Fake Joe Namath Football

This Namath football being sold by usa4nate on eBay was deemed "Likely Not Genuine" by PSA-DNA Quick Opinion.


Here is a real Namath signature from Steiner Sports:

Signatures look pretty close, huh? That is why you can't base your decision on just the autograph alone because some forgers are very good and some autographs are easy to forge.

I am assuming that PSA noticed in the first autograph that the signature did not flow, notice how the "N" is somewhat slanted the wrong way. However, at first glance, the signatures still look pretty close.

1. The seller offers a picture of Namath signing. Beware of this. That does not mean Namath signed the football, it only means that Namath has signed a football sometime in the past. It is very easy to get pictures of athletes signing. Some of the biggest fake memorabilia sellers that got busted in Operation Bullpen all had pictures of the athlete signing.

2. In the auction the seller states, "We obtain all the signatures we sell directly from the celebrity and not through a third party. Our company is comprised of individuals which have been obtaining signatures directly from celebrities for over 15 years." This sounds like they use "runners". Runners are people who follow celebrities around to get their autograph. This was a very common way of obtaining autographs years ago but now, most celebs won't sign for these people. Especially Namath who charges over $150 per signature (more at shows).

3. Furthermore, we know who represents Namath for autographs and I am sure he wouldn't be happy to know that someone was contracting with Namath outside of his contract. And if Namath was doing "side deals" then he wouldn't want people putting things up on eBay suggesting this.

4. Other auctions: Always look at the seller's other auctions before bidding, especially if you are suspicious of the item. If the seller is offering a large amount of players who normally charge a lot of money for their autograph then you have to examine where they claim the autographs are coming from. For example, we looked at this seller's other auctions and we found a Montana signed Notre Dame jersey that doesn't even have Montana's official hologram. If they got this direct from Montana it would have his hologram.

5. PSA-DNA Quick Opinion: These guys are the industry leader in autograph authentication. Their service is $7.49 per item and they will look at the eBay item and tell you their opinon. You can also email us if you have any questions about items.

6. Team Signed Items: This seller is offering a lot of team signed items (where there are several signatures on one item). These are the EASIEST items to forge because the signatures are small and there are so many on one piece it is hard to authenticate each one. Team signed items are EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE if you are paying each player and most promoters don't do them because you can never get all of the money out of the item. There is too much cost involved and there are not enough people who are willing to pay the price.

For example they have a team signed USC helmet for $249 which includes Marcus Allen, Lynn Swann, Ronnie Lott, Jr Seau, Matt Leinart, Pete Carroll, John Robinson, Ron Yary, Carson Palmer, and Anthony Munoz. People in the autograph business know that all of these signatures on one helmet would be very hard to obtain (especially since Lynn Swann doesn't sign things and Junior Seau is very hard to get). But if you did manage to get all of these you wouldn't sell it for $249. They don't even mention in the auction where they happened to find all of these guys at the same place to get this done. And, of course, they don't give you close up pictures of the signatures in the auction.

Looks kind of fishy to us. However, we always leave this as an open forum to all. So if the seller has any information that would validate their items, we would be more than happy to publish it.