Autopens

Consider the lives of sports superstars. First, there's the money. Somewhere down the fame chain, there are the autograph requests. Tens of thousands of them, maybe hundreds of thousands. How do you become or remain responsive to the fans who fork over big dough to attend sporting events, much less buy all of the wearable billboards? How does one cater to the fans who slap a 29 cents on a flattering request letter for a signature. To meet demand, a relatively small number of well-known athletes use something called an autopen. It's a machine that creates endless replicas of one's authentic signature. It's nothing new. It's been in existence for about 40 years.

Autopens are commonplace among politicians and numerous business figures. They're used for convenience and to satisfy someone who takes the time to write. It's as real as a response from the president of the United States about the economy.

To the autograph collector, the ink from an autopen is poison to authenticity. It's functional, but, sorry, folks, it's fake.

To read the entire article, press Read More if you are an Online subscriber or Subscribe Now!