General Forum

https://www.ebay.com/str/eykim

I was just adding some cards to the site and entered an autographed Rodolfo Castro insert card. I noticed how nice his penmanship was and decided to look up his card on ebay. All of the cards of his that are autographed look this way except for the one that's being sold by the seller linked. I got to looking a little closer, and I think all of his autographs might be fake. They almost all seem to be written with the same Sharpie, they are all priced around the $4-7 range and almost all the players are common or minor stars. Also, they all are listed as signed "in-person" and they are all only of the front of the card. He's got hundreds of cards listed and they all say something to the tune of "card signed outside of team hotel at Dodgers-Pirates game". It would be hard for me to believe that this guy has come across every single one of these athletes, spanning all sports, and gotten them to sign his cards with the same blue Sharpie. Something seems a bit off. Has anyone dealt with this person before?

If he's legit I'll remove this post but I have a sneaking suspicion that he's not.

for in person autographs it is always buyer beware, always has been and always will be. He may simply have an autograph kit that he carries which would likely mean the same pen until it runs dry.

That is a good point.

Another thing to note is that some of the autographs look nothing like known existing ones and maybe that's because he catches them outside of venues and they're writing really quickly or unsteadily.

But to only charge a few dollars for each one, and yet spend countless hours outside venues or in hotels or parks or wherever he's catching them, seems like a huge waste of time. Doesn't seem like a good business model to me. What do I know though, because he seems to sell a lot of them. 

Your advice is sound.