Featured Autograph Authenticity & S/H Warning

I've always wanted a Karen Carpenter autograph. They're expensive. I found an auction from a company in Carpinteria CA named CELEB AUTHENTIC, which recently had an auction of 1400 autographs. There were two Carpenter autographs, one for $20 starting bid, and another for $50. Watching the auction go off, not much was being sold. I was the only bidder on the $20. It has both Karen and Richard's autograph.

SHIPPING/HANDLING
I wasn't going to argue for $20 about anything. But, they charged $50 for shipping and handling. It was sent out media mail. So, they spent at most $4.63 on shipping. The vinyl box might have been $1, and they used a lot of tape. So, shipping supplies and postage would be $6.63. That's $43.37 for handling. And it took almost two weeks to arrive. So, BEWARE of CELEB AUTHENTIC in Carpinteria CA. Their prices might not be bad. But, they rob you on s/h.

AUTOGRAPH AUTHENTCITY
Authenticity experts are all crooks IMO. Even the most reliable with the best reputation, can't 100% say "this is real". They give extremely reputable educated guesses, with logic backing it up. But, you're still gambling about authentcity. Real Authetic which is probably an offshoot of Celeb Authentic did the authentication on this album. I imagine they do a lot for Celeb Authentic. Which should be a red flag.

Below is the album and it looks exactly like Karen and Richard's autograph. She almost always signed HI, and I personally met Richard, and got his autograph years ago, and that looks exactly like his autograph.

I was happy till I opened the album and saw it was made in Japan. The Carpenters toured Japan in 1974. This album was released in 1973. So, it is possible. The autographs are definitely signed and not printed.

Does anyone know about Celeb Authentic and Real Authentic's reputation? I can't find much online.

Is Japan known for forging celebrity autographs? I've seen quite a few Carpenters autographs being sold on Japanese albums. They were wildly popular and toured there a few times.

THANKS!

 

If the tour came after the album, surely they had them made to sell on that tour as is tradition? Why are you suspect?

That s/h is a hilarious money grab wow. I'm sure that makes them no friends and few repeat buyers.

 

My first red flag was the lack of anyone buying at the auction. I won with the only bid.

The second is the record being made in Japan. It was the early 70s. Imports weren't the norm at the time. My Slade albums which I got in the late 60s early 70s were all the US versions. Many UK bands (including the Clash which were the late 70s early 80s) had different mixes, songs, and track listing for the UK, and the US versions were completely different. All these auction items are from Japan. So, they must have spent a lot of time in Japan signing people's records. The majority of ebay autographs are also from Japan.

With this I feel it's almost too good to be real.

At a facebook autograph group, the varied responses to it being forged would mean the overwhelming majority online (including ones you'd swear are real) are fake.

 

I see. I guess I know nothing about record production but I could see them producing product where it was going to be sold if demand was high enough and production costs (or restrictions/incentives) made that possible.

Japan doesn't strike me as the source for this kind of scam but if it is I guess nothing has to be labeled correctly anyway.

 

Not a country that is generally known for forgeries, but I think forgers could have any nationality, there are crooks everywhere.