Fakes Fraudsters Scams Scammers Con Artists Conmen Ebay Scams Beware Guide on Sports Memorabilia Football Shirts Signed photos handsigned memorabilia
Autographs avoid being duped by forgeries and fake signed handsigned sportsfootball memorabilia
UK eBay's first ever Sports Memorabilia Autograph Guide by 4D Sports
Don't buy a fake autograph on eBay - Do your research first before placing a bid - Do not bid on items that have private bidding id - Don't bid on sellers with Private feedback - Be careful - Look for providence where item was supposely signed - was it in-person - by post - purchased third party - Check sellers history - See what other items have been sold in feedback - check examples of autograph - do your research first - everything is not as it may seem - be cautious - who issues the COA - does the Certificate of Authenticy have sellers contact name and address details printed on the certificate
As an example we have only seen only 5 to 6 genuine Thierry Henry handsigned items in the past 12 months listed on eBay. And these items went for far less than the signed name numbered shirts you see all the while on eBay. Points to avoid.We use this guide purley based as a free help guide - we will not comment on other items for sale or items purchased. We will not authenticate items orprovide valuations on items - guide is intended as information assisting in and protecting the Sports Memorabilia and particularly autographed Sports Memorabilia hobby and a guidance for new collectors. This is also the first autograph guide on sports autographs on ebay and also we are the first to offer a guide on matchworn football shirts on ebay please feel free to check our guides id numbers to verify that this is true. Vote YES if guide was helpful more votes the more other ebayers will see.
Is your Sports autograph REAL or is it a FAKE.
When looking to make a purchase on a autographed item several factors should be taken into consideration. Please note all images on this guide are fake signed memorabilia.
Firstly - the authenticy of item, you will see many many autographs for sale of your favourite sporting legend, sports personality etc Ebay is a great place to buy and is quickly becoming the major web search engine catching up with Google and Yahoo. More and more people are buying from ebay instead of purchasing from the internet.Ebay is unfortunately flooded with mass amounts of fake autographs offered for sale from various sellers. If you are new to hobby you should be very wary of who you buy from and firstly do some research into autographs otherwise you may buy a worthless fake. See picture below of a fake signed Pele, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Rivaldo Brazil shirt look at how similar the handwriting is on shirt all the same consistent style. Image isn't great but this was taken from an ebay auction on UK site fetched over 200 and isn't worth anything at all even the shirt is worthless as unfortunately the autographs are forgeries.
The football boot is signed by David Beckham at a buy it now price of only 45 amazing as a undedicated card signed by Beckham would be valued at 40 - 60. Look at how perfect Beckham's signature is did he sign this? Of course not if he did you would expect item to fetch 150 plus also Beckham is under contract with Adidas and this boot is made by Umbro - you could say he wears an England Umbro shirt but hardly likely you would get a signature like this on a cheap Umbro boot.
Always ask questions if you are not 100% confident in placing a bid or using Buy It Now. Remember the seller should be proving the authenticy NOT you, if they avoid questions or can't state where/when its was signed this is no good would you buy a second hand car from them - certainly not -the salesoley relies on honesty from seller!! Look at price - look at what other items are for sale - look at previous sales - avoid sellers offering all the big names and in vast quantities. Sellers may say it was purchased from UACC registered dealer if so they should give you the name ofdealer and also their membership number this can be checked on UACC website. The UACC has several UK guys monitoring eBay at present, you can report suspicious members to the UACC, they are doing there very best to monitor its members. If somebody is saying they are a member they should be advertising there full name and UACC membership number and also they are not allowed to use private feedback or private bidders identity if they are report them to UACC. Check this first as alot of autograph sellers state they are registered dealers when in fact they are not. Some sellers are saying they are members and they are not even a member.
NEVER EVER buy an autograph based on a seller being a member of any autograph club/association this doesn't mean anything or in no way guarantees authenticy at all. It can be reliable to buy from registered dealers from a certain famous autograph club but that doesn't guarantee totalauthenticy aswell. There's only one real guarantee and that's to get autograph yourself only method of guaranteed authenticy you yourself will know its real as you were there when it was signed. There are alot of bogus sellers about ready to con you out of your hard earned money including con merchants who basically copy the original autograph onto a football shirt/card/boot/photo somebody who doesn't know sporting autographs is easy picking. NEVER EVER buy an autograph based on how great the seller is either i.e Silver Powerseller 100% feedback etc Autographs should mainly be purchased in our opinion on authenticy ONLY and providence helps support the authenticy. How reliable and honest the person/s are selling the autograph with back up support such as a contactable address and name if anything should go wrong. Its very awkward but research before hand is the key and we have probably made you very wary of buying an autograph on eBay - not all sellers are selling fakes - the one's who are reliable and honest are always happy to assist in any questions. Do your research first before buying an autograph check examples ask questions.
