If you sell – or buy – baseball cards, autographed documents, books, pictures or just a single celebrity autograph, avoid California. A new law meant to protect collectors of sports memorabilia goes too far. If you sell anything worth more than $5 that has an autograph, it must have a certificate of authenticity. The certificate costs money. And the certificate must include if the seller is insured, the date, place and name of a witness to the appraisal, and who might have sold it before. Anyone selling books, sports or movie memorabilia, art, or “stuff” at consignment shops or house sales must get certificates and the records must be stored for seven years. There is a large fine for selling a fake or anything without the certificate. We autograph hundreds of our books each year. Would we need a certificate for each book? The law covers sales in California or items sold to a California customer and goes into effect in January 2017. Some California shows say they are already losing dealers.
A typical collectible that will be affected by the California law is this autographed photo of John Philip Sousa, composer and conductor known for his patriotic marches. It’s also signed with four bars of music, and sold for $750, long before the California law goes into effect. Photo courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries.
This article is a little misleading because the law only pertains to “dealers “only that are in the business. Does not affect the hobbyist/collector wanting to sell some of their items. I was in a panic till I looked up the law https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB1570.
We (Cal.) have the largest number of Morons that make these stupid laws that everyone else has to live with. Be prepared for other states to follow the lead as they did with the Ivory & many other Antiques that can NOT be legally sold ie. Bird Feathers, Tortoise shell, ANYTHING with an animal, bird or reptile body part. How about Tortoise shell jewelry, nope can’t sell it.
From what I understand this law only affects those of us that live in Cal. & sell any of these items. I can buy from you outside Ca. no problem for you. But if I try to re-sell from Ca. then the law affects me. I liquidate Estates so you can imagine the BS I will have to endure to sell a $5 or more autograph. Watch for your state to follow Cal. in the future. Think I’ll find people in Arizona who might want to sell these items for me for a commission! For the most part, any valuable autograph already has authenticity so now we protect a $5 signature!
California has the dubious distinction of generating laws that border on the idiotic.
Another that fits the present category is the “Sunshine Law” – that one “requires the Sun to shine everyday in the State of California” – obviously, this would be difficult to enforce but it still remains “law”.
(yes, it’s also for real”
Many laws are written with the intent of protecting the public from the unscrupulous but the present wording of this one will do more harm than good and likely will be met with a public outcry to either repeal or amend.
Great comments, some problems I didn’t think of and of course neither did the California lawmakers. We will keep track of what happens and report when we learn something new.
Ralph and I have signed thousands of books ourselves and since our autograph doesn’t add much if any value we know of no fakes in fake at one extravaganza we offered to sell a copy of our book a lady was buying from the book dealer She said in an angry voice ” I won’t buy a book someone has written in.” So we assured her we would not autograph it . We laughed about our “putdown” for many years.
Follow up – The law prohibits selling, but I’ll bet that it doesn’t prohibit buying!!! So (I suspect) that both out-of-state sellers and in-state buyers are OK.
As for improvements, it seems to me that the minimum value of the sale should exceed the cost of obtaining a certificate ($50???).
I am guessing here, but as a state law, it should not be enforceable outside of the state. I suspect that a simple point-of-sale statement (outside of California) to the effect that “this autographed item is not certified for sale in California.” Such a statement shifts the onus to the buyer. This may affect California sales but should protect the seller. I see the same sort of thing all the time: This item does not meet California requirement nnnn for thus and such.
An attempt to regulate the memorabilia market? An Over-reach to say the least. I’m sure the IRS will be involved here somewhere too..
Other States will benefit from this.
As a possible safety shelter for buyers I think some tightening of sales of autograph/signature rules probably should be in place – maybe an option.
You’re the experts, what do the Kovels suggest to increase purchaser’s safety not as burdensome as California’s law?
How about only items sold because of the supposed value of the signature(s), the proof required law kicks in. It would automatically exclude the sale of all author signed new books or originator’s new items. Otherwise the law would kick in only for sellers claiming autograph authenticity. With no such claims, in ANY form, including anything that could lead the purchasers to that conclusion, the signed item could be freely sold on the market – a signed statement to no claims being made would be an asset to clarity.
How will the new California law affect the thousands of items signed by the late Lord Wedgwood over the last 20 or 30 years of his traveling round the world to promote the Wedgwood brand? Who could or would supply a certificate. Would it be better to remove his signature to make a little jasper dish or vase less trouble to sell?
We often sell used high school yearbooks – typically for $29 including shipping. It is not unusual for a yearbook to contain 100 or more signatures of graduating students and sometimes these books are older than either of us, Terry. Obviously these are another item which will no longer be available to California residents.
It sounds like this law includes out of state internet sellers too, is that correct? As an eBay seller, I am concerned about how I would list autographed items and not allow bidders from California to bid on them?
So does anyone know how this California law will affect eBay sales of autographs? As a seller, I cannot block sales into a particular state.