Hello!
Continuing with the series of "How to spot a fake xxx", this article shall be about how to spot BTS signed or autographed albums, but also any items like Q-cards or any other items. Oddly enough, I have succeeded in being able to recognize instantly whether a signed BTS item is legit or not, I guess my eyes have been trained! (BigHit should employ me hahaha -dies-) They'd actually be scared because that would sound like what a crazy obsessed fan would say ;_;
Not sure if I would continue writing other articles for other groups/artists, because I am confident as of now for BTS, since they are my bias group, and since I am a sucker that buys all their albums.... I wouldn't feel confident to keep track of other artists' as it requires time and it would become more work than some sort of passion.
BTS is one of the current group for which many fake albums seem to circulate around! Many fans may be rather young or lack the knowledge, and don't really know that indeed it is possible that a person may be so money hungry enough to fake signatures. Not everyone is honest and people are ready to fake signatures just for the money. This is why never trust fully strangers and please always make your research before purchasing anything. I hope with this "guide" many people will know how to spot fake signatures.
And before starting, I would like to state that I am simply a European fan, I am not Korean, I am not linked in any ways to big hit, so my knowledge is based on albums I have received from mwave or any other trustworthy platforms. This took quite some time before I managed to achieve this "capacity". I have managed with time to spot the difference between real and fake and am writing this to share with you. Many of the images taken do not belong to me and were taken simply as examples, they belong to their rightful owners.
Enough blabbering! Let's start.
The fact is, BTS signatures' have evolved throughout times. Rookies always have the nicest signatures, with details, and clean, but with time, they become more lazy because there's often more to sign and it is just impossible to have a signature with so many details if you need to sign 1000+ albums, for instance if they sell signed albums on mwave, which they did!
As for the signed random items like Q-cards, shirts, posters, or anything that is not album, you'd have to determine the "era" they were signed. Because a signed shirt during "No more dream" era wouldn't look the same as a "Run" era. Imagine someone states that this shirt was signed during the "run" era but in fact the signatures seem to match their older signatures during "no more dream" something is definitely fishy! f.a.k.e... ?
From the picture above, I selected things that were deemed official signatures. The first two pictures are from the photocards of my collection which come from the albums (School Luv Affair and HYYH2), and some pictures of the Kpop Bear Statue in Gangnam Seoul that a friend took (Her Twitter: link). Signatures such as those can be helpful when we are new and have no clue where to find pictures of signed signatures, but let's not forget that with time their signatures change (as you can see the difference between beg. 2014 and end 2015), and that the signatures they sign on albums are simplified, because they have to sign many times!
I actually own several signed BTS albums, sadly, since I am not at my apartment, I didn't take any picture, but I might add several pictures later on! edit: Some of my albums have been added as example!
So let's start with...... *drum rolls* 2 COOL 4 SKOOL. The first debut album!
2 COOL 4 SKOOL
So during the "2 COOL 4 SKOOL" album, where BTS debuted with No more dream, those albums come off as rarer in the market as they are older (as i'm writing this we are nearing 2016, and they debuted mid-2013, so 2.5 years ago!, there were fewer signed (not like HYYH pt.1 where for the m&g thousands of signed copies were sold), and most people aren't willing to sell them off!
But on some rare occasions, a person might sell it as they are no longer a fan, and it may pop out on any reselling platform such a eBay, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.
How to spot how it is fake?
Well from the debut until now, BTS has ALWAYS kepts the same "spot" to sign, very rarely they might mess up if they did a mistake, I only saw once that mistake where V and Jhope signed an album the other way around and the boys realized that half way, and they drew a heart in the middle of the album, sort of a "sorry".
So the order IS and IS ALWAYS:
Top left: Jin ; Top center: Rapmonster ; Top right: Suga ; Middle left: V ; Middle right: Jimin ; Bottom left: J-Hope ; Bottom right : Jungkook.
ALWAYS THAT ORDER.
