Autograph Authentication: Worth the price of submission?

This is a hot button topic in the sports memorabilia world. I think a lot of people still feel warm and fuzzy inside having that piece of paper with a signature you can't make out from someone you don't even know. What I am talking about is a Certificate of Authenticity or COA for short. The list of companies is pretty extensive and they claim to have many "experts" on the payroll who have the ability to tell you that the autograph you are buying is truly from the person who signed it. They have an opinion and so do I, hence the reason I write this article.

After reading Operation Bullpen , I became even more skeptical of the autograph authentication companies out there. The biggest reason is the forgers had their own person doing the authenticating! The scam was even more intricate because his last name was DiMaggio, making it harder for people not to believe. The article I posted here talks about fake memorabilia sold to trading card companies. These days I mostly get my autographs in person or through the mail or TTM for short. I wrote about TTM in another post.

In the end, you need to ultimately decide if paying to have someone tell you if your autograph is real or fake is worth the price of submission. Take time to educate yourself, I have merely provided a little bit of the information out there. Be aware of who you are dealing with and make an informed decision. I always say if you have to ask if it's real, maybe you shouldn't buy it.