I'm a forensic document analyst in Australia and I work mostly on authentication for government departments and insurers but also increasingly more private clients who are distrustful of the big TPAs. I think you are wrong about inscriptions. There are plenty of forgers who specialise in them, and also in faking provenance, which can be incredibly detailed. CoAs from the three big TPAs are also increasingly faked, which is an interesting new twist in the forgery game. This issue is entirely in the hands of collectors: they create the market and they can insist on proper reporting with evidence, or they can continue to pay CoA mills to tell them what they want to hear. I know what most people will chooose.
Thanks for commenting. I hope I didn't give the impression that buying inscribed books would solve the forgery problem for collectors. I agree it won't. But in my experience the majority of forgeries in books are just signatures. Of course, those people forging inscriptions in books are much better forgers, and one still needs to exercise care.
You did kind of give the impression that people are safe with inscriptions but I'm glad that wasn't your intention. There's been a very sharp rise in inscription forgeries and some authors, such as Stephen King and J. K. Rowling are being hit particularly hard. I applaud your comments about the big TPAs and hope more people open their eyes to what's going on. Grad, Spence and Reznikoff have created the biggest con of all.
Saveafricanow used to be legit and I would see him at every book signing in NYC with bags of books for authors to sign. He eventually started being blacklisted at local bookstores because he would never actually buy any books from the local store hosting the signing and come in with twenty books that he bought elsewhere. His turn to forgery really seemed to get going when COVID hit and he could no longer get signatures in person but it also may have predated that time. It’s sad that eBay has not shut him down and he continues to sell forged autographs on the platform to uninformed buyers.
I authenticate your article on forgeries. I use your past achievements, your present business practices, your exhaustive research, your professional memberships, and your pride in the righteous trade, to certify that your article is must-reading for all in the signed and autograph aspect of our trade. And that’s another thing: we booksellers try to maintain certain levels of integrity just to flog books - when we add the difficulty of signature authentication, we are usually neophytes. This is an area of specialty (except for the Rendells etc.) secondary to the bookselling itself. It’s hard enough to apply what we learn in Carter’s ABC and Zempel & Verkler et al without also spending much time with many examples, real and imagined, of even famous authors’ handwriting examples. Thanks for the level-headed piece on COAs.
I would also add that handwriting analysis has not passed Daubert examination, which means, in the US, that no one can testify as a handwriting expert in court.
Nor in Australia, but paleographers and forensic document analysts can because their analysis is based on much more than just looking at superficial handwriting characteristics.
As usual Scott, I enjoy your Dispatches ... entertaining and informative. Thanks for taking the time. While it technically didn't involve a COA, I thought you might have mentioned how I copy of HP I stood in line to get signed was deemed "Fake" by overseas authenticators ... certainly caused me grief more as a collector than a seller.
Hello George - while I never doubted your provenance of the J. K. Rowling signature that PSA said was fake, when the person who bought it from me got the report from PSA, I refunded his money and took the book back, even though it was past the return limit of the online marketplace because that's what ABAA and IOBA membership requires. I returned the book to you because under the Code of Ethics, I have to disclose questioned authenticity, which would make the book impossible for me to sell.
The only other experience I have with PSA was with a Roberto Clemente rookie year team-signed baseball I ended up with. Selling such sports items is very difficult without the seal of one of the COA mills. PSA authenticated it - I was already confident of its authenticity - and I promptly sold it. Here's the rub, as an antiquarian bookseller I approach these things from the point of view of history, and I wanted to figure out when the ball could have been signed. It took a while, but based on who signed it, I narrowed it down to a few days when that particular roster of players was on the team. One player lasted less than a week in the majors. It seems highly unlikely that his autograph could be authenticated without great difficulty because where are you going to get objective exemplars to compare with? But I don't think PSA had anyone qualms about that. They took $200-odd dollars from me and sent me a fancy COA.
