David Wright Signed Baseball?
Seems like there are a lot of David Wright baseballs on the market these days. This is a team signed Mets baseball including Wright and what was odd is that there is virtually no description of the item, where it was signed, who it is authenticated by, etc.
We obviously can't tell if this autograph is fake. It is questionable when someone has a team signed baseball but doesn't give any supporting info on how it was obtained. Especially since team signed baseballs are very hard to come by.
To all of our loyal readers, thank you for posting on this blog! Without you there wouldn't be a place to voice opinions regarding questionable autographs. I would like to point out that comments posted on this blog are the opinions of our readers and no one is paid by ALLAuthentic to write on this blog. Readers that post on this blog have a lot of passion for this hobby and spend a lot of personal time researching things.
Having said that, there are no experts on this blog, our readers opinions are just that -- opinions.
Fake autographs are a huge problem today, it is worse now than it was before Operation Bullpen. I have the utmost respect for the collectors on this blog who sacrifice their personal time to try to help others. Countless readers have found this blog through search engines and they have saved a lot of money by learning for themselves how to find real autographs.
This is an open forum. If you feel your company has been wronged on this blog, feel free to comment on the post. If there is any ever false information posted we will take it down.
Also, it is fine to post anonymously, however, if you are going to make accusations or derogatory comments towards others, then you should be man (or woman) enough to post with your real name AND email. Or if you are going to make claims of any sort, don't even waste your time if you are going to post anonymously and withhold information to support your claims.
Finally, it is very hard to tell if someone is actually selling a fake item, so lets please stay away from any definitive conclusions about any particular item. If you have hard facts, then please state them. We just want to keep this fair to everyone as we have no intention of "taking anyone down" or causing anyone harm.
This is an educational outlet where people can learn what to look for when purchasing autographs. This is EXTREMELY valuable information that can save you a lot of money -- especially if you are looking at starting a sports memorabilia collection.
Anyway, thanks again to all of our readers -- you are the ones who are making a difference in the sports memorabilia industry, thanks for reading and posting!
9 Comments:
thank you for posting this, i was just looking at it last night and was going to post a link to see what everybody thought about it.
check out item # 160077282584. it is a questionable looking ryan howard signed picture. being from philadelphia, i am a big fan of philly teams and collect mostly phillies and eagles. owning several ryan howards 3 of which are in person signatures, this one looks different from the items i own, as well as any others that i have seen. the seller even says "WE FULLY BELIEVE THAT THIS AND ALL ITEMS WILL PASS ANY REPUTABLE TEST TO ASSURE IT BEING AUTHENTIC. IN FACT WE GURANTEE IT!"
maybe "jeter_sucks" won't get all bent out of shape now since i found a questionable seller without looking for jeter. this seller also has 8x10's signed by: posada, willie mccovey, juan marichel, pedro martinez, jeff garcia, carson palmer, tom glavine, ben roethlisberger, jason varitek, terrell owens, jason giambi, rod carew, bobby abreu, stan musial, steve mcnair, mike schmidt, johnny damon, eli manning, joe mauer, randy moss, andruw jones, manny ramirez, mike mussina, wade boggs, jerome bettis, albert pujols, david ortiz, brian urlacher, and on and on and on. now that is quite an amazing collection to have and start bidding at $14.95 on every single one of them. notice how he has all star player signatures. i find it fishy when someone only offers top namers. why not throw in some rondell white's, pat burrel's or mike lieberthal's to make it less suspicious? somebody that isn't in great demand, but still has collectors. you must have great connection's to meet all these players, and even have multiples listed of some. i haven't looked at their feedback to see what else they have sold, but i'm willing to bet they have sold many of the same already that they now have listed.
Please let me know if I am being overly paranoid with this question, but if a signed card is "slabbed" and has the PSA/DNA "certified" label on it, can I at least have confidence that PSA/DNA actually looked at this signature? Or are people able to fake PSA/DNA certification (for example, by copying the serial # of a signed card that PSA/DNA did certify, then just forging signatures on the same card and printing their own PSA labels, so if you look up the certification # on PSA's web-site, it comes back legit)?
