Great Article @ Baseball Autograph Fraud

[danc]

An interesting article about autograph fraud by expert Ron Keurajian that actually made it's debut on the citizenonline last year has resurfaced.

Orginal link:

http://www.thecitizenonline.com/Arti...companies.html

After you read this, check out the lastest offering from Coach's Corner. This month, a King Kelly single signed ball, signatures of Dan Brouthers, Ed Delahanty, a single signed Christy Mathewson ball (also a cut), Babe Ruth signed jersey, Ty Cobb signed jersey...(yawn)...the normal rarities from CCSA.COM.

Autograph expert says beware of forgeries, authentication companies

Would it surprise you to learn the vast majority of autographs on the market from baseball's early legends are fakes?

It doesn't surprise Oxford resident Ron Keurajian, but then again he's an expert in this field.

"There's a lot of forgeries out there, especially with the vintage material," he said. "Ninety percent of the Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Cy Young autographs out there are forgeries."

Since the early 1980s, Keurajian has been collecting, studying and writing about vintage baseball autographs, the real ones and the fakes.

"Baseball has such a hold on the American psyche. It's our national past-time," he said. "There's such a need to possess something signed by people like Ty Cobb or Lou Gehrig."

Between 2001-06, Keurajian wrote 50-60 articles on vintage autographs for Sports Collectors Digest.

Keurajian also coedited sports memorabilia guide published in 2003 by Krause Publications. He wrote the sections on vintage autographs from baseball hall of famers and professional golf's early legends.

"I'm working on my first book, which I hope to have completed by Christmas," he said. "It's a study of every member of the (baseball) Hall of Fame and their signatures."

For about three years, Keurajian's been collecting specimens and illustrations, trying to get multiple signatures from each player at different times in their lives.

He's now down to probably seven or eight names, some of which he admitted he's never going to find like pitcher Rube Waddell, who played from 1897 to 1910 and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1946.

No known examples of Waddell's signature exist, so "it's impossible to complete a hall of fame set," Keurajian said.

It was a 1982 meeting with former Detroit Tiger Hall of Famer Charlie Gehringer that sparked Keurajian's interest in vintage autographs.

"He's generally considered one of the five greatest second basemen ever," Keurajian said. "He used to live down the road from me (in Southfield). I lived at 12½ (Mile) and Evergreen. He lived at 13½ (Mile) and Lasher."

Keurajian called Gehringer to interview him for a high school report he was writing. The old Tiger, who played from 1924-42 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1949, invited him over for a face-to-face meeting.

"He gave me a couple signed picture postcards and I was hooked," Keurajian said.

Collecting autographs is about preserving history and owning something once handled by a legendary figure.

"You're holding something that was actually touched by them and that's very powerful – that's something you want to possess," Keurajian explained.

Vintage baseball autographs come in many forms, from cancelled bank checks and photographs to letters and gum cards.

"The single signed baseball in good condition is the most desirable of any medium," said Keurajian, who noted the only problem is they're difficult to store.

At one point, Keurajian had a large collection of autographs.

"When I started collecting back in the early 1980s, stuff was worthless," he explained. "You could pick up a baseball signed by Ty Cobb or Babe Ruth for $50 to $100."

Today, that same baseball sells for $50,000 to $100,000, if the ball is a "museum-grade specimen," meaning it's a "cream white ball with a nice bold signature."

It was this meteoric rise in values that forced Keurajian to store his collection in a safety deposit box.

"The problem with this stuff is it gets so valuable, you can't really enjoy it," he said. "I was seeing my collection one or two times a year. That's not a collection anymore."

So, Keurajian sold most of it, but did hang on to a few specimens. He said "probably the only piece of consequence" he has left is a 1924 baseball signed by Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth at Navin Field in Detroit.

"Cobb was the greatest ball player of all time and Ruth was the greatest slugger," he said. "To have those two on a baseball is a great combination."

These days Keurajian is more into doing research, collecting information – such as examples of autographs whether they're scanned or photocopied – and writing about it.

"I'd say I probably have 10,000-15,000 illustrations in my files," he said.

Keurajian's focus is on the physical construction of the autograph, known types of forgeries in the market and counterfeit documents, and how to spot forged signatures as opposed to genuine ones.

"A signature's like a fingerprint -- no two people in the world have the same handwriting," he said. "No forger can copy handwriting perfectly."

"If you have somebody that's really good with autographs that understands handwriting they can spot even the best forgery," Keurajian noted. "I've seen thousands of Ty Cobb autographs, so with a Cobb signature you can just put it in front of me and bang, in a second, I know whether it's either real or not."

When it comes to well-known legends like Cobb and Ruth, Keurajian said, "Nine out of every 10 signatures you see for sale of those guys are fake."

"The demand for these autographs is just huge," he explained. "There's literally 100s of thousands of people collecting these types of autographs who are willing to spend big money on it."

The chances of an autograph being a forgery increases with the hall of famers most people have never even heard of before.

"When it comes to the really rare names like the (Christy) Mathewsons, the Willie Keelers, closer to 99 percent are fake," Keurajian said.

Mathewson was a pitcher from 1900 to 1916 and part of the first class of players inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1936. Keeler, an outfielder from 1892-1910, was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1939.

But the biggest problem in vintage autograph collecting is the so-called authentication companies who supposedly examine signatures and issue certificates of authenticity for forgeries.

"Even if it comes with a certificate of authenticity chances are they're still fake," Keurajian said. "There are no good authentication companies in the market today that know what they're doing. Certificates of authenticity carry about as much weight as the Hitler-Chamberlain peace accord of 1938."

