I have been collecting vintage Muhammad Ali autographs since the day I met “The Greatest” on December 25, 1987 at a club called Splash (now closed) in Louisville, KY. Meeting Ali that day had quite an effect on me. Here is arguably the most famous man in the world, going beyond signing my napkin and actually taking the time to pull out a photograph, ask me my name then ask me what I wanted him to write for me. I have heard many similar stories from my fellow Ali fans about their meeting “The Champ”.

Legend has it that when Ali was a kid he was once denied a autograph from his idol Sugar Ray Robinson and vowed that when he became famous, he would never turn anyone down. He treats all people with respect and goes beyond your expectations. Muhammad Ali is a special person.

I have been burned several times when I first started collecting Ali autographs on eBay and it made me feel sick. The reason I was burned is because I was new at it and didn’t know what to look out for. Now I know - and want to pass this knowledge on to collectors that are new to the hobby. I also hope that this free eBook will encourage my fellow Ali collectors to visit my eBay store and view it as a safe and enjoyable place to purchase their vintage Muhammad Ali memorabilia. Collecting vintage Muhammad Ali memorabilia is fun, as well as a great investment, if you know what you are doing.

My area of expertise is vintage Cassius Clay and Muhammad Ali autographs. By vintage I mean autographs Ali signed while he was still a professional boxer.

When you search on eBay for Muhammad Ali, you often see authentic Muhammad Ali autographed gloves or posters that are offered with a COA (Certificate of Authenticity) or LOA (Letter of Authenticity) from companies like Steiner or Superstar Greetings. These authentic autographed items are great, but they were all signed well after Ali retired.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love some of the later Ali autographs, as that is when he began writing his familiar quotes and small drawings. However, I don’t have too much of an interest in the modern Steiner gloves or posters as they are so common.

There are so many fake Ali autgraphs being offered on eBay that it’s ridiculous.

If you are considering purchasing a Muhammad Ali or Cassius Clay autograph on eBay, I want you to take another look at the above statement. There are more fake Ali signatures being offered right now than authentic ones and that is pretty scary.

So what should a collector do to ensure they are getting the real deal? Here is the best advice I can give you:

1) Know who you are buying from
2) Remember that you get what you pay for
3) Does it look like an authentic Ali autograph?
4) Is the LOA/COA from a reputable person/company?
5) Trust your instinct!

The first thing to do is realize that most of the Muhammad Ali autographs offered on eBay are forgeries. Knowing this will get you started in the right direction. Again, you will see many gloves, trunks & posters offered with a COA/LOA from Steiner. These are authentic but not vintage so I won’t be dicsussing them here.

The next thing to when you find an Ali autograph that interests you is study the sellers FEEDBACK carefully. Most buyers on eBay do look at a sellers feedback, however most buyers on eBay don’t study and analyze the feedback of a seller. Spend at least 15 minutes reading and analyzing a sellers feedback before buying. Since you are buying an autograph, look for all the feedback related to autographs that the seller has sold. Look at the sellers store as well as other items being offered. Check out the sellers About Me page. Read the feedback comments throughly and you will get a good idea if the seller has integrity or not. After doing the above, I will know within 15 minutes if I would purchase from this seller or not.

Next, read the item description throughly – study it. Never purchase a vintage Muhammad Ali autograph that doesn’t have a crystal clear pictures of the signature. Does the signature come with a LOA/COA? If so, from whom? Is it from a company or individual? If it’s from a company is it PSA/DNA, Global, Online Authentics, James Spence? If the LOA/COA is from one of the above companies, the market considers it authentic (I will discuss authentication later). If the LOA/COA is not from one of the above companies, I personally hold no value to the COA/LOA unless it’s from Harry Shaffer, Craig Hamilton or Steve Jackson.

If the LOA/COA is from an individual, what does it state? If LOA/COA doesn’t indicate that the person got the Ali autograph himself and the date and circumstances surrounding the autograph, I personally hold no value to the COA/LOA.

