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Posted By: <b>Larry</b><p>Regarding sports memorabilia, there is a decent percentage of authentic items in ratio to fakes because almost all baseball players were athletes that signed at games, events, team ball etc...even though there are clearly a lot of garbage especially through e bay offered, at least there is enough good material that the autograph collector who is a sports fan can become more educated. <br /><br />Rock and movie memorabilia is different, most of the vintage rockers did not sign in public, the limited amount of real material was usually contracts, checks, autograph paper and occasionally pictures, VERY FEW ALBUMS WERE SIGNED outside of the group's inner circle so there should be a strong provenence when buying a signed album of the beatles, grateful dead, elvis, joplin, led zeppelin band, the who, hendrix, lynryd skynrd, doors, buddy holly and other deceased etc of how item was obtained or it probably is fake ..There are tons of these albums signed "forensically authorized", often with the same names attached and possibly done with the best of intentions. <br /> <br />We learned this the hard way and spent thousands of dollars being told my Rolling Stones, Elvis , Beatles, Dead, Hendrix, Doors etc signed album and photo items were all fakes, we did get back some money through legal channels but for the most part, we learned an expensive lesson. In the long run, we are wiser for this and hope that the industry gets rid of the scoundrels that prey upon the unsuspecting.<br /><br />You can easily buy vintage items like albums, 1st generation photos and buy original fountain pens and inks through antique dealers and a good forger can use these tools to create their "signature art". Then a unscrupulous dealer can concoct a great story, especially hiding behind the cloak of a forensic examiner that is offering an opinion rather than a guarantee. <br /><br />It is very unlikely that so many of these "great historical rock items" were actually signed by the band members since so few authentic material is actually seen and exemplars are less frequent due to the lifesyle of famous rockers and their frequency of being asked to sign was less than athletes who generally were sober, at least while playing and had more public exposure.