A Word About Certificates of Authenticity (COAs)
Thank you for your interest, but "no, we do not believe in COAs, and neither should anyone else". Nor should you be placing your trust in them either, as a COA does not prove anything.
A COA is signed by someone you do not personally know, could probably never find again, and who may or may not be an expert in anything. Also, the person who is issuing the COA has an interest in selling you the item, so of course they are going to "certify" that their item is "authentic". Additionally, people have issued COAs on our autographs as though they were their pieces originally---all the more reason to avoid COAs.
In the case of most of our items, there is more than just a signature----there is an entire sentence. This was done specifically to help the buyer to see more handwriting and to know that the item is real. Forgers may be able to write someone's name and occasionally fool people; however, trying to forge an entire sentence in someone else's handwriting is nearly impossible.
If you are seeking COAs with your autographs, then the question you should be asking yourself is this: “What does the COA do for me? If your answer is, “it proves that the autograph I am buying is authentic”, then you are very much mistaken. A collector needs to educate himself as to what the handwriting of the person he is collecting looks like, and then he will know if it is real or not by his own knowledge. Do not leave this to someone else to do for you. You need to know that your item is authentic because you have done your homework----not because some piece of paper signed by someone you do not know and who wants to sell you something says it is authentic.
If you have not done your homework, and if you have not researched and are familiar with the handwriting of the person whom you are collecting, then with all due respect, then you do not know what you are doing and have no business collecting autographs. Placing your faith in COAs to serve as your “proof” that your item is real is irresponsible and quite risky. Houses and cars are issued titles---not autographs. So for these reasons, we do not issue COAs. We do sell a lot of items however, both on ebay and off, and our prices will not stay low forever. Once the astronauts start passing away, and they are as we speak, then these prices will go higher.
I hoped that this helped you to understand our field a little better. Good luck to you building your space autograph collection.