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Rowling Forgeries
It is incredible how many forgers and forgeries there are of Rowling. Her signature is in such high demand that even the crappiest forgeries sell, even if for lower dollars. Buying signed Potter books is quite fun and I really enjoy mine, BUT buying them requires knowing what crap is out there. Here is but a very small chunk of the fakes in the marketplace. Sadly, many have sold, at least once.
Signature Question - Ask Adam
Currently for sale on eBay as of 5/3/2024.
In the wake of Joe Painter being outed, I decided to peruse eBay's signed Potter books, just to see what's up for sale currently. Guys - I didn't make it past the first 4 listings.....so this is absolutely not ALL of the forgeries that are for sale at this time - just the first three listings I found in the first 5 minutes of searching. Just because one forger may be outed does not mean his stuff will no longer enter the marketplace - it absolutely still will and is still in it; it also doesn't mean that there aren't other forgeries for sale in the marketplace - as we can see - there absolutely are AND they are not cheaply priced at all. Quite frankly these forgeries are higher priced than some of the authentic Rowling signatures I saw throughout my search. Remember, Constant Vigilance.
This eBay Listing, #275360515162 is for a "signed" Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, and Deathly Hallows - and every single signature, despite having CoAs, are 100% fake - these forgeries wreak of seller HLWDYARDSALE's garbage, and very well may be that seller under a new name or someone who unfortunately purchased forgeries from that seller and is now trying to sell them. The listed price is $9550 - Buyer Beware.
Sadly, many still think that before a signed book has a hologram it is safe - there are fake holograms and fake signatures with real holograms. This eBay listing, 266428676746, is selling for $1995, is for a Beedle the Bard with fake signature. Unfortunately, there are many more Beedles with fake signatures than real.
This forgery looks a lot like a certain bookseller who has quite probably created/sold a LOT of Rowling forgeries into the marketplace over the last, at least decade if not longer. His signatures do sell, but all still look like his poor attempt at Rowling's signatures.
Ebay # 155936923768; Listed Price: $3499.
Sold on eBay Feb. 15 - Feb 22 2019
Sold Feb. 15th on eBay for £42.99
eBay #283379439752
Sold Feb. 19th on eBay for $250.00
eBay #153386805908
Sold Feb. 21st on eBay for £299.00
eBay #382798607838
Sold Feb. 21st on eBay for £250.00
eBay #392244620056
*This is by no means all of the sold Rowling forgeries during this time, and really only looks at ebay.com and ebay.co.uk. There are many more forgeries in the marketplace and on other sites.*
Sold Feb. 22nd on eBay for £250.00
eBay #283389551890
Fake Holograms with Fake Signatures
Sold on eBay
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Not only is the signature fake, the Hologram is fake as well! Thankfully, the listing looks to have been removed.
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While all forgeries are predatory, this particular listing is very much so--the wording of the description makes the seller seem more legitimate, AND again their pairing of the fake hologram with the fake signature makes an unsuspecting buyer think they're getting the real deal.
Forgeries with Dedications
Sadly, many people tend to think that a piece that claims to be dedicated by JK Rowling has a higher probability to be authentic because a forger wouldn't do that. . . they're a forger--yes, they would. Also, it is not uncommon for forgers to try and make overly nice/sentimental dedications to try and pull at the heartstrings of the buyer. While Rowling has some great dedications in books over the years, you still must scrutinize the dedicated books as much as the un-dedicated ones.
*MOST* of these dedicated forgeries are from the same forger. This person has put out a BUNCH of junk into the marketplace via eBay and Abebooks and other mediums. You can tell this person's work b/c the dedications are vague, the J downstroke slopes to the right and letters are overall wonky by comparison to authentic signatures. While this forger looks to be improving, their work is still quite easy to spot.
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Found: Ebay.co.uk; UK Deluxe Azkaban
Price: 375GBP
Item Number: 392265281681
Listed 03/24/2019
Found: Abebooks.co.uk; Celebration Edition Philosopher's Stone
Price: 1,000 GBP
Item Number: Bookseller Inventory # 017656
Seller: Lasting Words Ltd
Listed 04/01/2019
Found on Ebay.com; Bloomsbury Phoenix & Deathly Hallows
Prices: $450/$669
Item Numbers: 264249404503/264249407236
Seller: labb1279
Listed 03/23/2019
And Even More Crap
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ebay #292732055534
Seller: worldofautographsinc
*Authenticated by Beckett Authentication Services (BAS)* <eye roll>
Notice the PSA/DNA authentication Sticker on the bottom right.
