buying "signed" memorabillia

Anthillmob

i was outbid at the last moment on a signed framed foo fighters cd & sheet music. was only prepared to pay £20.

so i looked up some others and noticed a difference between autographs on some items, all of which provide a COA with the item.

so is it worth buying/bidding on these items even if they send a COA how genuine is the COA?

should i steer clear?

also is there any way of finding out the maximum someone is prepared to pay for an item?

empfun

COAs Autographs offer a sense of value protection for the memorabilia as you sell it onto another buyer. They are the closest thing to having the item signed in your presence but they are by no means fully accurate.

I remember watching this documentary recently this Hollywood actress that had one of the largest if not the largest collection of signed basketball and baseball memorabilia. And she had Kobe Bryant come by to her place and she showed her his COA signed basketball, he kept telling her it's not his signature, she kept telling him the COA says otherwise. He eventually signed on the ball for her. hehe.

Alanb

A COA is basically a promise from the seller that the signature is genuine, so it's generally as reliable as the seller. Personally I don't think a COA is worth the paper it's written on. I've seen COAs from sellers with multiple items signed by the same celeb which can't possibly be genuine, ie he's got 4 or 5 Elvis sigs along with 6 or 7 full Beatles signatures. Buying signed items on Ebay is a bit of a minefield it's best to try and do some research prior and check out the seller's feedback etc. If the feedback is private it's possibly due to the fact the seller has something to hide. I'm certainly not saying there's any problem with autographs on Ebay but just be careful.
Top marks on the Foos though, what a band!!

shelly

There was a thing on TV awhile ago about people selling signed JK Rowling stuff with COA's. She said it was total rubbish as she's never signed anything.

Anthillmob

Alanb wrote:

Top marks on the Foos though, what a band!!

thanks. am seeing them in hyde park in june and cant wait

Contains_Mild_Peril

shelly wrote:

There was a thing on TV awhile ago about people selling signed JK Rowling stuff with COA's. She said it was total rubbish as she's never signed anything.

That probably makes more sense in the context of particular items. She has been known to sign some things occasionally! However, genuine JK Rowling signatures are quite scarce and, for a celebrity who's still alive, valuable.
Elvis signed many autographs in his time. While they're more common in the US than over here, they're not as rare and valuable as many people tend to expect.
A COA by itself might not necessarily be reliable, though if it's from, for example, an ex-employee of the celebrity, that would give it a lot more credence. Other evidence such as photographs of signings can be useful.