CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY

[Badboy6555]

I said it a long time before LFACC and I think its time I renewed the discussion. I think some kind of COA should be provided with the autographs. Although it may be a waste of time but I think the SM COULD provide pre-made and pre-signed COA to take when you purchase a signed autograph of one of the PROVIDED photos at collectormania 11.

 

Don’t take this the wrong way. I am not some dealer just wanting to provide proof on online auctions. I am a collector and think COA's are a big enhancement on any collection and wouldn’t mind paying an extra couple of pounds for them.

 

Please reply with your views.

[Queen_Sindel]

Anybody can print a COA. So I can't see why they should be an enhancement to a collection. Personally I think they are a lot of rubbish. All fakes on Ebay come with COAs normally.

[Badboy6555]

I can totally understand why you would think that and in some circumstances think I would feel the same. But there is a huge difference between some randomly knocked up COA from some dodgy eBay seller and a 100% valid COA signed buy a show master to prove to friends and family that it came from the guests themselves.

[Queen_Sindel]

Such COAs can be easily faked as well.

 

And why should you need to prove to your friends and family that the signature came from the guest itself? Usually people take your word for it - if they are interested at all. I know that the majority of my friends aren't. LOL

[Maxieffect]

Such COAs can be easily faked as well.

 

And why should you need to prove to your friends and family that the signature came from the guest itself? Usually people take your word for it - if they are interested at all. I know that the majority of my friends aren't. LOL

 

Totally know how that feels, Is it real? Yeah? Oh...

 

Or,

 

Is it real, yeah, prove it, Picture of me with the guest, Oh...

 

Sucks, on occasions I like to show off but it just doesnt work. The only auto in my collection which even gets a look in now days is the mohammed Ali and I don't even know if thats real or not...!

 

Maybe I should get it verified by one of the validation firms out there, anyone got an idea of which are any good?

[liamsgirl]

I find that photos of the guest signing the picture ususally work better for proof to friends! Other than that, its good enough that I know they are real!

Edited October 30, 2006 by liamsgirl

[Badboy6555]

True they could be faked but we are talking about autograph collecting here. Any autograph in any collection has a chance of being faked.

As for the COAs it wouldn’t be too costly to get some unique shinny holographic type sticker to put on them.

My friends and family would take my word for it but I just like having the autograph and the COA put in a frame together with a border. Now that’s an enhancement.

[liamsgirl]

If thats the case, you could do your own, then you could frame it, and no one else would be any the wiser and they would look exactly how you want them.

[Badboy6555]

If thats the case, you could do your own, then you could frame it, and no one else would be any the wiser and they would look exactly how you want them.

 

if you start going down that road you would end up printing your own photo's and signing them yourself so they look exactly how you want them and no one would be any the wiser.

[liamsgirl]

Exactly! Thats how little a COA means to me. You asked for our views. I just think that, if it is a personal collection, COAs wouldn't matter to me. SM do a lot already, and Ive got a shiny holographic thing on a COA and the sig is still dubious! I think that a guest holding the actual picture in a photo is good to mount with it, for authenticity.

[surfy_sah]

I voted no. it's just giving people who buy autos purely to sell them on again an easier ride plus I'd take a photo of the star and myself / auto being signed over COA as they are just so easy to mock up as people have said. you always see autos for sale at shows like Orlando Bloom and Jonny Depp with a COA and its BS cause they would have been got at a premier so how can you get an official COA when theres no way to prove its real?!

 

surfy sah xx

[Badboy6555]

Exactly! Thats how little a COA means to me. You asked for our views. I just think that, if it is a personal collection, COAs wouldn't matter to me. SM do a lot already, and Ive got a shiny holographic thing on a COA and the sig is still dubious! I think that a guest holding the actual picture in a photo is good to mount with it, for authenticity.

 

COAs are always going to be a very controversial discussion and I can 100% understand why people would think it’s a waste of time. But shorely ANY autograph collector would want as much related items as possible.

 

even if you just used the COA as a record/reminder of where you got the auto from so you can tell people where you got each one in your collection from. They must be useful for something to everyone.

