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Chapter V: COA’s, Certificates
of Authenticity
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- As mentioned above, should you have chosen a professional
dealer who you have thoroughly checked, you can start purchasing
autographs. Remember your bill of sale is all that you will need
for proof of purchase should you need to return the item at a
later date.
COA’s (Certificates of Authenticity) are generally worthless
pieces of paper and have become the joke in the industry. One
should be very cautious of a seller who supplies a COA from another
party. Most “professional” autograph dealers do not
and will not issue a COA. They know their bill of sale is the
only legal document that counts. Several years ago a few companies
were created that claimed they are capable of authenticating
autographs. Most created “instant autograph experts”
that no one ever heard of. These companies were disasters for
the autograph industry. Some of them were simply mass producing
COA’s for a fee and attaching one to everything sent to
them. Luckily a few of these companies were exposed and are no
longer in business. Unfortunately the garbage they authenticated
“as genuine” along with their COA’s occasionally
will still appear at auction. There are still a few companies
in existence who claim to authenticate autographs. It appears
more are getting into the autograph authenticating business.
News has spread that you don’t have to know a thing about
autographs to offer an opinion, making a fast buck from an uneducated
collector. The good news is many autograph dealers will not issue
a refund based on a guess from one of these third party authenticating
companies. Most of these third party authenticators hire unknown
persons and give them a title, thus countless mistakes are made.
Not one of these companies will come forth and explain why their
so called “experts” still can’t tell ink from
a pen from a preprinted signature. Every one of these authenticating
companies have authenticated as genuine “rubber stamped
signatures,” “preprinted signatures,” “secretarial
signatures” and “machine signed” signatures. They
have even authenticated the wrong person. The autograph market
is inundated with forgeries authenticated “as genuine”
by these autograph authenticating companies. At one time, I did
everything I could to find out the background of a so called
autograph authenticator with a high profile company. Even several
written requests to the CEO of the company for this information
went unanswered. You have to wonder why they want to hide this
information! From my experience if you see someone attempting
to authenticate autographs and they claim to be a forensic examiner,
it’s best to avoid this person. My rule of thumb is, if
an autograph comes with a COA from any authenticating company,
that signature needs to be reexamined by a professional autograph
dealer. Their may be only one exception to this rule!
You may have an autograph that came with a COA from an authenticating
company and later when you go to sell it, discover the signature
is not genuine. Try to get the name of the so called “expert”
at the authenticating company who made the mistake. Nearly impossible.
Companies don’t authenticate, people do!
If for some reason you are in a bind and have no recourse but
to spend your money with an authenticating company first find
out who will examine your autograph. Get the name of the person.
The company is willing to take your hard earned dollars, you
should be able to speak with the authenticator for a few moments.
Don’t ever settle for the standard answer “he’s
too busy to come out from behind the curtain.” If you are
one of the few who actually meet one of these authenticators
a good question to ask is where did you get your autograph education?
Of the fourteen autograph educational courses given over a period
of years how many did you attend? Now wait and listen to their
song and dance! Observe how they will try to avoid answering
the question and state something along the lines that they are
self educated. There is almost nothing positive and convincing
that they can say which is the truth. This is why it is so difficult
to get someone who claims to be an autograph authenticator to
talk to an educated collector. The few attempts some Autograph
authenticators have made fools of themselves in the few attempts
they made on a live news program. They have authenticated forgeries
as genuine which were produced by the employees of the news station.
Some companies who claim to authenticate autographs print a list
of names near the bottom of their Certificates of Authenticity.
You assume the whole list approved the autograph. Not so, not
even close! Many of those listed simply allow there names to
be printed on the certificate for publicity. There are some cases
where for years some names on the certificate were never asked
for an opinion. There was even one case where a name was put
on the certificate without the persons knowledge. That case ended
up in court. I attended a sports show where a collector who had
his ball signed “in person” for some reason thought
it was wise to spend money and get a COA for his ball. He went
to one of the high profile authenticating companies at the show
and for a fee of $150, the signature on the ball was determined
to be not authentic. He came to me very upset asking how could
this happen and what can he now do about it as the company refused
to give him a refund for their mistake. I told him to go back
to the booth and ask who made the decision the signature was
not genuine. Moments later he came back and said the president
of the authenticating company said every authenticator whose
name is listed on the bottom of the COA said “NO GOOD.”
The authenticators could not come out as they were ALL behind
the curtain authenticating. I knew for a fact only two people
whose names appeared on the COA were in attendance. On the next
workday I called one of the “authenticators” whose
name appears on the COA who I knew wasn’t within several
hundred miles of the show. I told him that the president of the
high profile authenticating company said he was behind the curtain
all day Saturday. Are you ready for this “spin?” The
authenticator told me that “technically” he was behind
the curtain as he could have been made available by phone or
email.
As for the need of a second opinion on a signature be just as
careful when making your choice of who authenticates as you did
when choosing a dealer. For example the largest collection of
forgeries in the history of our hobby sold for 7 million dollars
not long ago. About 140 investors were duped buying documents
and letters referring to Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy.
There was one main authenticator who authenticated most of the
items as genuine and was dealing directly with the forger. The
forger went to prison. This seller of autographs is still authenticating
in our industry. He is not only on the staff of a few authenticating
companies but is also one of the authenticators for an autograph
organization. Just another reason why you must do your homework
before choosing a dealer. This autograph/authentication scandal
dwarfed the Mormon Forgery by Mark Hoffman during the 1980's
which sales only yielded approximately 3 million dollars.
Many professional autograph dealers and auction houses will not
issue a refund based on an “opinion” from an authenticating
company. Recently one major auction house printed the following
statement in the rules section of their auction catalog. “Auctioneer
does not warrant authenticity of any material that is accompanied
by a Certificate of Authenticity, or its equivalent......”
So much for the confidence in these companies.
Chapter VI: Correcting the problems with
COA’s and 3rd Party Autograph Authenticating Companies (Continued)
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