Alot of confusion seems to be rooted in a lot of what your saying.

Nobody here claiming they "authenticate" everything they own. Just like nobody is telling you to stop collecting. It's also pretty childish when your provided answers you clearly don't want to hear to just assume that's what people are saying.

Personally, I find this particular situation a microcosm of where the community is heading. Place yourself in the sellers situation here.

You bought an item the seller guaranteed authentic. You made an educated (highly educated considering your degree) opinion the piece was authentic and the seller was genuine. You received the exact item you purchased.

So as I originally asked, where does doubt creep in? How do you get to the point where your sending this item off to be "authenticated"?

Apart from that, what exactly was shown to you to prove it was not a genuine autograph?

Listen, I get asking for people help on items when your not sure. I did that myself on this very forum two weeks ago.

Your bringing up a sensitive topic for alot of us, because your essentially letting another persons opinion mean more than yours and the sellers word. Clearly based on the topic and your response, you now have zero doubt this item is fake. Thats quite a change of stance, in a short timeframe.

As I reiterated to you, if you had something tangible to start the doubt , its a different story. Seller kept selling similar items, had a stockpile of them, got caught with fakes, sold you a different item....tons of things.

You also said this was signed by multiple people, so did all signatures fail or just one?

In closing, the beanie babies market has dried up in the past few years. I would suggest you take a good look at this site if your serious in moving in that field,

http://www.barrysbeanies.com/generic32.html

I work with a woman who collects them and just a ruthless of a field.