Purchasing autographs are totally about authenticy.Whatever Else !!
Avoid products we call Manufactured Memorabilia these are basically perfectly and expertly produced autographed items that are produced to target a market i.e Ryder Cup, Rugby World Cup, The Ashes etc An example is the England 5 Germany 1 limited edition signed shirts by Owen, Gerrard and Heskey all autographs on most of these shirts are fake and Eric Cantona Kung Fu kick photo's.
We have only seen a handful of genuine signed England Rugby World Cup shirts been sold on eBay its unbelievable how much travelling it takes and time to get a fully signed shirt world cup england rugby shirt. Several stars inc Johnny Wilkinson will not sign without a dedication - the forgers are now aware of this so are offering still multi signed shirts without Wilkinson's autograph so as to not raise any suspicions!!One other Sports Memorabilia dealer we would highly recommend for genuine Rugby autograph's and memorabilia are Legends International. They represent many stars from the finaland have excellent links with Leicester Tigers.
Several memorabilia companies do supply official memorabilia on behalf of stars so limited edition handsigned prints are produced and one well known company bigbluetube supply Wayne Rooney's official memorabilia these are the companies to use to guarantee you are getting an authentic item as they work closely with player's and player's agents. Unfortunately, Big Blue Tube have gone out of business now but A1 Sporting Speakers have acquired the company now, A1 is run by Terry Baker who is official memorabilia agent for quite a few of England 1966 World Cup winning squad. Terry is also a good person we would recommend for Pele and Diego Maradona as he organises signing sessions with these two football legends for many UK dealers.
Never take a sellers word treat it as if its a double glazing salesman don't be rude alwaysaskquestions if your unsure about something. Customers can be a pain but if the question is a reasonable one then most sellers will answer - most authentic sellers are happy to answer any queries as we have nothing to hide its only when you receive some silly questions!! Silly questions are like if you list item as being handsigned and somebody asks a question has this been signed - Yes that's why we say handsigned. Several pointers to look out for are definately proof, and definately providence, sellers feedback. NEVER BID ON PRIVATE BIDDERS ID or PRIVATE FEEDBACKavoid at all costs why is the need for seller to hid these details from potential customers - either the seller is secretly bidding which you can't see in history to up the price or has had some bad comments left by previous customers that question authenticy of item. Regarding autographs ask where it was signed, how was it signed, date, location, any pictures takenat time of signingand do you have any supporting evidence to support claim.Its always good to have history to go with autograph aswell. It is possible to obtain autographs from writing letters to players or via agents if it was obtained via post then no harm in saying so.Look at other examples of autograph that are being sold and compare - the genuine items are always more expensive with a high reserve as they simply are GENUINE that's why they are more expensive - a fake can be sold at no loss to seller as he/she can simply write another photo/shirt out!! Its amazing how many signed items by cat A stars are about Thierry Henry, David Beckham, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Pele, Diego Maradona, Erc Cantona, George Best etc only a small percentage are infact real!!Never listen to nonsense reagarding I'm a Powerseller awarded by Ebay Silver level etc This is rather frustrating as this simply means that they have been awarded this status by ebay by how much money they have made from selling fake autographs!! Most of these sellers haven't even been to a football match never mind a training ground!! And couldn't tell you who was playing who at weekend!!
