Fake Mike Trout autographs are reeling in a lot of unsuspecting collectors. PSA/DNA Authentication services has added the American League’s young MVP to its latest list of most forged autographs.
Trout joins Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky and other sports stars whose names have appeared over the years on PSA/DNA’s “Most Dangerous Autographs” list.
“Trout has been signing autographs and offering game-used items since his rookie year, although in limited quantities,” said Joe Orlando, President of the Newport Beach, CA-based company. “It will be interesting to see how accessible he remains as his career continues. Collectors should be cautious in general, though, because there’s probably less than a 50-50 chance autographs offered in the marketplace of many current and former sports and entertainment celebrities are genuine.”
In 2014 Professional Sports Authenticator evaluated over 400,000 autographs submitted by collectors and dealers worldwide.
“It’s not uncommon for us to reject 50 percent or more of the signatures submitted to our company, especially when it comes to the more prominent names,” explained PSA/DNA Principal Authenticator Steve Grad, who is one of the featured experts on the popular television series, “Pawn Stars.”
According to PSA/DNA, the ten “most dangerous” sports stars’ autographs now includes:
1) Babe Ruth
2) Lou Gehrig
3) Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio
4) Michael Jordan
5) Muhammad Ali
6) Mike Trout
7) Derek Jeter
8) Tiger Woods
9) LeBron James
10) Wayne Gretzky
There are non-genuine autographs and then there are really bad fakes. Orlando says most of the latter “signed” items aren’t submitted to the company because they’re created by forgers who know they’d be rejected. Instead, they try to pass them off to the public without a PSA/DNA opinion.
“So, if our rejection rate for a particular autograph approaches 50 percent, then you can only imagine how high the percentage of forgeries actually might be in the overall marketplace,” Orlando stated.
PSA/DNA has also compiled a list of “most dangerous” autographs of entertainment and historical figures in 2014. The complete PSA/DNA report on the Most Dangerous Autographs of 2014, including interesting information about some current marketplace prices for genuine autographs, is available free online at www.psacard.com/MostDangerousAutographs.
Collectors can see and compare hundreds of sports, historical and entertainment autographs at www.PSAautographFacts.com, including examples of how a person’s signature may change over the years.
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