Disturbing Confession ...

[Brent G.]

The truth is likely somewhere in between what the dead guy said and this Fanatics statement. I’d probably lean more toward dead guy, who caused them to create a new sticker (silently, I assume) two years ago. i suppose no company would admit to 80% of merch bearing their seal being fake.

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by Brent G.

The truth is likely somewhere in between what the dead guy said and this Fanatics statement. I’d probably lean more toward dead guy, who caused them to create a new sticker two years ago.

I agree. Dead Guy was copying product from multiple companies, and over a long period of time. If a single autopen was being used, and I'll guess an experienced operator could get 2 signatures a minute, the guy working 8 hours could crank out about 1,000 signatures a day. Even at half that, an addicted criminal could conceivably make around a million fake signatures a year. How many years was he doing this before Fanatics got wise to it? Then add the two years it took for the operation to be brought down. Any way one looks at it, it's a huge number.

I also think the fact modern autographs are often merely scribbles, or sloppy initials, made them much easier to fake convincingly, and quicker to make.

It will be interesting to see how the "hobby" responds. Will it just be one collective shrug of the shoulders, or will people bail out of modern sigs and turn their attention to other sports collectibles, like memorabilia, game used, etc.? Everything can be faked, but autographs are by far the easiest, and Dead Guy has apparently thoroughly saturated that arena with fakes, at least modern.

My guess is, Fanatics and other companies will come up with better authentication/verification methods, and business will continue as usual. Autographs were never my thing, and I collect absolutely nothing that is modern, yet I feel very bad for all the people who have been victimized or are worried they may have been.

[Brent G.]

I wouldn’t be surprised to see the FBI agents on the case make that quick drive from Westfield to Rosemont in 12 days to shut down the people selling this crap.