You can find a lot of signed items on e-bay. Even at e reasonable price. But are these items signed by the real Stones?

Grtz,

Wouter

You have to always be careful when buying any celebrity/star autographed photos memorabilia... forgery is always rampant with that stuff.... a picture of the person with the star getting the signature may help, but you can even fake those nowadays...lol
I think the best thing is to try and get the autograph yourself as the entire experience would be priceless.

The majority of signed items on Ebay are fake. I've personally had hundreds of musicians, actors and film directors sign for me, including all 4 current Stones, so I can usually tell the fakes from the real, if it's a signature from someone I already have. Some are real obvious, like the fully signed Let It Bleed LP that included Brian Jones, who was dead months before it ever was released.

Most of the professional autograph collectors don't put their stuff on Ebay. I've run into many of them here in L.A. and it seems that a lot of them do freelance work for a company called Autograph World in New Jersey, so whatever they get, they pass onto this company who pays them. I'm not sure if Autograph World then puts things on Ebay or if they sell them to memorabilia shops around the world or to private collectors. It may be a combination of all 3 options. The professionals almost exclusively get 8x10 photos signed by celebrities, which they print up cheaply to minimize their cost. When it comes to musicians, they like to get guitar scratch plates or drum heads signed, which is usually a give away that they are a pro and not a fan. A fan generally gets real product signed, like LPs and cds, but for a pro, the biggest money is in signed guitars and instruments. They attach these scratch plates to a cheap guitar and can then sell then for much more than they ever could sell a signed LP or cd.

I once bought "John Lennon´s driving licence" for 50 EUROs...

Man, I´ve been an ebay greenhorn then... it was such a fake - it had is dying day on it!!!!

Halup Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The majority of signed items on Ebay are fake.
> I've personally had hundreds of musicians, actors
> and film directors sign for me, including all 4
> current Stones, so I can usually tell the fakes
> from the real, if it's a signature from someone I
> already have. Some are real obvious, like the
> fully signed Let It Bleed LP that included Brian
> Jones, who was dead months before it ever was
> released.
>
> Most of the professional autograph collectors
> don't put their stuff on Ebay. I've run into many
> of them here in L.A. and it seems that a lot of
> them do freelance work for a company called
> Autograph World in New Jersey, so whatever they
> get, they pass onto this company who pays them.
> I'm not sure if Autograph World then puts things
> on Ebay or if they sell them to memorabilia shops
> around the world or to private collectors. It may
> be a combination of all 3 options. The
> professionals almost exclusively get 8x10 photos
> signed by celebrities, which they print up cheaply
> to minimize their cost. When it comes to
> musicians, they like to get guitar scratch plates
> or drum heads signed, which is usually a give away
> that they are a pro and not a fan. A fan generally
> gets real product signed, like LPs and cds, but
> for a pro, the biggest money is in signed guitars
> and instruments. They attach these scratch plates
> to a cheap guitar and can then sell then for much
> more than they ever could sell a signed LP or cd.


I find that those guitars on ebay that are spraypainted with Keith's picture or whatever are corny as hell. Yeah it's a shame that ebay is a huge window for collectors to put their stuff up. I saw a video once of John Mayer signing for some people outside an LA restaurant and some guy had a drum head for him to sign. He plays guitar. he said: "You know, I play guitar...ok..." Then he signs the drum head: "Helloooooo Ebay......."

The estimates I've seen over the years say that about 90% or more of all autographs sold are fake. It makes sense if you think about it.

I've got a wall of autograghs that I've gotten in person. I only have a few that I've bought from people that I know personally, so I'm sure (99%) that they are real including a complete Stones set with Bill. I just got a Keith auto on a Pirates promo photo on eBay. The guy included photo's of his photographers press pass from the Disney premier, him on the red carpet w/the pass around his neck, and other photos from the red carpet. Is the autograph fake? Probably!! But it was only $80 and looks real cool on my wall. It's wall art. It's real close to my real autograph. I also collect Stiff Records 45's and gotten some autographed sleeves on eBay. Wreckless Eric, Rachael Sweet etc for cheap cheap. My feelings were 'whos gonna waste time faking these?' since they are nobodys to most people. Bottom line 'If you don't see it signed in person, then you can't prove it's real'. BUYER BEWARE. If your buying them as 'wall art', treat them as such. You can never honestly resell them as real.

Scotty

Caveat Emptor!!

76%.

I don't have any music autographs but I have some sports autographs and I know fakes are a big problem in the sports memorabilia world. Even with a certificate of authenticity it is not neccessarily authentic.

HBO did a show a few years ago about this and they sent some autographs that they knew were fake to a highly respected authenticator. He authenticated most of them as being real even though they were all fakes.

WouterLam Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You can find a lot of signed items on e-bay. Even
> at e reasonable price. But are these items signed
> by the real Stones?
>
> Grtz,
>
> Wouter


I believe it's all fake.