For 2 COOL 4 SKOOL, they ALWAYS signed with the golden colored marker, so if you find a copy with a different color, WARNING. IT IS FAKE.
So here, we have on the right the real signatures and on the left the fake ones. I have decided to provide several examples in order for you to see how BTS's signatures variate a little. I will start off by analyzing the fake signatures:
1. Honestly I will admit I am very lazy to pinpoint every details, but I shall do so very quickly on each signatures. Jinms signatures is way too broad, he takes less width to sign. Rapmonster's signature lacks the "bts" he used to always sign as well that during that era. And the signature seems more awkward, the flow does seem right. Suga's lower part of the "S" seems messed up, the !S" should, be quite generous and curved, but here it seems chopped off, and the lower part seems hesitating. V's signature lacks confidence, we can see it was not done very quickly, and is too rounded and he used to sign more clearly on the right "v" and I doubt he used to sign "BTS" on the left bottom part on those albums. Jimin's signature looks not badly done, but it seems too broad. J-hope's circle around his name seems very awkward , he does a sort of cloud during this era which doesn't seem to be done with confidence. For Jungkook's, the lower part of the "J", the curve is too big, way tooooooo big.
2. Jin's lower right curved line is looking very odd. Rapmonster's signature lacks the two dots on the top middle and looks very weird. Suga's top part of the "S" is too rounded. V's signature is not too well placed, I am sure he is not that dumb to not know how to place well his signature, his signature is a bit too much in the right.. Jimin's signature lacks the "BTS". J-hope's cloud looks somewhat awkward and the "J" doesn't even look like a J! Jungkook's "J" is a big fat mess.the J is always done in one go, here it was done in two strikes.
3. The gold pen's color is odd. Like yellow birdy. Very odd. Anyway when you just look at it it looks soooooo messy. All over the place. Rapmonster's signature was completely butchered into some weird looking thing. Suga's S is unrecognizable . V's signature looks more like a tornado rather than a 4 clover leaves (well v's signature reminded me of a delicates 4 clover leave drawing). Jimin's "BTS" is usually more below the rather than in the left. Jhope's cloud looks non existent and half done. We can't even read the "hope". Jungkook's "J" is too cursive, too much space inside the curves.
4. All signatures are in silver pen? Impossible. They ALWAYS signed in gold pen. No need to look any further, you can also compare with the real signatures, you can see the difference is flagrant.
5. A mixture of grey pen and silver pen? Impossible. None of the legit signatures are in silver. This is already a sign you should not look any further as this is definitely fake. And th signatures look nothing like the ones on the right, the scammer seems to have added details to make it look real, but those things don't exist in their signatures. Only people who have never seen their signatures would believe that those are legit.....
6. This attempt was close enough as the pen is the same, but the position is all wrong. There's also some details such as the lower part of suga's "S" being too small, Rap Monster's signature being too simplified, or even "BTS" added to V's signature when usually it is never there. Just the general feeling is simply wrong.
ORUL82
Now onto to the second mini album! The signatures haven't drastically changed, as it was only a few months differences, but we can start to see that Jhope and Jungkook have started to become a bit more 'lazy" with their signatures. Jhope starts to sometimes not draw anymore the cloud as much, it is very random, sometimes it is just a curved line or a cloud. And sometimes he even doesn't finish the "hope" and only writes "ho". As for Jungkook, he started to simplify, it used to be "Jungkook golden BTS" and now it becomes sort of "Jkook gold BTS" from what I can see!
The order is still the same as I mentioned previously.
Those albums are a bit more available compared to the previous one, but still rare nevertheless because they are 2 years old! Those were available for sale as well on Soompi and Mwave, for a rather cheap price (something along the lines of 13$) but were limited it seems to a few hundred copies on each website.
So once again we shall analyze the fake signatures. The key to really spot a fake signature is to compare it with a genuine.
