Some of the Leafs memoribilia is pretty decent, too.
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Does the "certificate of authenticity" mean anything? Is there any way to tell whether you are getting something authentic rather than relying on what they tell you?
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Really, really REALLY mean anything? Not really. Not sure they mean anything in a meat-world autograph shop, either. But you can reduce your chances of buying bunk:
(i) Who is this supposed "certifying" authority? Are they for real or some inhouse thing? If verifiably real, that is some comfort.
(ii) There are always the fraud laws. If they not only claim authenticity but say they certify it, it would make any fraud more indefensible and eggregious. There is probably some (small) comfort in that. Most eBay forgers and fakers tend to leave wiggle room in their description language to preserve a secondary escape route.
(iii) If the seller has been selling for a while, someone knowledgeable will likely have bought from them at some time or another, and if they are selling fakes would probably have reported them (or left negative feedback). For some types of stuff (curios, antiques, imports), you'd be surprised how many professional resellers pick up stuff cheap on eBay they can mark up to real-world buyers, just as a lot of wholesalers pick up remaindered stuff in bulk to unload on eBay. That's, frankly, probably more comfort than i or ii above.
(iv) Just discount your purchase price by the risk of fakeness. Or, what are you willing to pay for an X% chance of getting a real autographed thingy? For $15, you may be willing to take some real risk, for $150, maybe none. Buying on eBay is always something of a crap shoot, you just decide how much of one you want to make it.
