In the last few years, book publishers have done something pretty cool for autograph collectors, book collectors and just about everyone. Instead of or in addition to having famous authors do book signing tours around the country, they have authors sign book pages BEFORE they are published and then bind the signed page into the book. These pre-signed books are then sold at bookstores, often for the same price as the unsigned book, occasionally for a premium.

The problem is, sometimes the author doesn't have time to personally sign, and resorts to using an autopen machine, or the publisher doesn't even bother obtaining the autographs at all and just pre-prints a facsimile signature on the page creating fake sports autographs.

When these books are advertised as being "autographed," what the authors and/or publishers are doing is committing fraud. And when book dealers or whoever buys these books for resale and offers them as "autographed" books, they too are committing autograph book fraud.

A prime example is the Wayne Gretzky 99 Stories of the Game book released October 2016. While he did several book signings around North America, the publisher also sold "autographed" books that are obviously pre-printed with black "signatures" on the blank inside cover page (example shown here). These books are all over eBay right now, being sold by sellers who most likely know exactly what they are selling. Regardless of what the publisher claims, these are not authentic signed books. They're fake book autographs, and they know it. I have notified eBay many times about this problem and they've done almost nothing about it.

Shame on the authors, book publishers, book stores, eBay and scummy eBay sellers making money by defrauding their customers.