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Genuine or fake Stan Lee signatures
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55 posts in this topic

Hello all,

This is my first post.  I mostly collect USA coins and silver bullion.  I understand slabs since some of my coins are in NGC.  I know very little about comics but I want to buy some Stan Lee signed comics for myself and step-sons.  I want to avoid fakes.  I'll likely buy CGC slabs with Stan Lee to be confident they are genuine.  I know Stan Lee had used his own COA card with hologram stickers.  I read on another blog a collector could buy Stan's COA/stickers at a signing but only if they had a comic signed by Stan Lee at the time.

On ebay a seller has Stan Lee signed comics with Stan's COA/stickers.that are very close in number sequence from 35919 to 35927.  The signatures look different from each other to me.  See pics.  I assume Stan signed these during the same sitting since the numbers are close together?  As I said I am a newbie to comics so I wonder....

1.  Are these genuine signatures and genuine stickers?  This means Stan varied his signature somewhat perhaps since he had a lot to sign, maybe was in a hurry or he was bored and purposely varied them?

2. The signatures are fake but someone was able to obtain Stan's genuine COA/stickers and use them?

3.  The signatures are fake and the COA/stickers are also fake?  In the coin collecting world the Chinese have made a lot of fake coins and some have made fake slabs with fake labels also.

Please offer your opinions,  Maybe I am overly concerned.  Thanks.  Mark.

 

Stan Lee.....jpg

Stan Lee...jpg

Stan Lee..jpg

Stan Lee.jpg

Stan Lee....jpg

Edited by livingwater
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The L in Lee looks out of place to me. It’s not clean. Looks very shaky. I’ve always seen the L loop look clean and smooth.  

Anyone else see the L like this before in a sig series book? 

Any idea of when these books were actually signed?

edit:  the rest of the signature on these books look to be par for the course of a Stan sloppy sig. the L just looks forced and unnatural.

Edited by Catwomancomics
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I have a few of these certificates and stickers on some books too. If the seller has a high seller rating and positive reviews, it should be fine. In terms of the signature, it Really depends when these were signed. Most of my Stan Lee signatures were signed towards the last few years of his life and his signatures varied from classic Stan Lee to not legible at all. Some instances he signed twice because he started signing it Stanley. If you decide to buy books signed raw, make sure they came from someone you trust or saw with their own eyes. But the only way to be sure is to buy them CGC yellow labeled. 

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That is false. I used to work closely with the fraud division on eBay (over fifteen years) and amount of items and feedback don't matter. Ebay cares more about you getting that item on time then it being authentic. I can point out a dozen autograph sellers who have 10,000-15,000 fake signatures with spotless feedback. Ebay doesn't much care if you buy a fake or not and it's rare for anyone to leave negative feedback due to authenticity issues. Most forgers threaten litigation because it's difficult to prove authenticity being an opinion based collectible. 

Edited by Monstertruck97
Terrible grammar
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Thanks all for your replies.  I sent an email to the seller asking where/when they got these.  I haven't heard back yet.  I imagine a lot of these are legit with Stan's COA and sticker.  But to be sure I'm gonna spend more and buy the CGC SS ones.  There are MANY MANY FAKE sports and celebrity autographs on ebay, some showing COAs from nobody's.  I'm glad there are reputable authenticity companies like JSA or PSA.    

I read Stan's autograph costs more now that he's passed.  Who knows what his autograph will be worth in the future.  I had a friend who collected Roy Rogers memorabilia.  The value of Roy's stuff has gone down because most young people have never heard of him.  They don't know he was a big cowboy star in the 1950s.  But as long as people buy comics and Hollywood keeps making Marvel movies, Stan Lee's legend will live on.

I only have one celebrity signature.  I know it's genuine because I saw it signed.  I was young in 1963 and my parents took me to hear Ronald Reagan speak.  Afterwards we went back stage and my mom had him sign the program.  I doubt I'll have it authenticated.  I'll pass it on to my daughter.

Ronald Reagan autograph.jpg

Edited by livingwater
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I have met Stan Lee a dozen times and had a lot of books signed by him in person and the signatures you posted look fake to me. 

CGC Yellow label signatures were witnessed and are always genuine. I’ve seen countless people buy fake Stan Lee autographs online because they’re trying to “save money.” Keep in mind that Stan Lee was charging about $150 per autograph in his later years, so anyone wanting to sell his autograph for $25, for example, is guaranteed to be fake.

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Hello,

I ended up buying one of these from the ebay seller.  When I got it I was worried and sent it back for a refund.  The seller quickly refunded my money but in an email he assured me these are genuine.  He even sent me his photo of Stan signing about ten of these Civil War Chronicles issues.  In the photo one of the books on the table matches 35920 above.showing about a third of the signature, the tail in the exact same spot.  I've looked at a few hundred Stan Lee signatures on ebay and his usual signature had the tail of the last E making a straight line under TANLEE.  But occasionally there is no underling at all.  I assume he sometimes varied it up bringing the tail down at an angle.  Others have said his signature changed near the end.  I think I'll still get CGC SS slabbed ones but I now trust the Stan Lee COA with hologram stickers at least from this seller.  I won't post the photo the seller sent me.  I didn't get his permission.  This dealer has sold a lot of memorabilia including CGC SS slabbed comics with 99.5% rating.

