Signed Kpop photocards / photos - often fake and a scam!

Hello~ Here I am again with another article related to signed things (you guys would think I have no life and only care about signed goods hmmm?), well hopefully Google will help me out and let the candid people on the net know more about the high possibility of a signed photo (or even photocard!) being fake, not genuine, forged, whatever you want to call it. Basically not your favorite group signing it...

WHEN I TALK ABOUT SIGNED PHOTO, I am NOT talking about printed signed photos but "pen" signed. In fact some people even asked others if a certain photo/photocard with a printed signature is genuine, asking the signature is genuine.... *facepalm* oh pleaseeeee. A printed signature is not difficult to see! The texture, the look of it.... Usually printed signatures are much thinner, cleaner, and just look printed. On photocards, in majority of the case when they exist they are on the back of the photocard but they can be as well on the front for promotional photocards (such as I believe INFINITE's Pepsi photocards?). Just search on google the photocard you wonder whether is pen signed, if every photocards you see also have that signature: it is printed. Easy no? A little research doesn't hurt. 

So to start off! You are on eBay, searching a bit randomly on this vast website and *drumroll* you land on your ultimate favorite group's "supposed" signed photo! It looks beautiful, it is not too expensive, you jump on it.... Is it genuine....? Chances are... Well no... Why is that?

Unlike signed albums where some of them are genuine due to the fact that idols sign them on several occasions: mwave, broadcast promotion, fansigns etc. Photos.... Aren't really signed! 

Mwave doesn't propose any signed photos for sale (but they do have signed Polaroids for top supporters but that's another story), they don't sign - well in my knowledge- photos for broadcast purpose, and in fansigns.... Well they don't as well! 

You will often see sellers state as the provenance of their signed photos: fansigns. But did you actually know that in fansigns you can't let them sign anything? Your favorite plushie, they can't sign it for you. Idols are asked to sign the albums, and only their assigned page... Sometimes they will sign as well the photocard included in the album... But not all idols will do that! More nugu groups will do that - due to less strict staff- such as Boys Republic have signed photocards if you requested them to do so, some groups did in the past (like sign hearts etc) but no longer due because the staff got really strict with that, and some simply never did- for instance I believe SM groups have never done so due to SM being stricter. Anyway, at the end, photos simply won't be signed.

As for photocards, you'd have to do your own research as of whether that particular group you are interested in did/does sign photocards. It could be fansign related or event related. An example would be that in the first press albums of BTS's ORUL82, signed photocards would be inserted randomly in those first press albums. So you would have the chance to obtain a signed photocard of the member in question on the back of it. The signature was pretty thick in dark pen. So do some research! Googling about it and whether someone did an Unboxing and found out that their photocard ended up signed! Another more recent event was ASTRO's "Spring Up", although it's not really a photocard but more a postcard, in first press albums there were inserted randomly signed postcards and those were signed on the back by one member. There are many events done usually during first press to encourage people to preorder - as first press is the first batch to get sold. It's all a selling strategy! So you wouldn't expect a popular group - or one of the big 3: SM, YG, JYP- to do that as they don't need a bait to make people purchase, people will purchase anyway! 

And let's suppose in this ideal world, in this imaginary world that idols DID sign photos during fansigns, which is not he case may I remind you- the color of the pen would not be of gold color, in huuuuge majority of times they use black pen (a quick look to their fansigns fan taken pictures and you will see that the pen they are holding is.... Black!). Many of the signed photos on eBay are signed with golden color, the favorite color of Chinese scammers eh!

Another thing to check out is: do the signatures match their official ones? You can check out on google and compare whether the signatures have similarities, you can for instance as well add the year of the era of the signed photo to be more accurate, for instance "SHINee 2013 signatures". Some groups can have vast changes of signatures throughout the years so searching the year as well is important! You have to be your own inspector.

You also have to think... A signed photo, especially from a popular group like EXO or BTS will never be "cheap". Anything signed by EXO is usually above 100$, and BTS is ~usually~ above 50$ - but it depends what that is. If you see an all member signed photo of EXO for 20-30 mere dollars.... You can be almost sure this is not genuine. Because having EXO sign an item is very rare, and they don't really sign on many occasions.

But do not fret! Signed pictures do exist but exist in very rare occasions. Two examples which I remember on the top of my head are the ones of the first press signed photos for HYYH pt.1 of BTS and BAP Japanese stop of BAP live tour (2015?) AWAKE signed photos sold at the merch booth. (Please do not butcher me if I am wrong for BAP.... I do not really follow them that much...)

Just do some R.E.S.E.A.R.C.H. do not blindly buy something without double checking the provenance. If someone says "I got it from a fansign" or from somewhere else, will you instantly believe him? Use some common sense, people LIE. Imagine some adult comes and says "Your mom asked me to pick you up", would you instantly get inside because of the fact that this speech is credible? Do you know the person? If you do not know the person then you don't go! If I were saying "I got it signed during their concert"when selling a signed photo, will you just blindly buy it because is reason seems credible? I could lie, and have forged the signatures myself.

Hence some questions you can ask yourself:

1. Where does it come from?

2. From which event does it come from?

3. How many were available?

4. Do other people have this sort of signed photo?

5. Do the signatures look similar to the "official" ones online?

A little example of some knowledge I gathered, not that I wanted to buy one because I don't collect such things, but during the release of HYYH pt.1 of BTS, there were several hundreds of signed photos inserted randomly in the first press of that album. You could get one member photo, 2 members, 3 members etc, and the signature of the members involved in that photo would be on the back of the photo. The pen they used were of color, there were red, orange pen etc.... So imagine there was V and Jungkook  on one picture, their signatures would be on the back. 

Not everyone who had the first press would get that special signed photo. You needed to be lucky (I wasnt lucky because I am the queen of bad luck /dies/). The pictures would be of the HYYH pt. 1 concept (sort of flowery). 

So let's take an example. Someone is selling a signed photo of V on a tree (totally matching the HYYH pt.1 concept), in the back there is his signature with red pen, the person claims to have found it in her album, the signature matches his "official" one (more or less). Chances are that this is probably genuine!

However imagine an eBay listing, it's the HYYH pt.1 concept image, all members signed on the front with golden marker and the seller claims to have it from a broadcast company, signatures are too thick to really know and you are too good at spotting their signatures yet. Does it seem genuine to you? No! It's probably not genuine due to what I said beforehand.

Alright I hope that you have learned the lesson about signed photos and to avoid purchasing them unless you know they come from a certain event. People saying they can order them signed are most likely scammers! Because you can't certainly order "signed" photos even through contacts because signed photos are simply not a thing! Sorry for the messiness of this article, it is a sort of mashed photos/photocards although I addressed more photos because people seem to purchase those signed photos and they are the ones more "circulating" around.