What is Memorabilia COA?
Memorabilia COA provides third-party witnessing for the signing of memorabilia, issues an exclusive Certificate of Authenticity with a unique serial number to memorialize the event and maintains information about the signing in an online database, searchable by the assigned serial number.
What does COA stand for?
Certificate of Authenticity
What is third-party witnessing to a signature?
A third-party witness is a party (person), outside of the signing transaction between the person signing and the person who is acquiring the signature, who can testify to the authenticity of the autograph. In other words, a Genuine COA representative must be present while your item is being signed and, therefore, would be able to confirm your claim of authenticity.
Is a third-party witness important?
YES. If you have an item of memorabilia signed with the intention of the item having value to anyone other than you, you have to be able to prove that it was signed by the actual person whose name is subscribed on the item of memorabilia. In other words, you need to prove it is not a forgery. An impartial, credible, third-party witness can mean all the difference between an autographed item of memorabilia having value and being worthless.
How does Memorabilia COA witness an item being signed?
There are 2 ways:
The most important especially when it comes to autographs of not recent date and to have the autographed object checked by one of our expert graphologists, or At events where Memorabilia COA is present, a Memorabilia COA authorized representative will accompany each customer to their respective requested signer and witness the item of memorabilia being autographed. After the signature is obtained or have the signature examined, the customer will have an exclusive, serial numbered, holographic sticker adhered to the autographed item in a location specified by the customer, and be issued a Certificate of Authenticity with the matching holographic sticker. That serial number will be entered into the Memorabilia COA database and will be searchable on the Memorabilia COA website for confirmation of the details of the original signing event.
Will a Genuine COA Certificate of Authenticity, likely, increase the value of my signed item?
YES. There are millions of pieces of signed memorabilia being sold worldwide. Even if a signature is authentic, without a third-party witness, there is no real way to validate the signature with 100% confidence. This is why you see so many autographed items being sold on online auction sites, sitting with zero bids. Educated buyers know better than to buy an item with a signature that can’t be substantiated or supported. An autograph that has been witnessed by Memorabilia COA, is an item of memorabilia whose signature can be supported by a witness other than the person selling the item. This gives the buyer greater confidence in the signature. An autographed item that has been witnessed by a Genuine COA authorized representative will, likely, sell faster and for a larger sum of money.
How does Memorabilia COA support the authenticity of a signature?
An item that is witnessed being signed by a Genuine COA authorized representative is issued a tamper-proof, holographic sticker with an exclusive serial number. A matching sticker can be found on the certificate of authenticity that is issued to the owner of the signed item. That serial number can be searched on the Memorabilia COA website Authentication search feature. This feature allows the verification of the respective signature and details of the signing event to be available to anyone that is given the related sticker number.