Are these signatures legit?

[meijunejuly]

Hi,

I’m new to the forum. I was wanting to get some Led Zeppelin merchandise for my dad’s birthday and have come across a few signed items. I’m not very familiar with how to identify between real or counterfeit autographs. Wondering if anyone here could give a second opinion on the items. The signed album is off an auction site selling stuff from an estate liquidation. The guitar is from Taylor Made memorabilia in Australia. I’ve heard good and bad things about Taylor Made. They obviously claim it to be authentic and say they provide an authentication certificate but idk how trustworthy that is. Any help or advice would be amaaazing. Thanks=)

[Stryder1978]

Not a professional by any stretch of the imagination, but they both look fake to me (especially the album).  Keep in mind that Sharpies were not a regular use item back in 1980, almost all autographs of that age were done in pen.  So to have Bonham sign in a Sharpie...well.... 

[Cookie0024]

They look pretty fake. Don't trust anything purporting to be a certificate of authenticity that isn't from a specialist authentication company like PSA etc. Any company can print off a page of A4 and claim it's a certificate of authenticity, but it doesn't mean anything.

[sam_webmaster]

40 minutes ago, meijunejuly said:

Hi,

I’m new to the forum. I was wanting to get some Led Zeppelin merchandise for my dad’s birthday and have come across a few signed items. I’m not very familiar with how to identify between real or counterfeit autographs. Wondering if anyone here could give a second opinion on the items. The signed album is off an auction site selling stuff from an estate liquidation. The guitar is from Taylor Made memorabilia in Australia. I’ve heard good and bad things about Taylor Made. They obviously claim it to be authentic and say they provide an authentication certificate but idk how trustworthy that is. Any help or advice would be amaaazing. Thanks=)

100% fake

[meijunejuly]

28 minutes ago, Stryder1978 said:

Not a professional by any stretch of the imagination, but they both look fake to me (especially the album).  Keep in mind that Sharpies were not a regular use item back in 1980, almost all autographs of that age were done in pen.  So to have Bonham sign in a Sharpie...well.... 

ahhh I wouldn’t even have thought of that! Thank you so much. Would you say the majority of signed Zeppelin memorabilia is fake nowadays? So should I just not even bother with any of the ones I see online? Also how useful would the Beckett quick authentication thing be for these sorts of things? Is it relatively accurate? So sorry I’m just genuinely clueless about this topic. 

[woz70]

The guitar is so fake it's almost funny. 

Firstly, the guitar is out of focus and the signature are clear and sharp - clearly an appalling photoshop job. 

Looking closer....

The whammy bar and part of the bridge has been cut off by the scratchplate, which doesn't match the shape of the actual scratchplate it's covering up. The guitar knobs and pickup selector are missing, but you can't see the posts they would be mounted on (and why would you take them off anyway? ). The guitar strings disappear behind the scratchplate!

Run away! 

[meijunejuly]

6 minutes ago, woz70 said:

The guitar is so fake it's almost funny. 

Firstly, the guitar is out of focus and the signature are clear and sharp - clearly an appalling photoshop job. 

Looking closer....

The whammy bar and part of the bridge has been cut off by the scratchplate, which doesn't match the shape of the actual scratchplate it's covering up. The guitar knobs and pickup selector are missing, but you can't see the posts they would be mounted on (and why would you take them off anyway? ). The guitar strings disappear behind the scratchplate!

Run away! 

okkkkk now you’re just making me look like an absolute idiot🤣🤣 Cause now i look and i don’t know how i never realised how photoshopped it looked. And to think Taylor Made (the store it’s being sold by) is considered one of the more reputable memorabilia stores in Australia. They have many stores in our shopping centres. Any ideas what sites are trustworthy for memorabilia?

[SteveAJones]

100% fake. 

[SteveAJones]

17 hours ago, meijunejuly said:

okkkkk now you’re just making me look like an absolute idiot🤣🤣 Cause now i look and i don’t know how i never realised how photoshopped it looked. And to think Taylor Made (the store it’s being sold by) is considered one of the more reputable memorabilia stores in Australia. They have many stores in our shopping centres. Any ideas what sites are trustworthy for memorabilia?

The established auction houses, generally speaking, such as Heritage Auctions, Christie's and Sotheby's. They all run many of their auction listings online. 

Ebay, generally speaking, can be useful for memorabilia priced under $1,000 (avoid 95% of the autographed items though).

[Strider]

On 7/6/2023 at 5:49 AM, meijunejuly said:

Hi,

I’m new to the forum. I was wanting to get some Led Zeppelin merchandise for my dad’s birthday and have come across a few signed items. I’m not very familiar with how to identify between real or counterfeit autographs. Wondering if anyone here could give a second opinion on the items. The signed album is off an auction site selling stuff from an estate liquidation. The guitar is from Taylor Made memorabilia in Australia. I’ve heard good and bad things about Taylor Made. They obviously claim it to be authentic and say they provide an authentication certificate but idk how trustworthy that is. Any help or advice would be amaaazing. Thanks=)

I am glad you did not get taken by this scam.