Jim Craig goalie hand signed autographed 8 x 10 B & W photo Olympic hockey star

Description

8" x 10" thin stock B & W photo hand signed by Jim Craig U.S. Olympic hockey legend. Photo is signed "To Steve Believe in Your Dreams Jim Craig". The signature was obtained by me at a signing held at a tournament in Lake Placid that my son Craig was playing in. It has sat in a box in dark, dry storage for all that time, never displayed. Priced to sell much, much lower then the other legit Jim Craig autographed photos on here. Shipping by first class mail is free.
I have collected autographs for over 40 years. I will be selling my entire collection on here over the next few years because my two adult children have indicated that they are not interested in inheriting my stuff as they call it. The autographs came from various sources. Many were collected in person as the chase is part of the autograph experience for real collectors. Others came drom reputable autograph dealers, record shows when they meant something back in the 80's and 90's, auction houses such as Julien's, Christie's and Heritage; and a few off eBay. I will do my best to list where and how each autograph was obtained. My process in determining if an autograph is legit is quite extensive much more extensive than a quick opinion from a so called expert with less formal education as myself. I will spell out the major points of the process below.
As I previously indicated I have collected autographs for over 40 years so I have a wealth of experience in the art of collecting. So maybe even more importantly that 40 years of experience has taught me the fact that there are unfortunately lots of forgeries out there and I know the secrets of how best to detect and spot the smallest of errors and inconsistencies in an autograph. Secondly I have two civil engineering degrees so obviously I am well educated in a discipline that requires precision in most cases. I also have ADHD so when I hyperfocus on something I tend to beat it to death. Also as I indicated I know there are a lot of forgers and phony autograph sellers out there and if I ended up buying a fake it would haunt me given my ADHD. I would dwell on it constantly and have to pursue the person to all reasonable means (which means unreasonable for most people) until the problem was remedied.
I have collected for 40 years and I bought one fake an Elliott Smith 'autograph' from Karl an eBay seller from Texas. I ended up getting my money back because even after months of owning the 'autograph' one little thing bothered me and I dwelled on it each time I saw the autograph hanging on my wall. It was a magnificent forgery. Even so there was one little 'stop and start' spot on one of the letters in the autograph. Stop and start marks are when the pen (or sharpie in most cases these days which is much easier to forgery with than a ballpoint pen) pauses for a tiny bit when someone is trying to meticulously copy a signature. So one part of the process is the writing instrument itself. Anything old is going to likely be signed in pen and on paper that is age and type consistent with the era of the autograph. It is way, way easier to forgery a signature with a Sharpie but unfortunately that is the instrument of choice for autographs over the past few decades. A pen bears out every little nuance of a person's signature.
Also sometimes a person's signature changes over type so when you compare it with exemplars make sure that you are comparing it to the signatures from the correct era of the autograCompare to signatures of the correct era of the item. You can find authentic exemplars of pretty much anyone if you Google the person's name with the works signed, signature, autograph or autographed. Now when you compare to other exemplars make sure that you are comparing to authentic signatures so look for items that either sold in high end auctions or are on legal documents, etc.
If the item in questions passes those first couple smell tests then I take the item for sale and blow up the autograph to look for inconsistencies in some of the individual letters in the autograph and for tell tale signs of stop and start marks or even a small skip in the signature where the person that forged it signed the autograph in a few separate pieces. That is common. A real autograph the signed would not be lifting the writing instrument off the item while signing their name. Also please realize that the quality of the autograph is going to vary and is going to reflect the circumstances under which it was signed. Was it a rushed autograph signed in a throng of people or a meticulous signature signed in a comfortable environment or for a special person or when the artist was new or much less in demand for autographs.
Another critical aspect is the seller! What is their reputation? Are they a respected auction house, autograph dealer or someone on eBay that has 1000's of 100% A+ transactions like I havecearned overvthree decades or is it someone on eBay that is relatively new or sells just autographs and lots of them at that!! Also you can go into someone's feedback and see what items they have sold. In many instances those sellers will have sold multiple difficult to find autographs in the past 90 days. That is just not realistic. A big red flag. Also if the price is too good to be true than its probably a fake. You should check my feedback and see what I have sold and make sure that it is not 10,000 autographs and not 3 or 4 Kurt Cobain autographs in the past 90 days.
Any autograph that I did not obtain in person I followed that process and more. Obviously buying all these autographs individually cost me a lot of time and money. I paid more for the vast majority of these autographs I will be listing them for. I just have way too much stuff that sits in piles untouched for years and even decades. I hope the autographs go to some nice collector who loves these artists like I did in my youth. If you have any further questions after reading all this I will do my best to answer them. Personally I have no doubts about the authenticity of any of these autographs that I will be listing for sale over the coming next few years. If I did I would not list it. My perfect reputation has been earned through a lot of hard work, excellent products, fair honest transaction and excellent customer service. Even if you choose not to bid on this item I hope that this information has helped you learn how to best determine the legitimacy of an autograph without spending more money on an opinion that cost you as much as the item. I also hope that you are aware that the best autographed items that exist are sold through the major auctioned houses that I listed above! And guess what almost NONE of these high end items have a third party opinion. That should indicate someone to you when considering the most experienced high end autograph and memorabilia collectors. Good luck collecting and remember the personal hunt for the autograph is one of most rewarding parts of autograph collecting. Unfortunately some of the artists are either nit around anymore or not easily accessible to fans.
I have tried to address any and all possible concerns and questions but if I missed one please ask and I will get you an answer promptly. Thank you and good luck bidding. Legit historic sports legends autographs have skyrocketed in price over recent years but I feel that I have set very reasonable starting bids and Buy It Now prices.