[Victor Van Dort]

I don't really care about COA's. I'd never sell any of my autographs, and to be honest, if I did, I wouldn't get a great deal for them. They are mostly smaller actors whose parts in films and shows mean a great deal to me but probably not to many others. COA's are usually provided by big autograph traders when you buy a Tom Cruise or a Julia Roberts and as has been said, can be easily forged and so don't really mean a great deal.

 

It's understandable that some collectors would want COA's, but to be honest, the memory of meeting that person is my own personal proof.

[Crostini]

C.O.As are a waste of time, space and money. HOWEVER, SM could think up an idea of putting a holographic sticker on the back on the photo to say it is authentically signed by the actor. These are a lot harder to create thus a better enhancement on SMs point

[Badboy6555]

C.O.As are a waste of time, space and money. HOWEVER, SM could think up an idea of putting a holographic sticker on the back on the photo to say it is authentically signed by the actor. These are a lot harder to create thus a better enhancement on SMs point

 

now where are getting some where. finally someone tells me a better way of showing authenticity without a COA.

 

i take my hat off to you

[Badboy6555]

To me the only point of a Certificate of Authenticity is to prove to me that an autograph is real and as 99% of the autographs I own have been obtained by myself I can't see any point in having a COA.

 

I can appreciate that some people may like to have them as a part of their collecting experience, but if I was given a COA with every autograph I purchased from Showmasters they'd probably all end up in the bin before I got home.

 

thats why i think they should only be an OPTIONAL extra

[Stevie79]

Not interested. Just makes it easier for the dealers to sell them on. For us fans, why do we need to prove it's authentic? I don't plan on selling any of my autos and I've seen the guest face to face, spoke to them, and in the majority of cases had a posed pic. What more do you need? If people don't believe me, so what. I know they're real and that's all that matters.

[Stevie79]

C.O.As are a waste of time, space and money. HOWEVER, SM could think up an idea of putting a holographic sticker on the back on the photo to say it is authentically signed by the actor. These are a lot harder to create thus a better enhancement on SMs point

 

now where are getting some where. finally someone tells me a better way of showing authenticity without a COA.

 

i take my hat off to you

Ahh but we're not. See, some of us get posters signed, but still pick up a 10x8 also as we're entitled to them. We could easily sign these ourselves and sell them on ebay. Afterall they are authentic as they have the holographic sticker on them

[Badboy6555]

C.O.As are a waste of time, space and money. HOWEVER, SM could think up an idea of putting a holographic sticker on the back on the photo to say it is authentically signed by the actor. These are a lot harder to create thus a better enhancement on SMs point

 

now where are getting some where. finally someone tells me a better way of showing authenticity without a COA.

 

i take my hat off to you

Ahh but we're not. See, some of us get posters signed, but still pick up a 10x8 also as we're entitled to them. We could easily sign these ourselves and sell them on ebay. Afterall they are authentic as they have the holographic sticker on them

 

maybe the guest would stick it on after signing?????????????

[RainbowDisney]

A couple years back i bought 2 autographs from showmasters from their stall that was in the market outside the centre MK.

 

They came with COA's, not that I needed them, i have no reason whatsoever to not believe they didnt get them in person.

[Crostini]

but some people may have just been passing through the market and never thought or heard of an autograph event.

[GoldenGreen]

There was a company at Autographica one year, who took a scan of your picture after you had it signed and put it on their database with date of signing etc and then gave you a unique code which was attached to the back of the picture. It was a good idea, but it came at a cost.

 

At a previous event Christopher Lee has also had small stickers on the back of photos with date of signing and number on as well, and I think Paul Gascoigne may have as well at a signing.

 

I guess though as someone said further up, why do you need a COA if you are not going to sell the auto on ?

 

I've got so many autos, photos with celebs etc, that everyone that knows me realises that all my autos are genuine.

 

I also keep my ticket, flyers etc from the events I go to , which help prove I was there if need be.

 

I then have photos from other events, Premieres etc, where possible.

[Raylenth]

I can see both sides of the arguement. All of my auto's have been bought for my private collection and I have no intention of selling them. I agree that anyone who buys auto's from Ebay might as well flush their money down the loo seeing as there are so many fakes and yes I always laugh when I see someone offering a COA. However there are reputable sellers there but that's another discussion.