He's seen big items sell for between $50,000 and $150,000 which "are nothing but high quality forgeries that have been wrongly certified."

It's the people who don't know much, but want to invest in vintage autographs that are getting "burned" by these so-called authentication companies, Keurajian said.

"A lot of big money's being paid for forgeries by unsuspecting collectors," he explained. "It's really become a problem."

[Jacklitsch]

Very interesting.

Mods should move it to the main board.

[canjond]

I'm curious what the $100,000 certified forgeries are...

[barrysloate]

Do other autograph experts on this board agree that 90% of the vintage autographs he cited are forgeries? That is a frighteningly large number if true.

[prewarsports]

I believe Ron knows a lot about autographs and is a legitimate expert. However, he often speaks in absolutes where there is nothing more than an opinion to justify his numbers. I remember after I discovered Tony Mullane's collection and the first Will and Testament was sold through Mastro. He wrote a nice article about the Will but started throwing numbers out there as if he knew for a fact that it was the only one known to exist while I was sitting on about 10-15 other signed letters an documents. He also takes some theories about things like the Mathewson signed books and calls them all secretarial and other areas like that and will then make statements like there are only between 10-15 known authentic Mathewsons when in my opinion that number is just way too low. I believe he is an expert but also an extreme pessamist. There ARE known examples of Waddell which are absolutely authentic including long handwritten letters and his signed divorce papers and a few other documents so statements like "there are no authentic examples of Waddell" simply are not true.

I try to stay away from Hall of Famer signatures because forgeries ARE a problem. I guess that you could come up with some of the numbers he has in regards to guys like Clarkson and Tim Keefe etc mostly because of Coachs Corner, but if you use common sense (dont buy a Clarkson signature on a softball produced in the 1950's) you should be MUCH safer buying this stuff than graded cards which are possibly trimmed etc.

Rhys

[Gecklund311]

Rhys said it best...when I read the part about there being no authentic Waddell signatures I laughed a little as I can send him several auction catalogues where examples were sold.

A lot of experts that are trying to get their name in the papers like to throw out statements that 90% or some such number are fakes in order to drum up some publicity. If you include crap like the stuff Coach's Corner sells I suppose you could make a case for that, but the number of suspect autographed items sold in actual reputable auction houses is much smaller than that.

I'm torn on the whole Coach's Corner racket...on one hand I'd love to see the doors kicked in at the place and see whoever runs it thrown in jail. On the other, if somebody wins a Ty Cobb signed baseball for $536 and doesn't think something is wrong...the old saying about a fool and his money would apply.

In the end a lot of vintage autographed items require at least some degree of faith...the key is to be smart and acquire items that require as little faith as possible.

[miamisaul]

I read Ron's article with great interest and visited his website. My issue is the exception they take with the 3rd party authenticators. It always bothers me when people point out problems without making suggestions as to solutions. The opinions rendered by JSA and PSA/DNA are just that, opinions. An opinion can be wrong, however there needs to be something other than the "Wild Wild West" that preceeded JSA and PSA/DNA. I would venture to say that the items that are authenticated by those two companies are correct a heckuva lot more than they are wrong. I use them, rely on them and couldn't be any happier with the autographs that I have that have been authenticated by them.

[danc]

I agree with the above. It seems like sites like autographalert are simply on a mission to weed through every auction with an agenda. They do get it right more often than not, but how many errors does the well respected authenticating firm make per 100?

But I think Ron's point is believed by many who target JSA and PSA/DNA and thats...can a Frank Chance single signed baseball really exist?

Mastro claimed to have the only one in existence some time back, but I think if I went through the mountain of catalogs sitting in a corner of the office, I can remember several others being offered by other auction houses and authenticated by the same respected experts.

Or Jack Chesbro in single signed ball form, which I saw in a major catalog once authenticated by one of the two.

I had a long conversation with Ron once and we spoke about single signed balls (and I'm on the same page as him) and we spoke about how certain players of equal value during some time periods exists, while others do not.

You see a few vintage Roy Campanella single signed balls, but never a vintage Duke Snider. You see Roberto Clemente single signed balls, but you never see a vintage Frank Robinson or Willie McCovey. What would be the point of the forger to forge a vintage McCovey.

Dan

[Gecklund311]

Keep in mind the monetary motivation in those cases...

There is a lot more motivation for people to sell a vintage Campanella or a Jackie Robinson...they will go for good money. While a vintage Snider or McCovey may bring a premium, it isn't going to command the money of a long deceased or rarer player. If vintage Sniders went for a $4000 OR $5000 you would probably see many more coming out of the woodwork.

[ajg]

I dont know what is worse,looking at Coaches Corner selling their swill week after week or SCD for allowing this to occur.SCD should take the high road and pass on advertising $$ rather than lower their standards. It probably is too late though.SCD,unfortunately, has been reduced to National Enquirer status.

[Vintageclout]

"Prewarsports" has "hit the nail right on the head" regading Ron K. and his zero budging autograph opinions. Case in point...a few years ago I provided Ron with a PERFECT exempler of a pre-1910 Mathrewson autograph taken from a 1907 baseball dinner in Chicago that perfectly matches the Mathewson "Won In The Ninth" book template autograph. Ron had stated he had not a SINGLE exempler matching the Won in The Ninth book signatures, and I informed him I knew of one. Well, I sent him a scan and he simply dismissed it....I guess the truth hurts!

Joe T.

[Blunder19]

If i wanted to email this expert Ron to look at a signed ball that I have would anyone know how to contact him?