1. So first of all, some signatures are not well placed, Rapmonster's (?) signature is like centered in the middle of the album which would never happen (unless he was drunk while signing this?) and it looks like a weird scribble? Jin's signature lacks the two dots on the top right. The "s" and "j" usually never touch each other. Suga's "s" doesn't even look like an "s" and we can't see somehow the usually "BTS". V's signature is not cursive enough. Jimin's signature lack the "BTS". Jhope's signature is a hot mess, the "BTS' doesn't even look like "BTS". The j looks odd and the rest of the signature as well....
2. Wouuuuuuh. What a hot mess there! Jhope's signature in the top left? V's (?) signature on the top right? When you see this order you just know this is sooooo wrong and then the signatures look like nothing right? And there's only 6 signatures here, Jimin's signature is missing? Just compare and your eyes will bleed seeing how fake this is.
3. Rapmonster's signature misses the "BTS". Suga's lower part signature is rather long and seems just like unnecessary scribbles. V's right curve is too stretched out, it should be more rounded. V's signature is also too much in the right. Not well placed. Jhope's as well is too far in the right. Jhope's circle or cloud just very odd the 'J' looks very unusual and the "h" is unfinished.
4. This is a poster, and I wanted to show that even posters can be fake. Signatures don't any of the members. The alleged Suga signature is on top of Jimin, v's signature is in Jhope, Jhope's signature is on V, Jimin's signature Iis on Suga.... I guess the scammer can't tell them apart lol. And all the signatures look like nothing. Just compare. It is just weird scribbles.
Bonus: Jimin holding one of their signed albums! What better proof than the person himself show it?
SKOOL LUV AFFAIR
The albums are still a bit rare but are a bit easier to find compared to ORUL82. The boys's signatures have evolved, Rapmonster no longer signs with "BTS", he got lazy I guess. Jhope seems to have given up the "pe" of his name. Jungkook seems to have given up on the "gold" part of his signature and only signs "BTS" it seems to be more confusing what he is signing.
So let's move onto the signatures one by one again!
1. The signatures are not well placed, normally they have a well defined spot (unless they are drunk which I highly doubt) Rapmonster's signature is far too low, and the two dots are missing, the signature lacks fluidity. Honestly Rapmonster's signature is so unique, it is really hard to imitate his signature because only him can do it which such fluitidity. Suga has actually a star in his signature, but he actually only did a star during the debut era, and even sometimes it ended up looking more like a ball or a circle because he ended up being lazy doing a star everything. The BTS is far too but, and his "b" never looks like that. V's signature is far too stretched out and lacks more cursive parts. Jhope's signature is too small the circle should not be that tight. Jungkook's signature looks very unorganized.
2. THE SIGNATURES NEED TO BE WELL PLACED AT THE CORNERS. they are too close to the center. Jin's signatures lacks the three dots. Rapmonster's lacks cursive at the beginning. Suga's signature looks like nothing, we can't even see the "S", which is the main core of his signature. V's signature looks like random cursive lines. Jimin's signature was completely destroyed and looks like nothing. Jhope's signature is just a dribbles, we can't even see the "BTS" or even the "JHo" which is the main core of the signature. Jungkook's signature also was destroyed.
3. For this one we can just tell this was signed by the same person as the pressure applied is the same, and the pen used is not the same they use to sign all the albums. Not the same type of pen. This pen seems to be able to get erased, not a marker. Plus the pen they usually use has some sort of reflection, hence why the quality of the signatures is not the best to compare because of all the reflections of the real pen. Rapmonster's signatures looks too shy, like s shy girl trying to sign and it has the BTS which he already doesn't use anymore ever since this era. Jhope's signature is a big given as well because the BTS is way too small, the circle is way to straight and clean, Jhope doesn't do it that cleanly. And Jungkook's signature is more done with character, this is done shyly.
4. The members' signatures are not positioned well in the corners. J-Hope's circle is not big enough and is too oval. V's signature is missing the upper curve, it is just a line here, impossible! Jungkook has a weird curve added. Suga's lower curve of his " S" is too small, not well curved. Rap monster's signature is missing the two upper dots and isn't done with confidence. etc.