If the autograph doesn’t come with any kind of LOA/COA what does the item description tell you about the autograph? Is there a photograph of Ali signing the item? Does the item description give details on when or where it was signed? You need to be cautious when purchasing an Ali signature from an individual when there is not a LOA/COA from one of the companies I listed above. Most of these Ali autographs offered on eBay are fakes. However, if you know what to look for you can find authentic Ali signatures without a LOA/COA. Let me give you an example and the exact steps I followed before purchasing.

I recently came across an Ali autographed religious pamphlet on eBay. It was being sold by an individual with no LOA/COA. My first step after the item caught my interest was to read virtually all of the sellers feedback. The seller had 100% feedback with over (200) transactions. Every piece of feedback was positive in terms of fast shipping, item exactly as described, ect. I knew this seller had integrity based on their feedback. I looked at the other items she was currently listing as well as items she had sold in the past. She had never sold Ali autographs before or any type of sports memorabilia and I took that into consideration.

Next I took a good hard look at the photographs the seller posted. They were crystal clear pictures of the Ali signed pamphlet with a close up of the autograph. This is where some knowledge about Muhammad Ali autographs comes into play. I am very familiar with the religious pamphlets that Ali famously signs and hands out. Ali always puts the date under his signature on these particular items. I compared the signature with many exemplars that I had and knew it was authentic. The seller also provided a picture of Ali handing out the pamphlets and a picture of the seller with Ali which is a bonus.

I next took several minutes and read and re-read the item description. In this description the seller, who I already estabished had integrity, provided the exact date, place and circumstances surrounding the Ali Autograph. I also sent her an email with a question about the item. I always do this just to see how quickly the seller responds and to get a overall feeling about the seller. She responded quickly to my email. At this point, and at this point only, purchasing this particular Ali autograph felt right to me. I trusted my instinct.

Based on the above, I bid and purchased the Ali autograph from this seller who had no experience in regards to selling Ali autographs and provided no LOA/COA. However, I was confident in my purchase. I received the item quickly and it was exactly as described.

Please be informed though that just because a seller has a good story and includes a few photographs of Ali, you still might not be getting an authentic Ali autograph. When I first started buying Ali autographs on eBay, I was burned several times when sellers would include a picture of Ali signing a glove or some other item. I later realized that these are just “stock” photographs used to sell fake items over and over. You have probably seen the picture of Ali sitting in front of 100 glove signing away. Yes, it was him in that picture but he certainly wasn’t signing the glove you just purchased.

Also, be aware when a seller says that they will include a photograph of Ali signing. I have been burned by this before. What I received was a scanned copy of Ali signing an item that wasn’t the one that I purchased. I learned the hard way that you should aways email the seller and ask them if it is an original photograph of Ali signing the particular item I am considering purchasing. Suprisingly, a big time seller with good feedback sent me the worthless scanned photograph.

Muhammad Ali has probably signed more autographs that any person in history, dead or alive. Muhammad Ali autographs are probably the most forged of any person, dead or alive. Muhammad Ali is arguably the most famous person in the world and his autographs are possibly the most desired of any person, dead or alive. This makes things interesting as it’s very difficult to authenticate a vintage Muhammad Ali autograph. So difficult in fact, the two experts whose opinion I trusted most, stopped doing it because of the enormous amount of fakes in the market. They didn’t wan’t to soil their hard earned reputation by possibly authenticing fakes.

So with the individual experts gone, what are we left with? Here’s your options. I will only dicuss companies that issue an LOA/COA where the market considers them authentic. What I mean by this is if you have an LOA/COA from one of these companies, the market considers the autograph authentic. The companies are in order of their market share: 1) PSA/DNA 2) James Spence Authentication 3) Online Authentics 4) Global Authentication Inc.

It’s kind of a monopoly, but those are the only legitimate companies authenticating vintage Muhammad Ali autographs. I have used their services. I sell items with their LOA’s/COA’s. They also provide authentication for all the major sports memorabilia auctions outside of eBay.

