How can they really tell authentic signatures?

lightningboy

I've spent some time looking closely at many JSA or PSA graded autographed baseballs on Ebay. And although the signatures from any given player appear very similar at first, very subtle differences can be detected from one authenticated sign. to another. This makes perfect sense to me as I know for a fact if I signed my name 10 times in a row, not all signatures will be identical to a tee. Is it truly just an educated guessing game? Any insight or experiences are most welcomed.

baz518

The signature is the end result and like a snowflake, no two are ever the same. Throw in sigs from different periods of a career and they can really differ. I think they focus more on the process of how the signature was formed (path of pen, formation of letters, structure of loops/humps, etc.) based on tendencies of the signor. Then there's more general signs that help as well... speed/flow of signature, number of times pen was lifted from surface, etv.

BaltimoreYankee

They really can't tell. There have been many cases of people directly witnessing signatures and then they did not pass third party authentication. Conversely, there are many, many authenticated signatures that are fake.

Dpeck100

This is such a complicated topic. There is zero chance you could tell if my signature was legit on a night out of sport drinking. The same can be said for everyone else. I think there are signatures that are for certain real and many that are highly questionable and TPG generally only go for the ones that look like most examples. I haven't personally had much luck in the buying raw signatures and getting them authenticated game and would rather devote my resources to raw and graded cards. That said I have a stack of 200+ cards I have had signed for me at various wrestling conventions and many will simply stay in card savers as the risk reward of getting turned down doesn't interest me. The other huge issue is many signed items really are not a very good investment by the time you add up the cost vs. potential sale price and as more athletes or entertainers sign items the prices almost always come down.