Certificate of Authenticy COA's, holograms, money back guarantee are all great but will the seller be contactable afterseveral years when you find its a forgery or even afterseveral months!! We agree with Certificates being issued as all the sellers personal details should be on certificate so acts as a receipt for item always keep the certificate. If you find out its a fake latter on then you have all the details regarding the sale and supporting evidence of item. Majority of honest/reliable/genuine sellers are facing a constant battle against fakes/forgery's being sold as they always offer signed photographs, limited edition signed shirts, signed captains armbands, trust our word if you offered a football boot to be signed by Thierry Henry he would mumour something in French and stroll off!! If he DID sign it would be very unlikely he would just scribble he would ask for your name - a majority of top sports stars will not sign without dedicating THAT IS A FACT - Mr David Beckham is impossible to obtain un-dedicated now aswell as Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Jonny Wilkinson.We recently attended a location in West Midlands where football legend Eric Cantona was present we offered several Kung Fu kick photographs for signing by Eric and Eric Cantona looked at items he started talking to his brother Joel and said "No" - we latter learned that Eric does not want any memory of that incident and is still embarrassed. We can confirm this is true and will not give out location/date as this will be used by rogue sellers to sell Cantona items. A few autograph collectors we know from St Andrews, Villa Park, NECwere present and can confirm this one of these collectors is also a seller on eBay. Due to amount of money that is being made from sports memorabilia market this is where fakes/forgeries are being sold its the same as within music area. Englands recent success in cricket is another area to be targetted. England won the Ashes and within24 hours a HANDSIGNED Freddie Flintoff Ashes photo from final test appeared on Ebay not one but from 5 different sellers. No location or supporting evidence was provided if you took a photo of Freddie signing it would sell for 300 instead of 100 so its worth getting a photo took also these sellers have 10-20 in stock all the while this is the same for Eric Cantona, David Beckham, Pele, Diego Maradona even Bobby Moore have been targeted. This also happened when England won the Rugby World imagine all the fakes if England won the world cup again! If you want to collect 1966 World Cup signed autographs best advice is to ONLY buy with picture proof being shown or come to Sporting Memorabilia at the NEC in Birmingham, its an autograph show where a majority of 1966 team appear it will cost you entry fee and also a charge of usually 10 but you can collect all autographs IN PERSON and meet your heroes in the flesh.
See our other guide page on - What to watch out for when purchased matchworn player issue football shirts this is another area unfortunately targeted by fakes same as fake replica football shirts.
When you have been collecting for a while you will see who the genuine sellers are from the dodgy one's just by looking at autograph alone. It takes years and years of collecting, knowledge to attain a vast knowledge of autographs you know which stars are hard signers i.e Alot of cat A stars will not sign anything un-dedicated without asking for your name. We are still learning like other sellers all the while no one seller/person is an absolute expert on autographs its impossible to attain every single knowledge on every autograph - can you imagine how many autographs there are!!!!
We have been rudely ignored several times by Thierry Henry and David Beckham they know you are selling for profit so avoid you at all costs. You may be lucky to get something signed but not 20 or even 3 items at a time by cat A players. If you do you are very very lucky or have a regular team obtaining autographs all the time. Dodgy sellers all have the same style handwriting so its easy to spot a dodgy seller as MULTI SIGNED shirts all have a similar style of handwriting. Look at one shirt by a certain team then look at another team ask for close up scans to be sent if Ebay picture is too small and not very clear.You can spot these by simply looking at auction always have multi signed Chelsea, Arsenal, England, Man Utd, Brazil, Pele, Maradona, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Signed legends shirts by Eric Cantona, George Best. You are lucky if you ever got one of these in a lifetime of collecting in-person and we never see lots of pictures of players signing these shirts supplied by sellers no dates/ no location nothing.
Look for sellers of sports autographs who hold private signings and show you lots of proof ofcelebrity signing aswell as date and locationor offer alot of PICTURE PROOF and VIDEO PROOF but not same proof all the while sellers will place text over signing pictures to stop rogue sellers using as authenticy for passing of to sell their fake items. Ask questions - don't be shy - if you don't get any replies - simple don't bid - ask before bidding. Avoid fly by night sellers on ebay these are new sellers that are selling all big names and have hotmail/yahoo/msn emails these are email accounts are that are mobile whereas a email such as btinternet/tiscali/wannadoo are fixed email address registered within UK. These are trackable to person.
Unfortunately, Ebay are not specialised in this area to know who is breaching criminal law. It is up to you the general public to report these people to local trading standards office who will conduct a report to the police. Provide all relevant details with ebay auction, name, address, item number, cost etc and your reason why it is a fake. Trading Standards are really jumping on fake autographs at present and recent media has shown several high profile cases involving ebay sellers supplying fake autographed sporting memorabilia. Do your bit - report these people - destroying a beautiful hobby - it will send a warning to others - they are quite simply criminals
Be Careful - Be Vigilant - Avoid Private Bidders sellers - Avoid Private Feedbacksellers - Avoid sellers with all the big stars multi signed.
Enjoy the hobby of collecting autographs
Ihope this has helped you, if you found this guide helpful please click the yes link below, best wishes jamedirvine1954
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