The procedure to get your vintage Muhammad Ali autograph authenticated by one of these companies is as follows: Fill out their request form. Send the item you want authenticated, payment and order form to their offices. In a few weeks, they will mail you your item back along with a LOA/COA if they consider your autograph to be authentic. Their prices vary based on how fancy of a LOA/COA you want and typically their prices for authenticating Muhammad Ali autographs are higher than other living athletes. Some of the companies attend trade shows where you can bring your items and have them authenticated onsite.

The higher price of Ali autograph authenticatin is due to the facts that I laid out in the first paragraph of this chapter. If your autograph is not considered by the company to be authentic, they will send you a summary on the characteristics of your autograph and why it is not deemed genuine. On occasion, your autograph might be considered to be inconclusive.

A LOA/COA from one of the above companies can increase the value of your vintage Muhammad Ali signature more than 5 times.

Do I recommend that you get a letter of authenticity from one of the above companies? Yes, I do. It will instantly add value and legitimacy to your item. PSA/DNA and Spence have the most credibility in the “big business” of autograph authentication.

However, don’t be discouraged if you submit your vintage Muhammad Ali autograph to one of the above authenticatin companies and it doesn’t meet their requirements. They do make mistakes. Here is a disclosure posted on one of the above authentication companies website: “The authentication of previously signed autographs is not an exact science and the possibility for error does exist. (Company) does not claim accuracy of its results 100% of the time. There is no express guarantee in connection with the (Company) and (Company) disclaims any liabilities for errors.”

Here is another disclosure posted on one of the other authentication companies website: “We do not guarantee autographs under the Vintage Certified program. By using this program, you are paying for the opinion of the top experts in the world, using state-of-the-art examination tools and techniques.”

What should I do if I submit my Ali autograph to one of the above companies and they don’t say it’s legitimate? Send it to a different authentication company that is listed above for another opinion.

Expect to pay between $50 (basic COA) to $500 (Super LOA) to get your vintage Muhammad Ali autographs authenticated by one of the above companies. Depending on price, they will include a picture of your Ali autograph in the LOA and attach a sticker (at your request) to the back of the autograph to prove authenticity.

The price of vintage Muhammad Ali autographs, and all memorabilia relating to him, has skyrocked in the last few years. I remember the good old days when I could purchase a properly authenticated vintage Muhammad Ali signature for a couple hundred bucks. Those days are gone! Even the recently signed Steiner authenticated gloves are selling for approximately $900 retail. Vintage Cassius Clay autographs, properly authenticated, can sell for thousands. Ali’s recently signed items, with quotes or drawings, typically sell for hundreds of dollars.

Why has the value of a vintage Muhammad Ali autograph increased so much recently? I won’t get into Ali the man because if you are reading this you know all about what he stood for and accomplished not only as a boxer but as a person. What I will discuss is his renaissance. This began when he lit the flame at the opening games of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Everyone who saw it was deeply touched by the event. Then came the movie Ali staring Will Smith and Jamie Foxx. Next the advertisements started hitting for Apple Computer & Adidas. Ali just recently received the Medal of Freedom from President Bush. It’s the highest civilian honor bestowed on a individual. The Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky just opened up and the grand opening gala was attended by politicians, professional athletes, celebrities, musicians, artists, poets, dignitaries and Ali fans from all over the world. I was fortunate enough to attend and it was spectacular. Ali is getting older and Parkinson’s Syndrome has obviously weakened his body. He doesn’t sign as many autographs as he used to.

So what determines the value of a vintage Muhammad Ali autograph? Any vintage Muhammad Ali signature must have a LOA/COA from one of the companies I mentioned in the previous chapter to reflect it’s true value on the market. However, LOA ‘s from Craig Hamilton of Jo Sports, Inc. and Harry Shaffer of Antiquities of the Prize Ring are considered legitimate on the market but unfortunately, they only provide them if you purchase your vintage Muhammad Ali autograph from them directly. The most valuable Muhammad Ali autographs are the one’s that aren’t signed Muhammad Ali but Cassius Clay. Actually the most valuable Muhammad Ali signature is the one example where he actually signed his name Cassius X Clay. This was signed by Clay immediately after announcing that he embraced Islam and before Elijah Muhammad gave him the name Muhammad Ali.