Edited by livingwater
added sentance
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Just because someone selling on EBay has nearly 100% positive rating doesn’t mean they’re genuine signatures. Case in point: Tonfulle84. A known con artist who produces an unlimited supply of signatures on dollar bin books with 100% positive rating because the people buying don’t know any better.

https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/426693-tonfulle-84-stan-lee-forgeries-on-ebay/

This may or may not align with the signatures you found, but why risk it when there are THOUSANDS of genuine verified Stan Lee autographs in CGC SS cases?

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Im new here, but was roaming the internet the past week and came across this. I want to clarify a few things

Excelsior COA with the tamper proof holo's are legit...

There isnt a database, but you cannot get those stickers unless it came from a CGC Facilitator at an event. They were setup at the exit to accept all of his submissions from comic cons. Most people didnt want to CGC their comics and tons of things needed verification. So a team also sold COA's for SL Collectibles at the exit of the signing line. You couldnt have it verified "after" the fact and if you passed the line you couldnt buy his COA

You cant just "buy" the sticker and slap it on items yourself and either a CGC Facilitator or SL Collectibles would put the Hologram sticker on the item and then would hand you the COA ticket that matched the #

So they are all legit, regardless how they look. These are facts 

If you need more proof, there is a sell who worked directly with him. Excelsior_Collectibles on eBay use to work with him directly and can verify.

Edited by aimology
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I know this post is old, but had to throw my two cents in since someone redirected it the other day. 
 

All this signatures look legit to me. His signature varied quite a bit in the later years. Gotta remember the man was half blind and 90+ years old. If a fan asked him to sign in a tight spot like that it could have a pretty big variance in layout as Stan tried to fit it in. 
 

The COA is legit too. 

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On ‎2‎/‎10‎/‎2020 at 8:45 AM, RadiantGraphix said:

I know this post is old, but had to throw my two cents in since someone redirected it the other day. 
 

All this signatures look legit to me. His signature varied quite a bit in the later years. Gotta remember the man was half blind and 90+ years old. If a fan asked him to sign in a tight spot like that it could have a pretty big variance in layout as Stan tried to fit it in. 
 

The COA is legit too. 

I just saw these. I have to check this section more often. They are legit.

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Instead of starting a new post, this one looks like a good one to possibly get some opinions on... I recently bought a couple books from a seller who was lazily grading a bunch of books G/VG. One was upper mid-grade that I was very interested in so looked at his other offerings to make shipping worthwhile. These 2 Subbys caught my eye since they also looked better than the assigned G/VG grades and there was the low key un-hyped suggestion they could be signed by Stan. I did a bit of research but couldn’t find examples of later sloppy sigs and these don’t have a prominent “L”... could they be legit or obvious fakes? 

30D96643-701D-46AC-BCB6-D23130057E2A.jpeg

2EAB7874-D716-470B-BB5A-CB0141F9DABE.jpeg

AF49A8E0-EF2F-479F-93FF-07CBE4EC3C01.jpeg

3D77A94B-8ACA-4E2B-8A88-B1ED51EB7026.jpeg

98234F0C-7E62-48D4-A904-2D553E2B7154.jpeg

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12 minutes ago, iggy said:

Instead of starting a new post, this one looks like a good one to possibly get some opinions on... I recently bought a couple books from a seller who was lazily grading a bunch of books G/VG. One was upper mid-grade that I was very interested in so looked at his other offerings to make shipping worthwhile. These 2 Subbys caught my eye since they also looked better than the assigned G/VG grades and there was the low key un-hyped suggestion they could be signed by Stan. I did a bit of research but couldn’t find examples of later sloppy sigs and these don’t have a prominent “L”... could they be legit or obvious fakes? 

30D96643-701D-46AC-BCB6-D23130057E2A.jpeg

2EAB7874-D716-470B-BB5A-CB0141F9DABE.jpeg

AF49A8E0-EF2F-479F-93FF-07CBE4EC3C01.jpeg

3D77A94B-8ACA-4E2B-8A88-B1ED51EB7026.jpeg

98234F0C-7E62-48D4-A904-2D553E2B7154.jpeg

I don't have any faith that these are real Stan Lee sigs.

We've seen threads about fake Stan Lee sigs on the boards before.  If there's money to be made faking sigs some worm is gonna do it.

If I'm buying a Stan Lee sig I want one that I'm confident is real and I'd look for as early a sig as possible and I'd want it on a book that has significance and value.  

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Agree on all counts, and I remember the epidemic a few years back of all the fakes. I just don’t remember what those fakes looked like and am not familiar with all the variations of his later sloppy sigs. These just look so bad that it begs the question “if you’re going to fake his sig, wouldn’t you at least try?” 
 

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