After nearly 20 years of collecting American historic autographs and manuscripts, I wanted to make a short guide filled with as much sound advice as I can give within the limitations of an ebay guide.

The historic autograph market is absolutely flooded with fakes and forgeries.  There is only one way for you to guarantee that the item you are bidding on at ebay is authentic:

Educate yourself!!

This area of collecting may be the greatest of all.  You get to actually touch history in a direct and personal way.  No other hobby offers you this incredible opportunity.

Unfortunately, unscrupulous sellers have tainted this hobby with an epidemic of forged pieces, and unsuspecting new collectors in the hobby who are buying on ebay are getting burned.

A COA is of no value, and a seller's claim that they belong to the UACC is also no guarantee of an authentic piece. Just a week ago,  I emailed a UACC dealer who was selling an absolutely terrible forgery of a Kennedy signed photo, and was completely ignored.

There is only one solution to this problem:

Learn to Authenticate Autographs!

Of course, this doesn't happen overnight, but if you are serious about collecting historic autographs, you need to start now.
 
1) Put together an extensive reference library.
The most important author of autograph references was the late Charles Hamilton.  This list includes some of his most important works, but all of his books are worth acquiring.

Every serious collector of historic autographs, and in particular American historic autographs should have these references:

    * "American Autographs, Volume I & II"  Charles Hamilton
    * "Great Forgers and Famous Fakes" Charles Hamilton
    * "Scribblers and Scoundrels" - Charles Hamilton
    * "The Robot that Helped to Make a President" - Charles Hamilton
    * "Forging History" Kenneth Rendell
    * "Sanders Price Guide to Autographs" Dr. Richard Saffro, others
    * "Autograph Collectors Checklist" Manuscript Society
    * "From the White House Inkwell" John M. Taylor
    * "American Book Prices Current" Updated Annually
    * "War Between the States: Autographs and Biographical Information" - Jim Hayes

 2) Autopen Signatures
Of great concern to serious collectors should be autopen signatures.  These are signatures which were signed by an autopen machine, and not the actual person whose signature appears.  Technically, these are "official" signatures, signed by the person's autotopen machine, but not actually signed by that human, and generally of little value to collectors. Very often the original autopen matrix was based upon an actual signature of the person.

 I actually have an incredible content Nixon letter in my collection, signed by his autopen machine, and unfortunately, the autopen signature greatly reduces the value.

Unlike human signatures, which are always different, even if only in the slightest way, autopen signatures are exactly the same each time, as you would expect from a machine.  It helps to memorize these patterns, especially for signatures which are often seen in autopen.  For me, I have made a point of memorizing  John F. Kennedy's and Richard Nixon's autopens, as I seem to come across them most often.

Here are some commonly seen JFK and Nixon autopens:
 
  
                        John Kennedy Autopen Signatures


     

  
                        Richard Nixon Autopen Signatures

Here are some great books on autopen signatures, which show the samples of the autopen signatures:

    * "The Robot that Helped to Make a President" (Listed above as well, a great book on John F. Kennedy's Autopen signatures by the late Charles Hamilton)
    * "Seeing Double: The Autopen Guide" Marvin K. Blatt & Norman Scwab
    * "The UACC Study of machine Signed Signatures" Paul Carr

These lists are by no means complete, but represent the references I grab the most often out of my reference library of several hundred books on autographs. Also, not all of these are inexpensive or easy to acquire, (American Autographs costs several hundred dollars) but all of them are worth their weight in gold for educating yourself on autograph collecting.
 

3)  Subscribe to and acquire auction catalogs and important dealers lists.

This is a great starting point for new collectors, and my personal favorites:

Auction Houses:

    * Alexander Autographs - Greenwich, CT
    * Christophe Stickel Autographs - Pacific Grove, CA
    * Remember When Autographs - Wells, ME
    * Christie's - New York, NY

Dealers Lists:

    * Catherine Barnes - Philadelphia, PA (My Favorite Dealer!)
    * Jack Bacon - Reno, NV
    * Steven S. Raab - Ardmore, PA

Again, this list is not yet complete, and this guide is a work in progress, so please check back for more information and updates.