino
• Frosty’s/Frosty Golembeske
• Home Field Advantage/Carmen “Chip” Lombardo (Del Mar, Calif.)
• International Sports Marketing/Mike Lopez (Rosemead, Calif.)
• La Jolla Sports Cards/Bruce Gaston (La Jolla, Calif.)
• Prime Time Sports Cards/Michael Tapales (Buena Park, Calif.)
• Pro Sport Memorabilia/Anthony Marino
• Rick’s Collectibles/Ricky Weimer (Escondido, Calif.)
• Ricky Mitchell
• Shelly’s Cards/Sheldon Jaffe (Tustin, Calif.)
• Sports and Celebrity Authentic Autographs/WW Sports Cards/Wayne Bray (San Marcos, Calif.)
• Sports Management Group (Aliso Viejo, Calif.)/Universal Authentic Memorabilia (San Clemente, Calif.)/Sports Alley (Laguna Niguel, Calif.)/Mike Moses/Robyn Moses
• The Beautiful and the Unusual/Lowell Katz (Long Beach, Calif.)
• Universal Authentic Memorabilia/Reno Ruberti/Karen Ruberti (San Clemente, Calif.)/Scott Harris/Mary Lou Harris.

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Hey! And what about AFTAL? Shall we talk about it?

What is that? AFTAL: Autograph Fair Trade Association. To put it simply, they are witnesses present during a signing and/or a group of autograph collectors (those who go to get the autograph directly from the artist). AFTAL's motto is: if you want to join our association, you must be as pure as a newborn lamb. Your autographs must be authentic and have a warranty period that matches yours (lifetime guarantee). In short, it is a big gamble you take when buying from an AFTAL member. There are certainly many people of good will and honest people in this group; but above all, there are the others, those who, once they have joined AFTAL, can leverage it and, in fact, increase their credibility and then their sales without necessarily selling only authentic signatures. We're living in a wonderful world. Personally, I have already bought several autographs from one person (in the UK). Once I had them, I had a few authenticated on the PSA website. All my requests were negative; each time the answer was "Likely not genuine...". The person had no issues when I asked for a refund of my purchases. Without further comment. I didn't know who was right, and in doubt, I parted with the dozen photos I had acquired.

Photo: Jean Pigozzi, Mick Jagger and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hôtel du Cap, Antibes, 1990

Gelatin silver print, 27.9 × 35.6 cm

Centre Pompidou, National Museum of Modern Art, Paris

© Jean Pigozzi/Centre Pompidou, Mnam-Cci, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais/image courtesy CAAC – The Pigozzi Collection