I just wanted to ask you all for some advice. I've really been getting into purchasing autographed photos on Ebay for Christmas gifts lately. Well, I want to start a collection for myself, and obviously, I must have Prince! Now I know that Prince stopped signing autographs for a while, so I want to know when that was, so I can be on the look out for fakes. (I already fell for a scam when I purchased a phony Johnny Depp photo!) Are there any sellers I can watch out for? Any advice in this matter would be wonderful. Thanks!

UCantHavaDaMango said:

I saw a story on the news and virtually EVERY autograph they bought turned out to be fake from a ton of buyers. COA's mean nothing so unless they have a picture of the star signing the actual picture I would just assume its fake.

I don't see how ANYONE can actually tell if an autograph is authentic or not.....

i tend to believe NOTHING is real on EBAY ... (when it comes to autographs ) ... a friend i know bought a Prince/Lenny K autograph that was sooo unreal it wasnt funny ... i didnt have the heart to tell him/her ...

I (like you ) thought about gettin some for Xmas presents ... but to be really honest with you ... it is hard to find people who are "most likely real" ... just yesterday i was looking .... some of them appear to be "good fakes " (if they are fake) ....

Most autograph people will tell you to get them from UACC autograph collectors/professionals but even that is suspect i believe .... same with the DSA/stuff ....

i have a lot of athlete ones and I only get them from official autograph companies.....if you cant trust those, who can ya trust??

Isn't an autograph only worth getting if you get it signed yourself?

Thank you all for the advice. Yeah, it would be best to get his autograph in person, but i'm not sure if he does that anymore. If I could somehow obtain an authentic autographed photo or record from someone else, it would be the next best thing.
[Edited 11/20/05 14:30pm]