What a can of worms!! I have never seen so many fake autographs in my life. Let me give you a couple of warning signs and then we can go from there. First off...it is impossible to tell, from a photo, if an autograph is real or preprinted. Some of the sellers are honest and will tell you if the signature is preprinted, but there are many, many who will profess "I just don't know". Well, I can assure you that they do know. If a signature is original, it will leave some sign on the surface of the photo or paper. If on a photo just simply turn the photo flat and look at reflected light over the signature. An orginal signature will have a sheen to it that is above the photo. This in itself does not signify that the signature is original. Some of the warning signs in the listing will read, vintage or hand signed. The word vintage implies antiquity, but does not mean that it is actually old. So watch out for that word. Hand signed does not mean that the signature was signed by the hand of the person in the photo. It means simply that it is hand signed, not signed by the person it is purported to be. Take a look at the photo itself. Does it have white borders on it? Most of the photos from the 1920s thru the 60s will have white borders. Do not expect to recieve an original signed photo of Jean Harlow with no borders and no yellowing. Yet, there have been many sold on Ebay. Take a look at the sellers other listings. Does this particular seller have a ton of old, original, rare photos at 99cents. Shurrreeee. Certificate of Authenticity??? Want one? I can print up a doozie on my computer and it will be just as genuine as any you will recieve with your "vintage, original, handsigned" lab printed, photo. Recognize any of those words? Lastly, if you do make a purchase be sure to take a look at the back of the photo. Many of the sellers of these fakes are so contemptious of their market that they are printing the photos on ink jet paper or other computer paper.

Good luck, and if you are going to enter this expensive market teach yourself as much as possible to protect yourself from dealers who will try to steal a hundred or so dollars with less than a dollars worth of ink and paper.

Update 6/26/08  Ok. So how much would you pay for a genuine baseball bat signed by the orginal BABE RUTH, with a certificate of authenticity no less??? Well, on Ebay, one recently sold for over $1,000. Now keep in mind that this bat looked as though it has been stuck in a damp barn for the last 20 years and is dark, stained, a little rotted and with pieces missing from the wood, but fortunately the signature is on the only clear piece of wood on the bat and is very legible. Lets get a bit real here. First off, if someone had a Babe Ruth bat one would resonably expect that person to cherish that bat and protect it and keep it in a safe dry place. Thus you would expect that bat to maby being showing it's years but not be rotted and badly worn and chipped. Also, if an original Babe Ruth signed Baseball Bat were to be offered one would reasonably expect it to sell in the million dollar range. At least, the last verified Babe Ruth signed Bat offered sold for one point three million....thats $1,300,000.00  A far cry from the lousy $1,000.00 this Ebay bat sold for. I can remember when one of the big Ebay sellers of signed baseballs got caught in Fla he had 26,000 signed baseballs with COA and every darn one of them was a fake. No telling how many got sold before he was caught. Thats why I keep saying...Take what you are reading with a huge grain of salt. There are probably more fakes being sold than originals.

To give you an idea of what you can be up against I once had an attorney bring me a Confederate Officers Sword and two piece South Carolina Belt buckle. He informed me that he had paid $18,000.00 for the two pieces and was very proud of them....Up to the time I told him, not only were they both fakes, I named the men who made the two pieces.

The man who made the sword is still making swords to this day. He will take an actual Civil War sword and then put the proper etchings on the blade to make it Confederate or Union or stamp the blades to make them from any company and year desired. He has slowed up this operation considerably, but what he is doing at this time is to take original tin types and remove the picture on the tintype and then replace it with an Indian, Confederate or Union, or cowboy picture. He does quite well and offers them to his dealers in lots of 20. The man making the CS belt buckles uses brass sabbots dug up from various battle grounds. This brass will have the correct brass/copper mix and once the buckle is cast it can be aged by heating red hot and dipping it in an organic solution used to tan leather. This will give it a very aged brown patina. They look very good and before I caught on had purchased three of his belt buckles for way more than I should of paid.  So, as you can see it doesnt have to be a signed autograph to be an expensive fake.