DARK&WILD
Then for dark & wild, honestly this is one of the albums that was really available. So many signed copies were sold. Over 60 pages on mwave were sold, and on each page there's 49 copies. So you do the maths, I don,t have a calculator to do that (60x49=?) hence this album comes off as not too expensive, but it is slowly starting to be less resent int the market and prices start to go a bit higher because it is an album that is a year old (as of end 2015). Most people who sell them are legit, because since there were soooooo many copies sold, it was very easy to get a hold off, on mwave it was sold for like 20$ or so? The price of the album. So why bother buying an unsigned album and fake sign it when you can have a real one for the same price and not bother to fake sign it? Anyway there are still fake ones circulating, sold by the same fake sellers.
The boys signatures have still evolved. Jhope's "BTS" has become messier, more linked and not as clear, and he signs in GENERAL "Jh" on rare occasions with a "hope" if he is not too tired. Jin also became tired ): it seems like his signature is much make squished, we can't truly distinguish anymore his dots, he used to have one more in the center and two together on the top right. Suga seriously gave up any circles he used to make in the top-middle right.
Let's goooooooo:
1. Rapmonster's signature is a big given no two dots as he usually does, like it just became a "C" his signature sort of? Nothing like his usual one. Suga's S doesn't really look like an "s" anymore. A weird cursive. V's signature is far too low, it needs to be exactly at the same level as the title "dark&wild". And it just looks like some random scribble. Jimin's signature is far too much in the left, and not well placed, and the sort of tree he does is gone (like you know on his right he does a sort of tree, an l or is it actually a J ? I actually never really knew what his signature stood for unlike the others- Jimin is such a mystery to me!) , and we also can't see the "BTS". Jhope's signature is centered bottom when he is usually ALWAYS bottom left. And it seems like it's an "A" in this one? Like hm no, it's suppose to be a "Jh" on the normal one. Jungkook's J is much more rounded than this.
2. I wouldn't look any further and you'd just see the signatures look like nothing they usually do. People always give the excuse "ah they might have been tired so their signatures look different" even if they are tired..... The signatures wouldn't look like THAT, completely different! Edit of 6.2.16 the cover of the booklet could have been signed BUT that was only possible during the red bullet fansign in Singapore (not sure of other locations) the color of the pen is silver, and I would suggest you to ask the seller proof he attended that fansign.
3. The color of the pen looks funny.... A bit too smile fish? Normally it should be a bit whiter..... And then Rapmonster's signature looks very odd, there's usually nothing that circles the two dots. Suga's lower part of the signature looks massive and too wide. And it seems to have unnecessary scribble. V's signature looks like it was done with latience, he doesn't have time! He needs to sign several copies! This is done too neatly! Jimin's signature also looks too neat, and the sort of right part is not tall enough! Too short! Jhope's signature is not done with confidence,4 he "Jhope" looks too weird, it is not his usual handwriting but I have to admit the BTS part was well done.... Jungkook's signature is a hot mess, just a lot of scribbles after the "J"! Looks nothing like that!
4. Let me tell you that most fake signatures are done with golden pen.... Apart from a few exceptions. Golden colored pen are the best friends of scammers!!! The signatures are in the wrong position, and all over the place and look nothing like their usual signatures. I don't need to pinpoint everything to you right?
Bonus: BTS promoting their signed albums via KBS and mwave
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MOMENT IN LIFE PT1 ; HYYh pt.1 ; 화양연화 pt.1
Now onto this album! Interesting fact to know is that all the white version signed by all members on the cover of the album are ONLY promo albums, you wouldn't find any mwave white version all member signed! Or yesasia! (edit 23.2.16: actually very very few non promo white signed are floating around, not quite sure of the provenance, but seems like one came from a Japanese event, anyway in any cases you can only use your eyes to spot the signatures) But you could find individual members signed on the white version, for instance I had a Jhope and Suga signed white versions from mwave. And for the pink version, you can find them as promo albums or mwave ones. But the fact is all member signed was a tiny bit harder to obtain directly from mwave, because only 7/49 people could get all member signed, so technically 1/7 of chance to get it all signed.