 

Sometimes COA's are worthwhile but only if you know the person/company selling them is genuine. I have bought a couple of autos before as it was for an actor who doesn't do cons/events and only sells his auto through a couple of companies. Mine where from one of these and I know they are associated/liscenced by MGM to do this, and each came with a hologramed, numbered COA. It just adds reassurance really.

 

Where COA's make a difference though is props and costumes. Again I have a couple of set used costumes from Stargate, sold through a company liscenced by MGM to do so and each came with a hologramed, numbered COA onMGM letterhead. OK so their is always the risk that it's fake, if you're not there to actually see it signed, but it's as near to real as you're going to get. With those kind of items I think you need a COA. Again I have no intention of selling them, but in the future, if I have them valued or do have to sell them I've got the proof that they are real - a provenance, which really is needed when selling on these kind of items.

[Mondasant63]

I can see both sides of the argument on this one. As a collector I don't need any proof of the authenticity of a signature as I only ever get the ones that I want from organised events like those by SM and other companies. If I ever wanted an autograph that I knew I had no chance of getting then I'd only go to a UACC dealer.

 

On the other hand, I do get autographs for friends and casual acquaintances and although they do trust me they also like to have as much information on where and when a signature was obtained that some kind of optional proof would be pretty useful.

 

With regard to ebay, yes, there are fake autographs being sold on there, however the proportion is nowhere near as high as was made out by the UACC a couple of years ago and most of them are obviously either forged or copied (I know of two or three people who have been stung recently, one friend of mine bought a complete Charmed cast signed photo for around £10! then asked me if I thought the signatures were real. When I pointed out that as far as I knew none of the cast had at that time done any official signings, and that if they had then the vendor would have been looking at paying around £20 per signature, she became quite upset. As I always tell friends, if the deal seems too good to be ture, don't gamble your cash on it.)

However there are genuine dealers on ebay, occasionally I've had to sell spare autos to help finance another event. I'm afraid that it says a lot about todays society when people would even think of faking a certificate and it's this sort of thinking which makes it near impossible for genuine stuff to be sold.

 

There are only two answers to this point. Limit everyone to one autograph per guest and have everything personalised. And stop handing out dealer passes to tgraders who want to get multiple signings.

[GoldenGreen]

 

With regard to ebay, yes, there are fake autographs being sold on there, however the proportion is nowhere near as high as was made out by the UACC a couple of years ago and most of them are obviously either forged or copied (I know of two or three people who have been stung recently, one friend of mine bought a complete Charmed cast signed photo for around £10! then asked me if I thought the signatures were real. When I pointed out that as far as I knew none of the cast had at that time done any official signings, and that if they had then the vendor would have been looking at paying around £20 per signature, she became quite upset. As I always tell friends, if the deal seems too good to be ture, don't gamble your cash on it.)

However there are genuine dealers on ebay, occasionally I've had to sell spare autos to help finance another event. I'm afraid that it says a lot about todays society when people would even think of faking a certificate and it's this sort of thinking which makes it near impossible for genuine stuff to be sold.

 

 

I regularly keep a check on ebay, and sadly I would say that the majority of autos listed on there are not genuine. However, many sellers do say they are not on their listings and many people seem to sell scans of their own auto collection on there as well, which I guess may suit someones pocket as long as they realise for £4.99 they are not getting the genuine article, just a copy.

 

It is highly unlikely that the Charmed Cast photo is genuine, particularly at that price, but it is possible that a dealer had collected the signatures at separate events over time, particularly if American based, however, there is no way they would be selling it so cheaply if it was genuine.

 

You do have to bear in mind that dealers will have people working constantly at events in the USA and here at Premieres, After Show parties, other events etc, picking up autos.

 

Still, I think the best thing is to find a UACC registered dealer, and get to know them, their sources etc, so for those autos you can't get in person, but really want you have a source that you are confident in. Just randomly buying autos on ebay from unknown sources is a big No No !

Edited November 2, 2006 by GoldenGreen