[Archive]

Posted By: DJ

As far as the comments above (BOTN), I can tell you that there are experts in the business that have a great deal of knowledge and can tell in one second whether something is good or something is bogus. A good authenticator takes his job very seriously and as none of us I'm sure can tell the difference between an Elmyr de Hory forgery (back to painting) and a Modigliani, there are those who posses the eye for being able to tell the difference between an authentic Bambino and a forgery.

Even a novice collector can look for things in a signature like appropriate slants, skips, stops and perhaps a slow hand "drew" that signature where a person who has signed his/her name a million times would not be unfamiliar with the writing of one's own name. With "Babe Ruth", you have to be 8-8 in a convincing speed and if you butcher up the "u"...this provides some question. With a good trained eye and a good exemplar collection, a good authenticator can be born.

I can tell you first hand that this business is...well, a mess and while I do have one big toe in the collecting world of autographs, I prefer cards so much more even though many of you can question how an authenticator can tell the difference between A (worth $2,000) and B (worth nothing), how can baseball card folks tell if an O.J is trimmed or if there's a miscut or if a T206 is in fact 1/32nd of an inch off and deemed a trim. Did I mention that the autograph business is a mess?

It's all about educating yourself, relying on the words of "experts" and any collectible field has them whether it be Pez dispensers, milk cow dispensers, first editions, jazz albums or non-sport war trading cards.

My two cents.

DJ