How Easy to Fake an Sports Autograph

Woody Huband Jacksonville.com An autographed Carlos Correa photograph is on display at the Jacksonville Sports Cards Superstore on the Westside. Sports autograph authenticator James Spence III says pros in his field have to be diligent and have considerable notes on athletes because people's handwriting can change over time.

James Spence III knows what it feels like to hold a baseball signed by a sports legend like, say, Mickey Mantle, in your hand.

He also recognizes the disappointment that comes when you learn what you thought was a personal memento from your hero is a fake.

Spence spends most of his time trying to separate the real from the fake.

It's his job.

Spence is a sports autograph authenticator, a detective of sorts, for James Spence Authentication. JSA, founded by his father, is among the most respected autograph authentication companies in the country.

Spence will be in Jacksonville Saturday for the Sports Card & Collectible Show at the Quality Inn on Commonwealth Avenue at I-295, doing onsite autograph authentication. He expects lines of people carrying baseballs, bats, trading cards, jerseys and mini football helmets, who all want to know if what they have is the real thing.

Frank Bray, who owns Jacksonville Sports Cards Superstore on the Westside and organizes the shows on a regular basis, said this is the first time JSA will have a representative at the event.

At 28, Spence has already done a lot of traveling and looked at a lot of autographs.

"I grew up running around the country with my father," said Spence in a telephone interview from Fort Lauderdale, where the New Jersey-based JSA recently opened an office. "He was my mentor."

There are three basic reasons that companies like JSA exist, Spence said. First, there's a lot of forgery out there. Second, the basic reality is that many forgeries are almost impossible to detect by the average collector. And third, it's almost impossible to sell an autographed item without a letter of authentication.

There's a reason for visiting sports card and collectible shows like the one scheduled for Jacksonville.

"A lot of people are hesitant to send an item by mail," Spence said. "Some people don't want to part with what they have, they don't want to send it away to some office, no matter how reputable the company might be."

So people like Spence come to them. He said it isn't unusual for him to log 100,00 miles a year by plane as he travels around the country for shows. Typically the shows attract collectors, dealers and even auction houses seeking authentication.

And their major motive, Spence said, is to be able to resell the item.

What does Spence look for when you hand him an autograph?

"The initial stroke, the terminal stroke, the baseline [how straight across the writing is horizontally], the shadings, the size of the autograph, There are so many things the average collector wouldn't pick up on. You have to learn the signing habits of certain players. And you need a good exemplar file. You can't do it all from memory."

The most common forgeries may involve traced signatures (carbon paper transfers), autopens (often used by celebrity fan clubs to replicate signatures), laser autopens, rubber stamps, and obvious mismatches, like an item "signed" and dated after the person's death. Spence recalled someone with an "autograph" of baseball great Satchel Paige dated 1983 - the year after Paige died.

Autograph authentication is more intuition than science, Spence said.

"You can't go to school, you can't go to Harvard and get a degree in autograph authentication," he said. "There is no degree for what we do. I went to the University of Pittsburgh and got a degree in finance and economics. But I had a mentor - my father, who is well-seasoned in this business. You pretty much need a mentor, and you have to consistently look at autographs and examine them."

And here's the catch: Once you've learned to identify a player's signature, you're not done. Why? "Because everybody's autograph changes over time, though certain things will stay the same. That's why we keep files on people. [Former football and baseball player] Bo Jackson, for example, his autograph changed drastically over time. Some athletes will start dropping letters because they sign thousands of autographs. They're in a hurry and they're just saving time."

Sometimes Spence's work is easy, and he can give a client an immediate answer.

"There are certain autographs that I know are real. You look at an autograph 100 times a week for a year, you're going to know."

But certain autographs can take several months of research to authenticate, such as a signature that's supposed to be by author Charles Dickens, for example, or Civil War hero Joshua Chamberlain. (JSA has autograph authenticators for a variety of categories in addition to sports, including music, historical/political, vintage Hollywood and contemporary entertainment.)

"Sometimes we go 'inconclusive' on an item," he said, in which case the client receives a letter saying the company was unable to authenticate the signature. "That's rare compared to how many we pass. We have a lot of people looking at an autograph. That's what helps make us to be so accurate. We're able to catch each others' mistakes."

In addition to an Inconclusive Letter, the other possibilities are a Letter of Authenticity, a Letter of Rejection and a Clubhouse Letter, which suggests the item has been signed by clubhouse personnel such as bat boys, secretaries, attendants, etc.

So how much out there is fake?

"You have to narrow it down to a signer," Spence said. "[Baseball pitching legend] Bob Feller was the first to ever go to a card show and sign autographs - 99 percent of Feller's autographs are authentic."

"Michael Jordan, on the other hand, has always been very reluctant to sign autographs, and a lot of what we see are not real. It all depends on the signing habits of the person."

Sometimes people don't like hearing that what they thought was a collectible is in fact a fake. "We explain why," Spence said. "Someone will tell you 'my grandfather got this from …' but sometimes stories get mixed up over time with another story. You can't take everybody at their word. But if you tell them why, they usually respect that. But you're not going to please the world."

At the moment, autographed items by Bryce Harper, an outfielder for the Washington Nationals, and Mike Trout, an outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, are at the top of the list for baseball memorabilia collectors. And autographs by Peyton Manning, quarterback for the Denver Broncos, and Tom Brady, quarterback for the New England Patriots, are commanding top dollar among pro football fans.

With vintage collectibles, you're likely to see a lot of postcards signed by baseball players, Spence said. "That's how the sports autograph thing got started - fan requests through the mail. A lot of people used to write to players like Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner, and ask them to autograph their postcards and return them."

(Bray, of the Sports Cards Superstore, has been in the collectibles business for 30 years and recalled some of the more surprising autographed items he'd seen over the years: dollar bills signed by players, T-shirts the owners were wearing at the park, and a bowling shoe from Demi Moore, signed when the actress was in Jacksonville filming "G.I. Jane.")

One reality of autograph collecting, Spence said, is that anytime a person passes away, his autograph becomes more valuable. Astronaut Neil Armstrong is a recent example. The first person to walk on the moon died in August. His signature was already very sought-after because "Neil Armstrong almost never signed anything," Spence said.

The psychology of collecting is simple, Spence said, who is himself a collector of New York Jets memorabilia. "It's a way of having a connection with your favorite players. It's a passion, and it often becomes an obsession. You always crave more of it.

"As a collector myself, I have to say I can never get enough of it."