KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With the kickoff to the 2019 NFL season less than one week away, many Chiefs fans across the Kansas City, Missouri, area are buying memorabilia with signatures of their favorite players past and present.
A Riverside, Missouri-based memorabilia merchandiser said this is the time when scammers try to sell fake autographs.
“When you get into a local level like this, people aren’t counterfeiting the backup catcher for the Royals. They are counterfeiting the guys who are prevalent, our QB and tight end. The players who are top notch,” said Brad Peterson of ProGraphs.
He said if a Patrick Mahomes autograph is cheap, it’s probably too good to be true and is a fake.
Here are three other tips Peterson gave to avoid buying a counterfeit:
- Only buy items with a certificate of authenticity. The item should have a sticker on it and a certificate with the same number as the sticker. “If you try to remove that [certificate of authenticity] sticker, it’s going to destroy it. So it’s important to have the sticker on there,” Peterson pointed out. Peterson said companies such as JSA, PSA and Beckett authenticate autographs as reputable.
- Look for consistency. The autograph you want should look the same on different items.
- Buy from someone you trust, someone who has a good reputation.
