Your experience with getting autographs authenticated. (Need answer soon.)

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have a book autographed (in my presence) by the three Apollo 11 astronauts in 1989, on the 20th anniversary of the moon landing. Michael Collins’ death today has gotten me thinking about having it authenticated for possible sale at some point.

Apparently there are several companies that specialize in this, and coincidentally, one of them, JSA, will be doing walk-up authentications near me this weekend. A little Googling has shown that two of the other top companies are PSA and Beckett.

The immediate question is whether there is any downside to getting the book authenticated this weekend, which would be convenient, rather than waiting and shipping it to JSA or one of the other companies later, which would take longer, and entail the expense and risk of shipping. The only reason I can think of not to do it now is if one of the other services has a better reputation. Some online sources suggest PSA may be better, but it’s hard to tell.

What do you think?

2

I don’t see a problem in getting the signatures authenticated, as long as the price is reasonable. But I’m curious: are you simply looking to have the signatures authenticated, or are you looking to have the book valued as well?

3

I don’t believe JSA, PSA, and the others do valuations, so no, just authentication. When I decide to sell, I’ll look into the valuation process. While I’m talking to JSA I may ask their reps for suggestions.

4

You could take it in to that pawn shop on Pawn Stars. They seem to keep a signature expert on hand who can be called on at the drop of a hat.

5

Sports signatures are about 95% fake from what I’ve read. Especially for a HOF guy from way back.

6

Can somebody explain how this works? I have a scorecard signed (while I watched) by two HoFers, in pencil, in the clubhouse tunnel in 1950. Are there “experts” who can tell at a $10 glance, whether those are fake or not? Since then, there have been 10,000 major league pro athletes. Can they authenticate them all?

My daughter got Sandy Alomar Jr, and the pen ran out ink before he finished, and she was disappointed. I told her at least it’s “authenticated” – nobody would try to sell a fake like that.

7

If you go to the sites in my OP, they explain how they do it.

I took my book to them yesterday and they took pictures which they sent to several of their experts who agreed the signatures were authentic. They’ll send me the certificate in a few weeks.