Thanks!
kuff6, if you feel you are being overly paranoid, you have every right to. a shady person will do anything to rip you off. if the seller offers a refund, ask about the refund. i believe (somebody correct me if i am wrong)that PSA encodes items with some type of DNA that is not visible to the eye, on items that they authenticate. if you do buy it, maybe you can send it to PSA to have them check it out. I don't know it there is any way to check this from your home with a blacklight or anything. so if the seller would agree to refund your money if it would fail that test, i would go for it. if it is on ebay, check over the seller's feedback. look for anything that seems unprofessional like if they resort to namecalling if they get a neutral or negative feedback. i have never heard of the fake PSA certification, however these days i wouldn't be suprised. PSA is not always accurate on authenticating, but i think if you feel good enough about the future purchase, go for it.
First of all, the seller of this obvious fake David Wright autographed baseball is Ebay seller "dqbean252." The other night I submitted a "Quick Opinion" on a David Wright autographed bat from seller "dqbean252." We already know he sells fake autograph items. It was Ebay Item 110082282651. It, of course, came back as "Likely Not Genuine." Ebay already pulled the forged autographed bat of David Wright auction down but it is identical to his item numbers 110080778652 and 110080777801. Another point is why wouldn't Ebay these two forgeries also? That is the problem with Ebay. They know this seller is selling fakes, even after we prove it to them with documentation which is pre-qualified through them (Ebay). J-man makes a good point about seller "beachcardsjax." Their autograph items are all fake autographs. Their Arod and David Wright autographs are bad forgeries. J-Man also makes another great point. How does a seller like that have easy access to the "star athletes" and not the lesser-known players? Great point! Of course, why forge the signature of a lesser-known athlete when you can count on the "star athletes" autographs to be sold on Ebay. The key to locating these "bad sellers" is to always check their history (unless they hide their feedback in which case stay away from them) and look at the autograph items they've sold in the past. If you see a seller selling the same autographs from the same athletes week after week then that has to raise a red flag. In the case of seller "dqbean252," who happens to be the seller of the above fake David Wright autographed baseball, he seems to have an endless supply of David Wright autographs. Or in the case of seller "Fansindastands" who sells the same fake autographed team-signed football helmets from the Chicago Bears, NO Saints and Eagles. He has sold 4 of each in the last 4 weeks. Not to mention forged Jeter autographs every week. Those "bad sellers" read this blog and I will ask you one more time "How do you acquire your endless supply of autograph items?" Of course, they can't answer that question. Check out Ebay Item Number 150083002892. It is for an Albert Pujols autographed bat with a COA from Tristar. Wrong. That particular COA does not have a Tristar hologram which means it is before 2001. So how could Albert Pujols have signed this bat? I mean it is an obvious fake anyway being sold by Ebay seller "Amulekone." But the Tristar COA is not for that autographed bat. I am encouraged by the fact that more and collectors are finding this blog and staying away from the "bad sellers" on Ebay. We are going to have some idiots posting to this blog but that is okay, because the more they write, the more they reveal themselves. It's a great combination. More later......Chris W.
j-man i got more knowledge then you think.i just refuse to sell his memorabilia on ebay because why would anyone buy a ball from me for 350 when you can buy a fake for 50 bucks.never the less jeters a losing battle becausef what i said in the previous post.if a athletes company doesnt ever at make a single attempt to police there clients name who will never win.i agree with chris fansinstands puts those 24 hour weekend auctions up making it allmost impossiable to catch.see if just one company used the vero program on him he might get kicked off.
all-authentic i think your funny.i know your comment in the post is directed towards me.
" if you are going to make accusations or derogatory comments towards others, then you should be man (or woman) enough to post with your real name AND email."
answer me this question....who posts on here with there real name?nobody.you seemed to be more worried about getting sued.stop back and think for a mintue how is one of these ebay thugs living of selling cheap 25 dollar items going to sue anybody
jeter_sucks"
What's up?
I think that the comments made by Kelly at the beginning of this week's blog are directed toward the "lawyer" that posted last week claiming that the blog would be subject to legal action because of deragotory statements made about certain sellers.
I have noticed an increase in questionable memorabilia from the following: Howard, Wright, McGwire, St. Louis Cardinals Team signed items (all autheticated by a company called XMI strangely enough) I live in St. Louis, and have never heard anyhting about them, and I am a high end collector here...
