[mrmopar]

Pure trust in the issuing company, essentially. This has been an often debated topic on card sites for years. If you inspect various different sets and brands, you'll notice the "COA" statement on the backs different quite a bit, some being vague while others are more specific about an item. In the end I don't believe there is a real way to know for sure if any small swatch of fabric, wood, leather or even a button or tag is really from a certain player or was ever actually used in a game.

And if that doesn't waver your confidence, consider that some of the items that were apparently bought as authentic even turned out to be fake! Now you have a legit manufacturer thinking they are providing a real item, only to find out it was not!

I personally treat these as insert cards, so whether or not the relic piece is authentic, it is still a unique card for that player, just as a refractor or parallel is too. If you are not chasing the high dollar relic cards, then it hardly matters if they are real in the end other than the fact that we would have all been sold a bad bill of goods on them should it be determined some/most were fake.