Finally some confirmation on these from an American Pie collector! Buyback autographs are a really cool concept, except for one thing — they are incredibly easy to fake. We’ve talked about a couple of questionable Danny Bonaduce buybacks on Webjon, and knew there were fakes out there. A collector contacted me through webjon with the straight scoop on these:

All of these IF GENUINE will have a CIRCULAR Topps hologram sticker on the reverse starting with the number 016 and it will also have the number xxx/500.

So, as was suspected in previous posts the ‘nice’ signature Bonaduce cards with the square holograms are fake.

My contact provided a lot of great information, but the thing that struck me the most was that in our couple of weeks of correspondence he kept pointing out fake after fake on eBay. There certainly appear to be a number of sellers who are cranking out the fakes. . . here are three fake Ferrigno’s for example: eBay items: 270778853900, 280705317540, 170663108091 and an Adam West 270786520903.

If you’ll notice all of these sellers have great feedback. Feedback, is essentially useless for determining if a seller is pushing counterfeit goods. . . the people who know the items are fake avoid ‘em, and the buyers generally don’t find out until it’s too late.

While I would avoid these sellers, I think it’s important to be able to identify the fakes from the legitimate cards as a legitimate seller may end up with some of these down the road as they change hands. . . Obviously, the key is the hologram, as described above, here is a scan of a legitimate hologram:

Step number two is to know the autograph — here is a set of legitimate American Pie autographs:

And finally, an up close and personal look with each legitimate autograph right next to one from one of the fake cards:

An extra special thank you to our tipster, who wishes to remain anonymous. If you have any additional questions please comment or email and I will try to get them answered.

Happy Collecting,

Jon