i have been collecting sports memorabilia for many years and have seen the changes in the authenticity process over the years to help real collectors know that what they are buying is genuine. here are a few tips mostley on boxing as that is what i have mostley collected.

1. if you see something that like a signed glove do some research on the chances of that glove being signed. like some one listing a new style of everlast glove that is meant to be signed by ali that has no online authentics number on it as ali has only signed for them for the past 5 years.

2. remember you can never ask to many questions to a seller, if you was in a high street shop you would.

3. yes feedback is a good thing but it only tells you about the seller not the item.

4. if you see the same item listed by the same seller with some joke shop coa dont go near it.

5. always ask who the coa is by, yes people say they are not worth the paper they a wrote on but that is only the case when its not from one of the top named sports memorabilia companies.

6. top companies who's coas are worth what the say are, ONLINE AUTENTICS, SUPERSTAR GREETINGS, STEINER, AUTENTICATED SIGNINGS, AUTHENICATED AUTOGRAPHS, LAND OF LEDGENDS, ALLSTARSIGNINGS and HALL OF FAME SPORTS all of these are top companies with real authentic autographs. so if you see anything with a COA by any from that list it will be 100% genuine. so grab it as these are the ones that will be worth money in the future.

7. most of the main companies use tamperproof holograms the put one on the signed item one on the coa  and one on the photo of the signing session (if one was taken). that way it stops the cowboys from copying them as their is noway of the copying  the holograms.

8. most sportsmen know that they can be paid for doing a signing session so very few sign for joe public and if the do the allways ask the person thier name and write it on the glove i.e to joe bloggs from mike tyson, that kind of thing.

Remember years from now only signed items that come with a certificate of authenticity from one of the big companies i have listed will be worth big money. so dont waste you cash on anything other than the real deal.

i hope this will help you with you search. and happy hunting.