A Muhammad Ali autograph that is personalized (made out with the name of a person) is worth less on the market than one that is not personalized. Another factor that determines the value of an Ali autograph is what the autograph is on. If it’s on fight worn items – the value increased dramatically versus if it is just on a piece of paper.

One more factor that can determine the value of a Muhammad Ali autograph is what Ali writes along with the autograph called an inscription. An Ali autograph along with one of his famous statements such as “there will never be another” or “three time heavyweight champion” or “love is the net where hearts are caught like fish” or “The Greatest” dramatically increase the value versus just a signature. If Ali draws a smiley face or a boxing ring it increases the value as well. Another attribute which effects the value of all vintage Muhammad Ali signatures is the condition or “grade” of the signature.

So we have established that other than the lone Cassius X Clay signature signed in 1964, the early Cassius Clay autographs that have been properly authenticated are the the most valuable.

Vintage, properly authenticated Cassius Clay signatures can sell for thousands and thousands of dollars. The earliest know Cassius Clay signatures that have been on the market are dated from 1958 when Clay was 16 years old.

Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali in 1964 after winning the heavyweight championship, upsetting an unbeatable Sonny Liston. He was given the name by Elijah Muhammad, head of the Nation of Islam. So beginning in 1964 Cassius Clay the Champion began to autograph Muhammad Ali. If a legal document was signed, his signature would be Muhammad Ali AKA Cassius Clay. If an early Muhammad Ali signature also stated “AKA Cassius Clay” it would increase the value of the autograph.

Muhammad Ali retired from boxing after losing his last fight to Trevor Berbeck in the Bahamas in 1981. In 1984 Muhammad Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, a neurological disorder whose symptoms include muscle tremors and slowness of speech. You will notice a dramatic change in his signature from the mid 80’s to the present day.

Here is a summary of what you should ALWAYS do before purchasing a Muhammad Ali/Cassius Clay autograph on eBay. If you follow these simple tips, you will experience all the fun and benefits of collecting Muhammad Ali autographs:

• Realize going into this that most of the Muhammad Ali autographs offered for sale on eBay are forgeries
• Know who you are buying from – analyze the sellers feedback
• Do NOT buy from a seller that makes their feedback private
• Read and re-read the item description thoroughly
• NEVER buy an Ali autgraph on eBay if there is not a clear picture of the autograph that’s for sale
• Remember that you get what you pay for
• If there is an LOA/COA - make sure it’s from PSA/DNA, Spence, Global, Online Authentics, Steiner, Superstar Greetings, Harry Shaffer, Craig Hamilton or Steve Jackson
• If there is not an LOA/COA – is there other proof like a genuine photograph of Ali signing or specifics about when or where Ali signed the item?
• Make sure it looks like a genuine Ali autograph – do comparisons
• Ali autographs are a good investment as they are quickly increasing in value
• Early Cassius Clay autographs are the most valuable
• Later Ali autographs with inscriptions or drawings are worth more than just a regular Ali autograph of the same date
• There is no such thing as an authentic $200 Muhammad Ali signed boxing glove
• There is no such thing as a $400 vintage Cassius Clay autograph
• ALWAYS email the seller and ask questions BEFORE bidding
• The bidding is fierce on eBay for genuine Ali autographs – several bidders will place bids in the last 10 seconds
• Take into consideration what type of item the Ali autograph is on
• Personalized autographs (To Mary) are worth less than just a regular Muhammad Ali autograph
• Pick up a copy of the Paloger Collection of Muhammad Ali Memorabila (search on eBay) – The largest sale of Ali items ever
• TRUST YOUR INSTINCT

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