"While it is impossible to definitely estimate the percentage of forged memorabilia, most industry experts concede that over half of the autographed memorabilia is forged. In fact, some cooperating subjects and memorabilia experts believe that up to ninety percent of the memorabilia on the market is forged.Ebay has become known as a safe haven for the predators ,with sellers getting kicked and getting a new user i.d.the next day."steel-town c/o josh korb

C.O.A. Equals Authentic?Not Even Close!

Just because the autograph comes with a certificate of authenticity (COA) doesn't mean you have any added security that you are buying the real thing. COAs are only as trustworthy as the dealer who issues them. Please also keep this in mind when you are buying IP autographs (IP or in-person autographs means that the dealer or one of his/her employees actually witnessed the signing) - you are relying on the dealer's word. Also, ask how the autograph was obtained. Some reputable dealers were found to carry forged merchandise - not because they were associated with forgers, but because they were not careful enough and bought forged items without realizing it.a good dealer can tell you who,what,where and when it was signed.learn that most of todays superstars are under exclusive signing contracts with other companies.learn who signs with who and look for there hologram and coa.for example if michael jordan has been signing for upper deck for over a decade all his items are uda certified or there likely not real.if sellers are selling his basketballs for 100-300 dollars thats a major red flag since a ball from upper deck will run you 1500!we sell a large amount of autographed items of athletes under exclusive contracts with other compaines and there marked with that companies hologram.Another trend in the hobby is athletes are starting to use there own personal hologram to insure the buyer its authentic.for example jerome bettis now uses the "bus 36"hologram on everything he signs,which the hologram was designed and matained by our good friends at b&g sports memorabilia llc.b&g also represents mr.bettis as his exclusive signing agent.what out for people who are decesed!james spence the founder of psa has went on record that ruth is on the top 5 all time fake list refering to around 92-95%of the ruth items are not genuine!the first thing you do when you think about buying a item from a deceased athlete is learn the history of the item that the autograph is on before you even look at the signature.often times con artists are sloppy and tend to not do there own research before the produce there fakes.for example that so called mickey mantle baseball your looking at has a rawlings stamp on it.but after doing a little research you found that the style ball the signature is on came out 2 years after mantle died.or sometimes photos have dated stamps or little bar codes on the back with dates within the barcodes.many con's over look the little detail but not the experts!some of the best forgers that have been busted were very smart.they would go to old thrift stores or book stores and purchase books from lets say the 60's when the athlete was alive,tear out the old paper and sign a index card.also they would find out what type of ink was used during that time and order the same ink because they know third parties like psa/dna checkout all the little details when these items are sent to them for a exaim.thats why you just cant trust the third party!dont get me wrong i endorse all the top authenticators only because the items i send them were things i had signed at a signing i attended so its just to give the buyer the benfit of the doubt. 

• Certificates of authenticity are not guarantees of authenticity. Individuals and companies involved with selling forged memorabilia often include a COA, allegedly from a third-party expert. Often, the authenticator is either a knowing or unknowing, but incompetent, participant in the fraud. Carefully read the COA, looking for the authentication language, an address, phone number and name of the authenticators. Do not accept copies of COAs.remember the third party coa is just what it is=a opinion.human error is allways a chance no matter how smart you are or how long you have done this.its allways best to buy from the source.my company for example watchs each and every autograph being signed so thats the kinda of place you want to buy from.dont get me wrong this isnt a sales pitch,theres serval other compaines out there offering great authentic memorabilia at good prices.some other compaines i can recomend are steiner sports,upper deck(uda),B&G,tri-star,GTMS,mounted memories just to name a few. 

• If the price is too good to be true, it is probably a fake. If a company offers an autographed item well below competitors' prices and market value, then consumers should be wary. (Caution - a high price does not by any means suggest authenticity either but it does make it more likely to be genuine.)If ben roethlisberger for example charges a dealer $150 wholesale to sign a 8x10,how could another seller offer it at "buy it now"for 19.99 with a coa from "joe blow sports"???you dont have to attend harvard to figure that out,right?but the 19.99 8x10 is allmost allways gonna sell.also dont buy into the "picture of the athlete signing"you will see many sellers on ebay offering you a picture of the athlete either signing a item like yours or just signing something.in no way shape or form does anything to prove your buying a authentic autograph,it just proves the seller has a picture of a athlete signing one item and it could of been serval copies were made of this picture or it could stolen of the inernet from a legitimate seller,like us.we have found and had serval sellers kicked off ebay for stealing our pictures from our auctions.in all fairness to our customers,at steel-town memorabilia we usally allways offer pictures of the athlete signing with our products but its only for the buyers enjoyment only and not intended to be used as authenticity.often times for example we might pay troy polamalu to sign 50 steeler mini helmets and we just snap like 3-5 pictures and just offer a random picture of him signing a mini helmet.its likely not the exact helmet you bought as that would be way to much to control at a signing.

Dealer Reputation Is The Key!

Perhaps this is the biggest factor of your purchase!make sure you are purchasing from a reputable dealer.anyone can start a web site or a ebay seller account and tell you whatever they what you to hear about the honesty,but why should you belive them??many of these "so called"compaines pop up everyday with the same old line=ive been collecting autographs for over 15 years or all of my autographs come from hotels,airports,charity events,practices etc.these are the worst sellers of all=the so called in person autograph hawk!true athletes do sign for there fans but 99.99%of the time they will only sign 1 item per fan and some refuse to sign premium items like jerseys,helmets and balls or if they do it will be a vertical autograph,sloppy or even just personalized to the fan there signing for.athletes hate autograph hounds there obtain there sig's just to sell them.watchout for sellers who sell the tough autograph like tiger woods.tiger very rarely signs premium items like flags,balls etc.at the masters he will run down the line of his fans a grab just a few items to sign ,ALLWAYS passing on the premium items usally just signing pieces of paper or scorecards.upper deck tigers exclusive agent charges $1500 for a masters flag so why is it that you can buy them from sellers for 200 bucks on ebay without uda coa?that is why the founder of psa/dna claims over 90% of the woods autographs are fake.

Am I safe on eBay?

During Operation Bullpen, it was discovered that forgers were using eBay and online auction sites to sell items. A class action lawsuit for fraud was filed against eBay by buyers as a result of information discovered in the investigation. eBay maintains that they are not responsible for the authenticity of the merchandise. Let the buyer beware and ebay does what they can but they dont have the power to safe guard there entire site!ebay and other compaines like us need your help to report listings you.think are questionable.eBay has posted a guideline page on autographed items (it would be even better if they required all autographed merchandise sold through eBay to have a link to this page). Just my own little suggestion on this front - don't rely soley on the feedback rating to determine if this dealer is on the up and up. The feedback rating records the satisfaction of previous customers, it is not a rating by experts.operation bullpen was started serval years ago and during a 2 year under cover investagtion the fbi with the help of experts&the irs arrested over 30 people,mostly dealers with store fronts.they seized over 15 million dollars of fake autographs with the most startling item being mother terresa signed baseballs.allmost all of the people arrested where ebay power sellers with great feedback!

Want to help spread the word? The more people that select the "yes" button for this guide being helpful, the higher up on the 'Guide List' it gets, thus getting more exposure for eBayers to read and learn. It is our goal to completely eliminate some of these fogers and frauds. Possible? Probaly not, but the more people we educate about the existing problems in this hobby, the more money they save, and the less sellers are apt to try and rip people off