Hi. I'm new to this site. I recently started to collect non-sports cards. I bought a Jennifer Garner card. I hear there are fakes though. I was wondering if anyone know's how tell, what to look for, etc. Any help would be appreciated. I'm going to try to put up a picture of it.
Thanks

Hi randman, welcome to Card Talk. You are starting off with a knotty question and I'll say right now that I don't know. I do not own a Garner autograph, too bad for me, and I would never attempt to make a comparison based upon something that wasn't in my hand. Even then it becomes a matter of opinion with an inconsistent and lousy signature, which is what she has. The only time it becomes obvious is if it's an autopen and every autograph appears exactly the same.

With the Inkworks Garner Alias autograph cards there have been problems as you already know. There have been counterfeit cards and penned signatures reported. There were also blank cards released, which is another nightmare. There are even reports of graded cards that were fakes. So it's one of those things where caution is a must. You can find a lot of information and images online. Much of it is old news because its an expensive card that got put into collections early and it was of course short printed.

A good indicator comes from the source. Where you got it and how much you paid can tell you something. Where did the seller get it? Does he/she guarantee authenticity? Are you considering having it graded for both the card and the autograph? That might not be a bad idea to provide support, although even that has been questioned in the past, but I think they would do a better job of it now knowing the history.

There might be some members here who would venture an opinion on your image, I just don't have a real one, and definitive answers off scans is hard even when you do. I will tell you that there are only a few dealers I know that I would buy that card from, knowing I can rely on them. I would not buy it from a stranger just because I would rather pass up a genuine autograph than get stuck with a bad one. The vast majority of certified autograph cards are absolutely fine, its just a relatively small group that have had issues and this is one of them. Good luck on getting the confirmation you want.

Unfortunately it's impossible to tell from a photo unless it's a really bad fake. I have that card and the A8 that were both pack pulled in the good old days when buying a case normally guaranteed a master set.

My A1 is similar to yours but with slight differences which is actually a good sign. I have seen several Inkworks Emilie De Ravin cards from season 3 of Lost that are signed exactly the same, a clear indication that a genuine card has been used to make a number of fakes.

I have(hopefully) posted pictures of both A1 and A8 below, weirdly you A1 signature looks closer to my A8 signature which shows just how hard it is to know .






As Raven said because of the length of time since the card was produced your best indicator is who sold it to you.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Triple-Frog:
I have seen several Inkworks Emilie De Ravin cards from season 3 of Lost that are signed exactly the same, a clear indication that a genuine card has been used to make a number of fakes. .
QUOTE]

On a side note, that comment drove me to my binders to check.

After Inkworks folded and Razor repackaged its inventory of autograph cards, I purchased a lot of the cheap Razor Ink boxes. I pulled three De Ravin autograph cards and she has a very distinct autograph. It's Emilie on top and .X below. All are highly consistent, but thankfully not the same, so no autopens on my pack pulls. I assume that's what you mean by exactly the same, a stamp or autopen. Even a hand signed forgery would never be exactly the same.

An unfortunate consequence of the Inkworks debacle was that a number of blank autograph cards from big name stars were found and released afterwards. Some were sold online, who knows how many turned up. That leads to the worst case scenario where you can potentially have fake autographs on authentic certified autograph cards. That's why this stuff is highly unusual, but you have to be aware of it even though it's so many years later. Once this stuff gets out and it changes hands, it's so hard to follow provenance.

Card manufacturers should never keep unsigned cards. They should be either completely destroyed or punch marked to show they were not completed. Even now, with all we know, this does not happen.

Thanks for the replies. It's too bad that this is an issue. Here's my favorite non-sports card in my collection so far.

Nice one, you are certainly picking up the cream of the crop. Congrats.

Yeah, I just wish she would slow down for licensed products. Daisy has a beautiful sig when she takes a couple extra seconds with it.

With many years of experience drooling over the Garner card my initial impression is that it looks authentic. It is pretty easy to tell if it is a stamp or pen. I think the general consensus is she did not use a sharpie for these. If I had any real doubts about it I would have it authenticated.

Along with what everyone else has stated, Alan from Inkworks was often praised for having redemption products well past its expiration date. Unfortunately this hurt collectors on the back end when the company folded. Their back stock hit the street and prices plummeted. Fortunately all of my Serenity cards are pack pulled. :-)

Back then we really did not think much of the unsigned cards that would typically go to the celebrity or the release of the ones we all knew were never signed in the first place. If one popped up signed we knew it was either a fake or it needed to be authenticated. Hind sight being 20/20 better controls should have been put in place.

It is a bit more difficult when the entire card has to be forged. I remember when I purchased the Elizabeth Banks Spiderman autograph to verify it with the imperfections of the forged production posted on line. Given the incredible direction her career has gone in recent years, I consider that card one of the gems in our hobby. So needless to say I was happy to see that it was authentic. :-)

Yeah it's a great card.