I think that J-man and Jeter_sucks have valid points.
If I was a seller of autographs, I would certainly have a hard time selling them on eBay. First, you probably have to have them authenticated by PSA or JSA just to get a serious look. Second, you have to recoup the fees from authentication - and you have to wait several weeks to get an answer. And, sometimes, they are incorrect - and they have no problem keeping your money.
Then, you have a forum like ours scrutinizing your merchandise - some will think it is fake, and others will believe that it is real.
I have 3 sellers that I frequent on eBay for Cardinals autographs. None of them have their items authenticated, none are terribly high-priced and all have a good selection of stars. I have won many items for a few dollars that I would have had to pay hundreds for retail. They ship them to me, and I have them looked at by JSA (my favorite) for time reasons and accuracy. I have never had one come back - ever. THIS IS RARE, but true.
A Jeter or A-Rod or Pujols autograph is very hard to come by. Why would anyone put an autograph up for anything less than retail? If I offer a Jeter ball for a "Buy it Now" of $99, it is going to raise eyebrows. If I list it for $300, I am likely to get more looks, but I will still probably lose out to a Steiner ball because I am not a million dollar company with the money to sign athletes to big-time contracts.
However, if someone is keen, they can determine for themselves if something is genuine...and get a good deal.
Here is an example:
The Cardinals annual Winter Warm-Up was last week and Pujols was there signing baseballs and photos only (no bats, no jerseys or anything else). They were charging $150 for each signature. I have seen 3 of these listed this week - one was as high as $515 opening bid. It is a genuine sig with a rare inscription on a World Series ball...someone who truly wants that ball and is familiar with Albert's signature could pick it up and make the seller a HUGE profit.
On the other hand, I have seen tons of "in person sigs" supposedly done by Albert listed for $.99 - they usually sell for about $30.
The question begs to be asked - what fool actually thinks that a ball that sells for 30 lousy bucks could possibly be real? The buyers are not using quick opinion becausee the auction remains up.
My point is, that if you are looking for an authentic signature, RESEARCH first. In most cases you don't need PSA. If an an item seems like the price is too good, check the number of hits that the page has recieved. If 160 people have viewed the auction and there are only 5 bids...it means that more than a few people passed on it...and you probably should too.
TIP -
Sellers are beginning to list items with PSA or JSA in the title. What is happening is that they are buying bulk lots from auction houses and PSA or JSA gives them a letter for all of the items they purchased...instead of getting an actual PSA LOA and individual serial numbered sticker, you are getting a COPY of the original LOA. I have heard many people at shows tell me that they have recieved items like that, and they ended up being fake. Here is an example...item # 250018668751 the listing says JSA, but do you really think anyone would authenticate this???
I will comment more tonight but I wanted to mention Ebay Item 250018668751 as commented by Bigtruck. I once purchased an autograph item from that seller (billdanielsports) out of curiosity and the COA was a generic PSA with approximately 50 names on it, but none of the names matched the autograph card. I then went back to the seller and requested a single-named COA with the athlete's name (Bobby Abreu) and he again sent me the generic COA. I did return the card and I did receive a refund but it was suspicious from the beginning. There are also hundreds of auctions that insert the words "PSA," "JSA," "Steiner Sports," etc. when in fact the autograph items are none of the aforementioned. This is a "misleading title description" that is against Ebay regulations but they enforce that regulation just like they do the forged autographs on their auction site; they do nothing. More later.....Chris W.
The ONLY way to ensure that you are MORE THAN LIKELY getting an authentic signature is through the memorabilia company in which the player has an exclusive. Some players do not sign exclusives with one memorabilia company and sign with a couple different ones. Either way, a COA and some proof of Authenticity is a must. I would say that the #1 way to guarantee an authentic item is to purchase through MLB.com, or to purchase items from a MLB licensed company. A hologramed MLB Authenticated item can be verified through the MLB Authentication Program which is located on MLB.com
For example, David Wright is an exclusive of Locker Room Memorabilia. Make sure it has the Locker Room Memorabilia hologram and COA. Not to mention the #5 hologram that Locker Room puts on EVERY David Wright signed item.
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