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Author
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Topic: Astronaut autopens in Joe Foss estate auction
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stsmithva
Member Posts: 1933
From: Fairfax, VA, USA
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 01-29-2015 09:15 AM
   
The J. Levine auction house in Scottsdale, Arizona is handling items from the estate of WWII Marine aviator, South Dakota governor, and NRA President Joe Foss. The auction is today (Jan. 29).In the last week and a half I have e-mailed three times and spoken on the phone with them twice about Lot 5175: NASA Astronaut Signatures, Photos & Ephemera. As you can see, the one signed photo shown, Neil Armstrong's, was definitely "signed" by an autopen machine. I've explained about autopen machines to them, and e-mailed them a link to astroautopens.com, showing that their Armstrong signature is an exact match. (Specifically with pattern 5A or 5B, which is very distinctive and quite unlike his real signature.) I've suggested that they check the other pictures described as signed (Young, Borman, etc.) to see if they are autopens too, which seems likely. And I've pointed out that they should change the listing and cancel the bids already placed by people who think they are getting "nine signed pictures." Both times I called, the person I described the problem to said that their cataloguer would call me back right away. He or she never did. The first two e-mails received no reply, and only yesterday after I told them I'd be posting here about it did I get a reply: I have checked with the appraiser who looked over this estate prior to Mr. Foss passing who confirmed that in fact these are authentic signatures. We will not be changing the lot nor the price at this time.We do appreciate your concern and your interest in our auction! That's quite polite, but that doesn't change the fact that they are ignoring visual evidence (exact letter-for-letter autopen matches) that one of their lots is definitely not as they are describing it.
(I went through all this effort partly to look out for my fellow collectors, but also because I wanted to bid on this lot. It includes an interesting lucite and some nice launch passes. But I'm not going to try to compete with bidders who think they are getting nine signed pictures, including an Armstrong WSS they'll think is worth thousands but in fact is worth about $20!) |
albatron
Member Posts: 2732
From: Stuart, Florida
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted 01-29-2015 12:04 PM
Thanks for sharing. Something to keep in the back of your mind about this auction house. |
jtheoret
Member Posts: 344
From: Albuquerque, NM USA
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted 01-29-2015 01:46 PM
I can't believe anyone would even bid with one poor quality photo! You can spot the Armstrong (likely) autopen even at that image quality and the others aren't even shown. The great wall of China is not visible from the moon but I think that (likely) autopen would be apparent to a trained eye — and who would bid when you can even see 90% of the items in the lot?Buyers beware! |
SpaceSteve
Member Posts: 428
From: San Antonio TX, USA
Registered: Apr 2004
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posted 01-29-2015 07:10 PM
Well, looking through the lots, the auction house appears to not know much about space/aviation autographs/art.Lot #5387 was the 1982 Gathering of Eagles print with Neil Armstrong's signature. No mention in the lot description of Armstrong's signature being on the item, and the price estimate they listed is "$200 - $300". It looks that enough people saw it to bring the winning bid to $2,250, but still, shows poor knowledge by the auction house. | |
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