Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Fakers & Fraudsters

The continued rise of eBay and the insatiable appetite for rock and pop memorabilia has prompted some people to offer some startling items for sale. However, like everything in the field of antiques and collectables it’s open to fakers and fraudsters. It's not only the online sellers who are up to these tricks

Take the Jimi Hendrix Experience Smash Hits album signed by Jimi, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding offered for sale by Bonham’s auction house in 1995. The only trouble was this particular release came out three years after Jimi died. It was withdrawn shortly before the auction. The rise of eBay makes the opportunities for similar ‘mistakes’ even easier. Recently a Best of Elvis 10” album was offered and it was snapped up for the bargain price of £350. Only trouble was it was a French reissue dating from the 1980s, close to a decade after the King’s death.

3 comments:

r morris said...

Something over 90% of all celebrity items on eBay with signatures are fake. Nobody should buy anything like this on eBay.

Richard Havers said...

One day Bill Wyman and I had a look at Stones signed things on ebay and there were many. many fakes. In one instance there was a set of Stones signatures on an picture which Bill said, "Brian signed all of those. We would often sign for each other!"

r morris said...

The thing is, the forgers on eBay make a fortune. The biggest joke on eBay is the certificate of authenticity---made out by the forger himself.
I bought one autographed item on eBay many years ago. It is a signed photo of Frank Sinatra signed before a concert in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was made out to the guy I bought it from. It may or may not be real, but I like it just the same.
I also have a small swatch of Frank Sinatra's dinner jacket that came on a trading card. This I believe is real.
Embarassing some of the things I have, come to think of it.