Authenticating Autographed Items?


Autographsamerica.com sold my adult children two Grateful Dead lps with the band's signature on both. Anyone know how legit autographsamerica.com is? While I'm touched by my chidren's thoughtfulness is selecting such a cool gift for their "Baby-Boomer Dead Head Father", I have an uneasy feeling they may have been ripped off. Not being a crime specialist I'm seeing too much variation in signatures among the other Grateful Dead items at their web site, and between my own autographed gifts. What do you think? Are they legit? Any Dead Heads out there able to compare their own signed items with what's on Autographsamerica's web page? Similarly, how do you know those autographed items you have framed and displayed are signed by the artists you admire? Do seller's "certificates of authenticity" have any validity? - Restless in San Francisco
jwong
Have you googled this company for complaints or fakes? There is a huge market in sports for items with a stars signature and many of the folks who "verify" an item is legite will take your money and stamp almost anything thrown in front of them and I dont music industry is much different.
Most everything is worth only as much as someone is willing to pay for it. Seeing that your kids got this for you as a gift it probably is not something that you are going to being selling off. So assume that the signatures are real, enjoy it and thank the kids.
I think that Davt is spot on. What matters most is the thought your kids put into this gift. The emotional value attached far outweighs any monetary value whether the signatures are fake or not.

FWIW, if the certificate of authenticity indicates that the signature(s) were obtained any time after 8/1/95, then you can be sure it's fraudulent.

As a collector of GD memorabilia myself (hence the screen name) the Dead occasionally provided autographed items for auction and charity events.
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