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In my hunt for legitimate Bourdain autographs, I’ve come to realize recently that there are multiple sellers on ebay who have been selling fake (forged) signed Anthony Bourdain books as well as photos. The most obvious one being ebay seller “lovecollecting”. There seems to be a lot more who sell fake signed Bourdain photos. I’m not going to mention any of them here. If you’re uncertain, best to go with a listing that has been certified authentic by JSA, PSA or Beckett (less preferably).
Unfortunately, eBay doesn’t seem to proactively remove these listings or better yet, suspend their account for (i11egal) selling activity. Many of “lovecollecting” listings are showing in the “sold listings” for Medium Raw books that are FORGED. Any one of the seller’s buyers is able to contact the fbi cyber crime online link and report as being a victim, scammed buying an illegitimate/ garbage signature.
Examples of Genuine Bourdain autographs
These show how he would sign books (Medium Raw era, post 2010), very similar to how he’d sign his Nasty Bits book.
As you can see, they all had a unique style, with a unique swirly action and he only seemed to sign the ‘B’ in Bourdain. I honestly don’t understand the reasoning for why he signed his name this way.
Now, examples of Anthony Bourdain forged signatures (by the same seller “lovecollecting”). Most sellers would never take an offer or sell for less than $100 for a genuine autographed Anthony Bourdain copy.
His signature changed from his 2001 “A Cook’s Tour” book release, to the more common Medium Raw signature style, published in 2010. I wish there was a camera over his shoulder at some of those 2010 events to see the interaction with each person that would walk up to him and the way his hand would move on the page from all that swirly action. His writing reminds me of how creative he must have been in the kitchen as a chef, and all the different foods he wasn’t afraid of trying in different countries.
In 2001 his signature was more formal/ reserved, but he seemed to include more personal messages then. Then fast forward nine years and he didn’t seem to give a rat’s ass, like writing certain letters off the page as you can see from some of the pictures above!
I’ve obtained a number of different Anthony Bourdain signed books in the past, from a Cook’s Tour to his Medium Raw 2010 title and have found the most appealing and unique style of signature Bourdain evolved to was starting in 2010 when he would sign his book “Medium Raw”. Although from what I’ve seen, he wrote much cooler inscription messages in some of the copies of “A Cook’s Tour”. One of those I happened to acquire, with the message (prior to his signature) written “Next time I want to go to the Philippines!!”