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I’m not a big autograph collector. But I’ve always been amazed by experts who profess expertise on multiple players autographs. I have around 150 total and all of those were obtained in person with the exception of my Roberto Clementes and a couple signed game used bats and about half of my 1971 Pirates autographs. Thirty years ago the first Clemente I bought was a Dorsey and didn’t realize it for many years. When I was informed that it was a Dorsey by a Clemente expert I learned everything I could about both Dorsey and Clemente autographs. While working at the Clemente Museum I’ve been exposed to 100s of Clemente. Now I have minimal fear of buying a free range Clemente as long as its an example signed in the late 60s to early 70s. However I will still occasionally ask others for their opinions if I’m not absolutely certain. I don’t know enough to risk buying his earlier or rushed signatures. I can attest that there are many Clemente forgeries out there. I’ve even seen a couple of Dorseys in slabs as well.

A local card store reached out to me early last year and asked me to look at 5 4X6 autographed team issued Clemente publicity photos that they were consigning. I told them only one of them was good. The owner claimed he got all of them in person as a child. He was indignant and asked me how I could be so sure of myself. They all wanted to know what made me an “expert”. I told them I wasn’t claiming to be an expert. I reminded them that they called me for my free opinion and that’s all I was giving them. I then told them I was confident enough to offer 3K for the one that was good. It was a gorgeous example. They declined my offer and decided to use JSA. JSA told them exactly the same thing I did 4 Dorseys and one Roberto. In the end I purchased the real one. I also offered to buy the fakes to have reference material in my collection. They wanted $300 for them I passed. I later saw that they sold them with the disclaimer that they couldn’t verify authenticity. They didn’t volunteer that JSA had rejected them. They knew they weren’t real and should have simply removed them from circulation. Since then I’ve seen two of them listed on eBay for several thousand. Dealers like that hurt the hobby almost as bad as forgers.