Fake Britain

[autografica]

Forgot to mention it, but tere was a long piece on fake autogrphs this morning on BBC1 at 9pm.

It was a Dominic Litlewood 'Fake Britain' program and will be repeated later in the year in shorter form at peak time.

You should be able to find it on BBc iplayer tomorow.

Can't say as look good in HD closeup!

 Garry

Autografica (just Google it).

[1983davetherave]

I seen the programme this morning.

I thought it was interesting to watch and listening to about the fake autographs.  I felt sorry for the guy that had bought so many fake autographs without realising.

[not_brazil_norn_iron]

>>this morning on BBC1 at 9pm.<<

I'm confused

:^O

[westiesx2]

Saw the programme this morning. Felt really sorry for the guy who had bought many photo autographs and found out that most of them were fake! Just goes to show, that even a little more knowledge of fakes, autopens etc and he could have saved himself a lot of money.

Will have to sign up for one of your courses at some stage in the future. Could you send me details of your next course. Not sure if I can make that one but would like to have a look. Thanks Stuart

[milly6660]

i missed todays,but can't watch it next time as it won't be original will it?

it'll be a copy

 B-)

[autografica]

It should be on iplayer tomorrow for all to see, and will be repeated again later in the year at peak time when i understand it will get 5 times as many viewers!

The guy had spent about £5000 and only had a few genuine examples. He has now got a full refund for the crap he bought over here, and i believe a refund via his CC for the Bruce Lee.

But yes, if he had a little knowledge or had purchased  via an AFTAL or similar dealer, then he would certainly have not had the same probems.

I still have some places on the next course if anyone is interested, just mail me via my website.

Garry

Autografica (just Google it!)  

[wheel-lose]

i will check it out tomorrow garry on itv player:-)

-- Edited by wheel-lose at 05/17/2011 5:01 PM BST

[milly6660]

bbc 😛

[autografica]

Its on iplayer now, here is a link........is that allowed!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011f4r9/Fake_Britain_Series_2_Episode_2/

[loobyloo6]

Thanks for that Garry, Nic eto put a face to the name :-x

[knockknock-66]

Thanks for that Garry, i really enjoyed watching it. I noticed that you did'nt mention a particular auction site, during your interview;) But i was really happy to hear Trading Standards mention it by name.

So why is it that when a report is made to the mentioned auction site that they seem to do nothing at all. They know that they have thousands of forgers/ fake sellers on there site selling this crap but dont do a thing about it...... Ok they might end the odd listing or two but generally they just allow things to carry on, and allow people to continue being robbed by the scammers.

I think it is a real shame that the scammers are putting reputable/ genuine dealers out of business. Yes, dealers do ask a lot of money for there items, but just look at the history behind the item, what it has taken to obtain it in the first place. A lot of man hours goes into getting multi signed items, believe me i know.

I would like to add that, if any of you are thinking of buying a Pele, or Ali, Moore etc, dont take the price on the dealers web site as the done deal. Please contact the dealer and i am sure they will be able to offer you a discounted price. Garry sold me a couple of items F1 related, but i asked him for a bit of discount and he gave it to me, cheers Garry the owner adores the Schumacher mask thingy lol:)

This is indeed a really great topic, thanks again Garry for the link.

Cheers

Paul

[autografica]

If you watch the film carefully you will see that we do show some eBay footage. In fatc we spent about 2 hours looking at sellers with me pointing out the obvious, and thay way in which to avoid the bad sellers, but the show is only so long, and they could not use everything we did.

Louise Marney was caught via eBay and i believe as a result of a posting on the ACAF forum. This alerted the buyers to the fraud, and TS stepped in very quickly indeed. They used their common sense and could see that something was not right, and so then contacted me, and then obtained a warrent to search her premises, the rest is history. 

I lost track of how many hours we spent filming, but it stretched over four days. The repeat in the Autumn will be shorter.

Garry.   