I'm a forensic document analyst in Australia and I work mostly on authentication for government departments and insurers but also increasingly more private clients who are distrustful of the big TPAs. I think you are wrong about inscriptions. There are plenty of forgers who specialise in them, and also in faking provenance, which can be incredibly detailed. CoAs from the three big TPAs are also increasingly faked, which is an interesting new twist in the forgery game. This issue is entirely in the hands of collectors: they create the market and they can insist on proper reporting with evidence, or they can continue to pay CoA mills to tell them what they want to hear. I know what most people will chooose.
Thanks for commenting. I hope I didn't give the impression that buying inscribed books would solve the forgery problem for collectors. I agree it won't. But in my experience the majority of forgeries in books are just signatures. Of course, those people forging inscriptions in books are much better forgers, and one still needs to exercise care.
You did kind of give the impression that people are safe with inscriptions but I'm glad that wasn't your intention. There's been a very sharp rise in inscription forgeries and some authors, such as Stephen King and J. K. Rowling are being hit particularly hard. I applaud your comments about the big TPAs and hope more people open their eyes to what's going on. Grad, Spence and Reznikoff have created the biggest con of all.
Saveafricanow used to be legit and I would see him at every book signing in NYC with bags of books for authors to sign. He eventually started being blacklisted at local bookstores because he would never actually buy any books from the local store hosting the signing and come in with twenty books that he bought elsewhere. His turn to forgery really seemed to get going when COVID hit and he could no longer get signatures in person but it also may have predated that time. It’s sad that eBay has not shut him down and he continues to sell forged autographs on the platform to uninformed buyers.
Scott,
I authenticate your article on forgeries. I use your past achievements, your present business practices, your exhaustive research, your professional memberships, and your pride in the righteous trade, to certify that your article is must-reading for all in the signed and autograph aspect of our trade. And that’s another thing: we booksellers try to maintain certain levels of integrity just to flog books - when we add the difficulty of signature authentication, we are usually neophytes. This is an area of specialty (except for the Rendells etc.) secondary to the bookselling itself. It’s hard enough to apply what we learn in Carter’s ABC and Zempel & Verkler et al without also spending much time with many examples, real and imagined, of even famous authors’ handwriting examples. Thanks for the level-headed piece on COAs.
Bob Mueller Bellingham
I would also add that handwriting analysis has not passed Daubert examination, which means, in the US, that no one can testify as a handwriting expert in court.
Nor in Australia, but paleographers and forensic document analysts can because their analysis is based on much more than just looking at superficial handwriting characteristics.
As usual Scott, I enjoy your Dispatches ... entertaining and informative. Thanks for taking the time. While it technically didn't involve a COA, I thought you might have mentioned how I copy of HP I stood in line to get signed was deemed "Fake" by overseas authenticators ... certainly caused me grief more as a collector than a seller.
Hello George - while I never doubted your provenance of the J. K. Rowling signature that PSA said was fake, when the person who bought it from me got the report from PSA, I refunded his money and took the book back, even though it was past the return limit of the online marketplace because that's what ABAA and IOBA membership requires. I returned the book to you because under the Code of Ethics, I have to disclose questioned authenticity, which would make the book impossible for me to sell.
The only other experience I have with PSA was with a Roberto Clemente rookie year team-signed baseball I ended up with. Selling such sports items is very difficult without the seal of one of the COA mills. PSA authenticated it - I was already confident of its authenticity - and I promptly sold it. Here's the rub, as an antiquarian bookseller I approach these things from the point of view of history, and I wanted to figure out when the ball could have been signed. It took a while, but based on who signed it, I narrowed it down to a few days when that particular roster of players was on the team. One player lasted less than a week in the majors. It seems highly unlikely that his autograph could be authenticated without great difficulty because where are you going to get objective exemplars to compare with? But I don't think PSA had anyone qualms about that. They took $200-odd dollars from me and sent me a fancy COA.