Rocky Horror Preservation Foundation

Tuesday, 13-May-2008 15:55:59 PDT

The Rocky Horror Preservation Foundation:
Collector Fraud

My goal here is to educate others on how to spot fakes on Ebay. I intentionally bought these two items off of ebay recently for demonstration purposes. What I bought were two photos called "8 x 10 Glossy Authentic Autographed Guaranteed Reprint". The actual auctions can be accessed here. Auction #1 and Auction #2

Here are two scans of the product received. The images you are viewing are 72 DPI. If you click them you will get 300 DPI High Res JPG's.

Auction #1

Auction #2

Putting aside the fact that these photos were called "8 x 10 Glossy Authentic Autographed Guaranteed Reprint" and they actually arrived as 8.5 x 11 low res scans printed on HP Paper. And they are extremely pixelated. Let's look at the real issue, the autographs.

Now, like I said my goal here is to educate you. Just so you know what legit sources I have compared these too, I am only comparing these "Authentic" autographs to autographs in my collection that were obtained first hand (me and them) and those of trusted collectors who sent me the actual autographs they obtained first hand for comparision. The total collection spans autographs over 25 years. I know of no one else who has this large of collection of authentic Rocky Horror autographs as we do here at RHPF.

So that being said... Let's examine each autograph individually. Shall we?

	Ok, this one is the best. This photo is autographed by "TIM O'BRIEN". That should be a sign right there. Yes, incase you are staring at it... saying "huh?" Yes, they faked the wrong name on it.


	This autograph is supposed to be that of Nell Campbell. Click here for an actual Nell Campbell Autograph.


	I am assuming this is Barry Bostwick's autograph. In this case, he mispelled his own name. I compared this to 6 other known autographs and it doesn't look anything like it. I reason I think this is fake is that he mispelled Barry. Bary?


	This is supposed to be Richard O'Brien's autograph. In this case he dotted his "i" twice in his last name. I have looked thru almost 2 dozen samples of his writing. And found him to never, ever, do that. Click here for an actual Richard O'Brien autograph.


	Unknown Signature #1. I don't know who this is supposed to be. It doesn't look like that of any other Rocky Horror related person.


	Unknown Signature #2. Ok, this could be of Susan Sarandon, except that her last name doesn't have any characters that hang below the line. Sorry for the crappy image. That's how is was sent to me. Oh, and did you notice she's not in the picture?


	Unknown Signature #3. I don't know who this is supposed to be. It doesn't look like that of any other Rocky Horror related person. But I think it does belong to Boba Fett Update:Sources close to RHPF said that this signature is supposed to be that of Meat Loaf.

As you noticed there are three autographs that I cannot find. Maybe they are that of people I do not know. I have looked thru my collection and I have autographs of the following people and it's none of them;
  Tim Curry
  Richard O'Brien
  Patricia Quinn
  Nell Campbell
  Susan Sarandon
  Barry Bostwick
  Meat Loaf
  Johnathan Adams
  Peter Hinwood
  Kimi Wong
  Rufus Collins
  Pierre Bedden
  Stephen Calcutt
  Sadie Corre
  Pam Obermeyer
  Christopher Biggins
  Sue Blane
  Henry Woolf
  Lindsey Ingram
  Imogene Claire
  Annabelle Levinton
  Pierre LaRoche
  Lou Adler
  John Goldstone
  Richard Hartley
  Michael White

Ok, so some are obvious fakes, and some are unknown. What should you look for when autograph buying and what should I do?

READ THE AUCTION. In this case, I knew I was getting reprints. It said "8 x 10 Glossy
Authentic Autographed Guaranteed Reprint". Now yes, like I said they weren't glossy reprints
(like actual photos) these are 8.5 x 11 from a printer.

Look for watermarks on the back of the paper that say "HP" or "WALMART" you'll know
they are reprints.

Look at the photo with a "loop" or magnafying glass. Do you see a bunch of little dots?
That can tell you if the photo has been scanned and printed by a PC.

Look for mispellings. Really! I found these online and caught it within seconds.

Ask those who know. Not sure if an autograph is real? Ask other collectors online. If
you want contact us. We can send you samples. But for obvious reason we won't scan and
show full name autographs.

Look what they signed... Why would Susan Sarandon sign a Rufus Collins picture?

Look at who did it and when... Peter Hinwood autographs pre-1999 are almost non-existant.
A new Charles Grey is impossible to get (because he is dead)

So what now? I bought a fake what do I do? Well, tell me for one, because I am collecting a list of people who fraud Rocky Collectors. Contact the seller and ask for your money back. If efforts to communicate directly with your buyer or seller are unsuccessful contact Ebay Click Here and/or Paypal.

I hope this will show you what to look for in autograph collecting. Here are some other useful links;

Autograph Collecting (what to look for)

Buyer Beware

The Universal Autograph Collectors Club

Amazon