Things You'll Need:
- Autographed Sports Memorabilia
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Step 1
(Educate yourself about autographs.) The first step to take in spotting fake autographed sports memorabilia is to educate yourself on signatures and autographs. Study how people sign things in general, and then study how athletes sign their autographs. Knowing how an authentic autograph should look on a piece of sports memorabilia can help identify counterfeits.
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Step 2
(Beware unnaturally low prices or high sales.) If the autographed sports memorabilia is being sold at an unusually cheap price, or this a high quantity of sales being made, the autograph may be fake. Legitimate sports memorabilia is hard to find and usually worth a great sum of money. While there are exceptions to this rule, be on alert for signals such as these.
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Step 3
(Check the sports memorabilia's Certificate of Authenticity.) It is very easy for forgers to cook up fake Certificates of Authenticity to falsely validify their fake autographed sports memorabilia. Read over ALL of the information presented on a COA, and check where it came from as well. Also, check to see if the COA comes from somewhere legitimate, like Upper Deck or PSA.
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Step 4
(Ask questions about the autograph's origin.) Finally, you'll want to pester the seller with questions about how authentic the autographed piece of sports memorabilia is. Ask anything that could verify the legitimacy of the item.