And *drum rolls* yes their signatures.... Worsened! Ah they are getting more tired!
Especially Jhope and Jungkook is seems to be messier and not as clean as before. They tried to simplify their signatures! But I have to say Jungkook's signature is not as messy if he signed individual on an album than if he signed with all member signed. V's signature also is not as elegant as before, looks a bit messier, and a bit smaller eh??? And Jhope's "h" seems to have decided to go out of the circle from time to time, the "h" has become a bit naughty! Suga's lower part seems to have even more simplified, we can no longer distinguish that those scribbles used to be "BTS" in the past.... :p Jimin has simplified a lot more his signature! No longer very well down up and down. More like very quickly done waves. Not sure if you can understand what I mean?
Let's analyze once again the fake signatures! :
1. The signatures all over the place, not in their proper position. I would say: stop looking any further this is fake. The boys aren't drunk enough to mess up the spot they usually sign! Jin's signature spot and Rapmonster's has been inverted. Suga's "s" looks like brining. V's is too rounded. Jimin has weird scribbles that din,t exist, Jhope's circle doesn't do a full circle, it only surround from the bottom left to the bottom right. And he usually has two lines on the bottom! Jungkook's j is not rounded enough in the lower part!
2. Rapmonster's legendary signature looks nothing like as butchered into some weird scribble (but I have to say props to Rapmonster for keep his signature almost always the same since the debut and still looking very nice). Suga's lower part has too many scribbles. V's signature has ugly cursive. And looks like a kid drew that. Jungkook's signature has is too broad and flattened.
3. Ohhhhhhhhhh. When you see this, you feel like it was the same person who signed this! Done very quickly in a gross manner. As if a kid signed it. The Rapmonster signature lacks the pointiness of the bottom lines. Suga's "s" doesn't look like a "S". V's signature doesn't have the "BTS" when he signs albums..... Jimin's horizontal line looks like weird scribbles and he doesn't sign anymore "BTS" as well. Jhope's circle looks very odd and it is just not his handwriting.
4. The last example is a signed page in the booklet of the album. Impossible. Because if they were to sign in the booklet, they would have all their individual pages, and this would be done during a fansign. All the non fansign albums were signed on the cover of the album. The signatures looks nothing like the ones that I showed you in the right.
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MOMENT IN LIFE PT2 ; hyyh pt.2 ; 화양연화 pt.2
Now onto the 2nd chapter of the HYYH serie!
Seems oddly that there's not a lot of the copies floating around? I am guessing big hit did not promote a lot this album in broadcast stations since BTS has already got a high popularity.
edit 23.2.16: Back in December and January, only signed peach promo were circulating around. However in the recent days, some blue signed have popped out. I am still unclear whether those are only promo albums, but it seems there's also C1 ones out there. So, honestly you truly need to spot whether it is genuine according to the signatures. I have compiled Peach and Blue.
And the members..... Have become even more tired! Jhope especially! Wow when you compare debut versus now you can see a big difference! Jin is not as cramped as before but we can see his signature was done in a few strokes, not as clean and elaborated as it used to be in the past. Rapmonster has given up on doing the two legendary dots on the top middle part of his signature (well on rare cases it still appears). Suga seems to only be signing a "S" along with a sort of "B" and a horizontal line? V still seems to have kept a good bunch of his old signature, just signed a bit messy. Jimin's little thing on the top left is now closer to his main part of his signature, it used to be higher in the past, and he simplified it as well. Jhope's signature...... What is that now??? I am guessing it is just a "B" a very squished "J" and a spike that used to be an "h" in the past? Jungkook doesn't seem to have changed too much ever since HYYH pt1, maybe some strokes that have disappeared?
Fake signatures weren't too late into the party!