Sadly, this photo often accompanies forgers b/c it is easily findable on Google Image Searches, If you're looking at a J.K. Rowling signed Potter book being sold alongside this photo, you better, better do your research,
Graham Forgeries
The Graham forgery is named because the creator of them is a man in the UK named Graham. He was originally GenAndSigned on eBay and sold many of his forgeries under this name. He then switched eBay names a few times when people starting catching on, and is now found under Oldand Groovy123 and is still selling books (and sometimes new and improved forgeries), but now more off than on eBay. His forgeries have fooled many, including those at larger auction houses. While a very good forgery, they still have many issues when broken down.
These Graham forgeries sold very well on sites like eBay and even through bigger auction houses, meaning they passed the eyes of the authenticators there. EBay seller PanteraGroup purchased many of Graham's counterfeits, even after being told they were forgeries simply because they believed them to be real. Many others purchased from Graham since he began passing forgeries (sometime around late 2015). He's still at it, but mostly off eBay, so be very cautious if you deal with him.
PrimusFan1
This is a seller on eBay that has been passing forgeries all bearing the same handwriting. They've also sold fake Bloomsbury bookplates as well. The forgeries they've been selling are very good, but forgeries all the same. I wish I could go into better discussion here of the issues present in their forgeries, but because they're still active and wanting to improve their work, less information is better here.
The GrandPre signature is also forged.
Now has a CoA from a well-known 3rd Party Authentication House! :(
HLWDYardSale
Found on ebay under the name, HLWDYardSale. I just looked (May 2024) and didn't find his seller account, so I'm not sure if he's still around, but I know these forgeries still are. This forger (and is ay that b/c this seller seemed to the origination of these forgeries and he/they sold a LOT of them) used an Auto Pen to create their crap, which they sold a bunch of really fast. They sold each book for an average of $500 or so. Below are the two signatures they loaded into their auto pen. The first is a later signature and taken directly from Rowling's Wikipedia page; the second is a 1998 signature from a 1st print, 1st edition Bloomsbury Chamber of Secrets, which the forger more than likely found in a google search.
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Currently, they're selling a bunch of US "signed" Deathly Hallows books, complete with event ticket - only the ticket is also fake....they found it on a google image search - I know this b/c I also found that same ticket in a google image search.
1st Signature
2nd Signature
ebay Seller Gold124gnu
This seller is one to watch. So far they haven't sold any authentic Rowling signatures AND claim a lot of experience (40 years!) in the book trade and usually tout in the description how awesome this Rowling signature is--still a fake regardless of praise <eye roll> I don't think they're a forger, but they still haven't sold or listed for a sale an authentic Rowling signature. If you've purchased from them in the last 180 (paying with PayPal) then you need to get your money back!
ebay #264239089030
ebay #382809958754
These 3 are forgeries, but they're also exact copies, meaning someone used a photo copier to recreate them; not saying it's the seller, BUT. . . And yes, they've all sold.
ebay #264178931159
ebay #26417236564
ebay #382805785183
Bookseller Forgeries
Sadly, this person has sold thousands of Rowling forgeries over the years under various names. Most of his creations look to be in later print, cheaper acquired Potter books, and sadly many have been bought and sold many times over. His forgeries are so rampant, they frequently show up on eBay and even other higher-end auction houses. Notably, he never quite perfected the 'o' in Rowling, often writing it over the Bloomsbury dog logo to partially obscure it. Also, his signatures are off proportionally to Rowling's real signature, as are the loop sizes and the 'J' is also constructed quite differently.
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Forgeries with Rowling Holograms
It's with a sad heart that I have to include these six. Paired with these six are forgeries, however, is a Rowling hologram that appears to be authentic, meaning someone has figured out how to remove the hologram from a later book, like Casual Vacancy OR perhaps pocketed a roll from a signing event. For now, it looks like these are coming from someone in Bobigny, France.
