Moving the Collection Backwards

I'm totally relatively kind of fine when I add newly debuted Orioles to my need list. While I try to collect as many Orioles minor league autographs as possibly, sometimes players bypass the two affiliates closest to me (the AA Bowie Baysox and hi-A Frederick Keys) and go directly to AAA Norfolk and on to Baltimore as was the case with two of the newest Orioles, Luis Exposito and Bill Hall. I will gladly trade for autographs of players on the Tides' roster, but I refuse to buy autographs of AAA guys who might never make it to Baltimore. Even though I'm highly-focused on my Orioles autograph collection, I won't take it that far.

 Anyway, moving along to the point of this post, I recently found out that two of my rarer Orioles signatures  seem to not be of who I thought they were. A knowledgeable long-time collector of rare baseball autographs recently alerted me that my Carl Powis and Dick Luebke autographs are no good.

Many of the long-ago Orioles' autographs are tough to come by, and tougher still to find another signature to compare them with if I do happen across one for sale, so many times I'm flying blind when it comes to knowing if a signature is actually that of the player. I always do a google search to see if I can find a comparison, but when I can't I'm generally left to rely on the honesty of sellers. Most of the time it works out for the best, but occasionally, it doesn't. I think sometimes it's an honest mistake while other times I come across an under-handed dealer.

According to the collector who knows these things, Carl Powis's autograph looks nothing like this, so this is likely a forgery.

While this is an authentic autograph of Roy Luebke, not Dick Raymond (or as I thought) Ray Luebke.

Long story short, these guys are back on my need list and my collection is likely to be under 100% again for some time. While Luis Exposito and Bill Hall should be easy enough to knock off, I have no such hopes for Luebke or Powis.

A Fake In the Collection

As an autograph collector, it's almost impossible to confirm the authenticity of every autograph in my collection, unless I could afford to have all of my autographs certified by a company like PSA. Many times, the cost to have an autograph certified as authentic would cost me more than what I would have to pay to get the autograph in the first place, so it seems silly to me to get cards certified in many circumstances. I try to cross-reference any autographs I plan to buy with other examples of that player's signature, preferably a certified one, so that I'm confident I'm buying an authentic autograph. But that's not always possible, some signatures in my collection are rare enough that other examples are tough to find.

My preference is always to collect my autographs in person whenever I can, so that I'm 100% positive that the autograph is legit. Unfortunately, many former Orioles had already passed away before I started my collection while many others live across the country, so I won't ever have a chance to get their signatures in-person.

I'm confident in the authenticity of the vast majority of the autographs in my collection, but every now and then, one slips through the cracks.


Example Jay Tibbs.

 

I obtained this Jay Tibbs autograph in a blind trade with a fellow collector on SCN. After I posted the cards that I received in that trade, a fellow Orioles autograph collector alerted me that the signature looked off. While I can't say that it's 100% fake, it certainly doesn't look like other examples of Jay's signature I've seen. And I certainly wouldn't trade it to someone as a legit Tibbs autograph. So what do I do with it now? Starting a fake autograph collection seems like a thought, but I wanted to at least display it so that others might be able to avoid my mistake. 

Luckily, I was just able to add what I think is an authentic Tibbs autograph to my collection. So it's no longer an issue for me.

For all you autograph collectors out there, especially if you are new to the hobby; make sure to do your research before buying or trading for autographs. You never know what you will get!