[thehornets]

Garry - I thought it was excellent. Is this the first time that one show has highlighted so many different aspects of fake autographs to the general public? As well as highlighting the huge impact fakers are having on the  industry, and steps that have resulted in prosecution, it was also good to see celebrity fakes highlighted (secretarials, autopens, stamps, preprints). I hope plenty of collectors saw it. Maybe those who have, could post a link to the iPlayer broadcast on various collector forums to help get it out there. I will be honest, I was unaware of the show and would not have known had you not posted. Better still, it is a good warning to the average fan who does not necessarily know about autographs, and might be easily tempted (like the Bruce Lee chap). Thanks.

[autografica]

It only briefly touchs on the problems and the autopens etc, and we did do much more, but they only have 45 minutes, so they did a lot of editing.

I am trying to ensure that it goes out to as many other forums etc as possible, as it is a good way of promoting both collecting and AFTAL, ad of course warning the buyer of the problems.

I am sure that there must be plenty of people who watched it, who are now thinking about taking that signed photo back to the shop they bought it from!

Please do your best to send it to others, and add it to sites etc. 

Garry 

[not_brazil_norn_iron]

"There are only 4 letters in 'PELE' and he's got 3 of them wrong!!"

^ Great quote there 🙂

Terrific viewing although felt a bit gutted for that guy who'd wasted thosands on a load of rubbish fakes

I'm prodominantly a football collector though i do dabble in the odd movie autograph as well from time to time, i'm a deeply cynical collector though and i abide by the motto 'if it is too good to be true then it probably is', if i'm going to buy A-List then it must come direct from 1 of the top dealers - it's through being a member of ACAF for the last few years that i have built up most of my knowledge to date (an ongoing process as we all know) and just simply listening carefully to the good guys like Garry or my other favourite gentleman Ken 'writestuff' Mills in the industry and taking heed of their advice, when they speak i listen - simple as that and it has never let me down

Just an example, i bought a Joe Pesci signed card the other day, been after one for a long long time and finally one appeared for sale, thanks to what i've learnt with regards to Pesci secretarials i was able to refer to the isitreal website take a look at the references re:Pesci sigs and draw my conclusions - had i not been a member of ACAF i simply would not have had a clue how to find out what's what when it comes to this kind of thing and this is where people like the poor fella in the film fall down, lack of knowledge, they just simply buy and believe, as a United collector it saddens me greatly to see the many hundreds of truly dreadful squad signed shirts being sold day in day out and kids having these framed pieces of garbage on their bedroom walls all over the country and beyond!

Obviously ACAF has been (disgracefully) weakened in recent times though i do still highly recommend everyone get themselves logged in there if you are not already and just seek advice before jumping in if you are in anyway unsure when buying signed memorabilia on Ebay or elsewhere

[autografica]

Although i have not been able to get in touch with the guy this week, I know that h did get all his money back on the rubbish he bought here in the UK (it came from a shop local to him) and the last time i spoke with him he was close to getting a refund via his CC compnay for the Bruce Lee item. 

Garry

[autografica]

Just had a thought! This is great little piece to send to forgers, because it shows that Trading Standards do sometimes take action, and may just make them think!

Why not make someones day, and send them a link to the show? You nver know, i may just work!

Garry

[perrythechelseabluelion]

i watched it yesterday, That was very interesting.  Felt sorry for that guy, but that has happened to most collectors, (myself included) and probably has happened to many more without them currently knowing it.

Nice to see your face Garry.

[bunting0_1]

Ive been 'stung', more than once. Must watch this on ip

[autografica]

We have a had a stack of emails and calls about this item, and i am surpised at the amount of stuff that some collectors have purchased that is fake, and its only now that the penny has dropped!

Losing a few 's is one thing, a few hundred is hard for most of us, but i have spoken to people that have lost thousands to these sharks!

I can see that if i have my way, a few more of these sharks may well be the subject of another Trading Standards look see!

Garry