1. I have to a admit, the fake signer did a pretty good job, but the placement of the signature is not too well done. Especially for Jimin and V. Far too close from the center! Rapmonster's signature looks odd, not done with ease. The "s" of Suga is very odd.... Let's not forget that the "s" is the core of the signature! And Suga simplified much more his signature, all those scribbles just makes it so much less legit. V's curves are too broad, and the start the the curve is far too centered and too high. Jimin's right part, the sort J or tree is not high enough. Jhope has simplified his signature.... So too much going inside the circle!
2. The pen used is too thin..... The signatures are not well placed, they don't correspond to the usually spot. Suga's signature was butchered and looks like nothing, Jimin's as well is very odd. Jhope's signature looks like scribbles of circles, and Jungkook's j is not cursive enough. Just looking at it just screams FAKE.
3. The signatures are so tinny! It seems like it was a girl who tried to copy, all the signatures are neat and cramped, and all of the same style. You can see for instance that Jungkook's signature is half the size it should be! The pen used seems a bit too thick. Anyway just by comparison you can see the fakeness just pops out!
Now onto the blue signed versions, suddenly they all popped out of nowhere (need to get myself a copy as well without being ripped off!), here we go:
1. The signatures are not well placed, especially V's and Jimin's, they are too close from the center. Jimin's signature is too wide, Suga's is too complicated and his 'S' looks weird shaped on the bottom part, Rap Monster's signature is always the hardest one to copy, and it's missing the deep pike at the bottom. v's signature is supposed to be more cursive and here it seems too cramped. Anyway just by comparing you can see how off it is.
2. The signatures are too big! The boys always have similar signature sizes whenever they sign, they got trained to! Once again V's and Jimin's signature are too close to the center, they are suppose to be close to the border. Rap Monster's and Suga's as well are too far from the border. Rap Monster's signature is missing several of his strokes.
3. The person tried to
copy the boys' old signatures...... Not working. Jin's signature
looks very odd as well as Rapmonster. The placement is completely wrong, they are far too close
to the center. They are suppose to be well close to the borders. V's
signature is not done with confidence. It also is not suppose to have
BTS written as well. Jimin doesn't write BTS anymore and here there it is.
Jhope doesn't do the cloud anymore cleanly, he does a circle, and this is way
too clean, he simplified much more the inside of the circle! And
Jungkook's as well looks very messy and too complicated, he simplified
that!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NOTICE: This guide has been cut in two, another article is published with Young Forever, Wings and YNWA on it as due to the large amount of pictures, my computer freezes more and I am sure that for people with slower internet the page must be taking ages to load!
So there you go, I have tried to analyze BTS's signatures. This just shows that there's too many scammers out there and we need to be cautious. I would also advise you to check out my other "guide", which is "how to spot a fake signed / autographed kpop album" as this guide is more about the boys's signatures, and the other guide will help you more as well to give you a general idea... Such as the komca sticker or what not.
This took quite some time to write, and as I am writing this my fingers are a bit dead, so I would appreciate if you would not plagiarize this out of respect ♥ All pictures were taken from various platforms, I do not own the pictures apart from a few that come from my collection. Otherwise they belong to their rightful owners.
I will surely update this article if there's any new informations, if you feel like some of the stuff I wrote are wrong, and for future comebacks, as I am sure the boys' signature will continue to evolve! (And also there's the repackage edition of SKOOL LUV AFFAIR which I didn't add but if one day I feel really bored and I am very motivated to add it, I will add it as well!)
I hope this will help out some fellow ARMYs ~
PLEASE CHECK OUT ALL OF MY ARTICLES BEFORE LEAVING A COMMENT OR EMAILING ME. THE ANSWER IS PERHAPS IN ONE OF THEM. I will not answer any comments asking the legitimacy of a signed album!
All comments related to "Is this legit????" are going to be deleted. Thank you for understanding!
Check out the "Is this genuine request" article if you wish me to analyze your BTS album. Click here
Feel free to comment, it is always nice to know that this article was of some use and that I didn't waste my time writing this for nothing (ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧
