California Autograph Law

[55chevy]

Looks like this applies to anyone shipping autographed books or memorabilia into California. http://www.antiquetrader.com/antiques/antiques-americana/implications-autographed-memorabilia-law?ut...

[socrates349]

Another stupid regulation impossible to enforce. Someone should inform the CA legislature that it can't  practically regulate transactions on the worldwide internet, and then it can return to its main occupation of granting sanctuary and entitlements to the illegal population.  All it will accomplish is to further harrass the brick-and-mortar and flea market merchants still standing. 

[maxine*j]

HOLY... 

I can see it now:  "Sorry, we do not ship to Syria, Myanmar, Sudan, or California."

• Any dealer (natural person or legal entity) selling to consumers in California, or who operates in California, that sells autographed memorabilia at a price exceeding $5 or more must provide a certificate of authenticity (COA) for the item being sold.
— The new law requires that any representation – either oral or in print – made regarding an autographed item be supported by a COA. The details of what must be included in a COA (including the size of the typeface) are detailed in section (9) of the law.

• Dealers must post a disclosure near autographed items or within printed or online material stating that the dealer is required to issue a COA in conjunction with the sale of each item.
— Dealers must be surety bonded to protect against errors and omissions, and in possession of a State resale certificate.

• The dealer must list on the COA the name and address of the person who sold him the item.
— Dealers must store COAs for seven years.

Dealers who fail to issue a COA, or who issue fraudulent or false COAs face penalties of “actual damages (plus) a civil penalty in an amount equal to 10 times actual damages, plus court costs, reasonable attorney’s fees, interest, and expert witness fees, if applicable, incurred by the consumer in the action. The court, in its discretion, may award additional damages based on the egregiousness of the dealer’s conduct … in addition to any other remedy that may be provided by law.”

The law goes into effect in January 2017.

[sigmapsidelta]

That just seems to leave a big hole for sellers outside the US. I doubt California can enforce its rules in somebody else's country. Besides, I have many signed items the origins of which are now a mystery of my dim and distant past, so how could I provide the ID of the previous owner?

The charity shop gets signed items now and then, but I doubt the donors of such would want the kind of intrusion that silly rule calls for.  We're not the police, so we don't have an endless thirst for peoples' names and addresses. If somebody wants to donate books to us we're happy with that. If they want to introduce themselves that's fine, too. But questioning them if they don't is not my job.

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[bookthink]

Utterly brainless, yes. 99% of COA's aren't worth the paper they're printed on, and the purpose they seem to serve most often is to lull clueless buyers into throwing money at things they otherwise wouldn't and quite possibly aren't authentic in any case. If laws are going to be passed to address this issue - and I'm not at all advocating that anybody does legislate this - it would make far more sense to require sellers to guarantee their items in perpetuity (which they should be doing anyway), and then, if issues arise, require sellers to refund purchases when signed items are questioned.    

[shakhammer8u4s]

The IOBA and ABAA have been working on getting clarification on this abomination for a few weeks now.  A few booksellers have started conversations with legislators with the hope that the law could be amended in the next legislative session to exempt booksellers.  It seems the general consensus on IOBA is that simply shipping items into California would not trigger the law.

A couple things to consider:

1.  It's exceptionally unlikely that someone will file suit over this.  The law has been in effect for awhile with respect to sports memorabilia dealers and anecdotal evidence on the IOBA forums shows that there have not been many suits.

2.  While it's a pain in the $*@! to have to create the COA, if forced to, it ends up just being another thing we have to print as part of the process of shipping.  I doubt any of us would comply with the COA requirement of disclosing where we bought the item and many believe privacy laws trump the requirement to do so.  My heart goes out to California dealers who have huge inventories of signed books.  That said, printing the COA at time of purchase should minimize the labor involved.

In 2005, just a year after starting my own law practice as a consumer bankruptcy practitoner, Congress made drastic changes to the law.  I took a ton of seminars on how to adjust to the changes, regularly freaking out over the ridiculous demands of the law as the effective date approached.  A buddy, and fellow practitioner, who went with me to many of these seminars kept saying, "don't freak, someone smarter than us will create forms, we'll learn to use those forms, and we'll adjust."  He was right.  Hopefully booksellers will get exempted at some point.  If not, there will be forms and we'll adjust.

[fine.books]

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@shakhammer8u4s wrote:

2.  While it's a pain in the $*@! to have to create the COA, if forced to, it ends up just being another thing we have to print as part of the process of shipping. 

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The law requires dealers to post a Surety Bond as well.  I realise that this:

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=4053199170&searchurl=kn%3Dsigned%26sortby%3D1

is in Graham's inventiory in New York, but it could just as easily be Ben Weinstein's in California.  Let's see now - since the Bond comes under "collectables" the Surety Corporation will certainly charge more than one percent for coverage, and perhaps up to the legal limit of 15% as they do with construction and demolition companies who use explosives.  How'd you like to have half a million dollars tied up in perpetuity for lawful assurance, on an item which you have already, no doubt, guaranteed in perpetuity, against the right of return for any or no reason?

Madness; sheer,. unmitigated madness.  Let's regulate small (and big) business right out of existence in America.  Last one out, please turn off the lights.

.

[shakhammer8u4s]

Hi Joe,

The law does not require a surety bond.  It requires disclosure regarding whether a dealer has a surety bond.

The relevant provisions that mention surety bonds:

Section 1797.3 (b)(5) [regarding text that must be on the COA]:

Indicate whether the dealer is surety bonded or is otherwise insured to protect the consumer against errors and omissions of the dealer and, if bonded or insured, provide proof thereof.

Section 1797.3 (d):  

No dealer shall display or offer for sale a collectible in this state unless, at the location where the collectible is offered for sale and in close proximity to the collectible merchandise, there is a conspicuous sign that reads as follows:
“SALE OF AUTOGRAPHED MEMORABILIA: AS REQUIRED BY LAW, A DEALER WHO SELLS TO A CONSUMER ANY MEMORABILIA DESCRIBED AS BEING AUTOGRAPHED MUST PROVIDE A WRITTEN CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY AT THE TIME OF SALE. THIS DEALER MAY BE SURETY BONDED OR OTHERWISE INSURED TO ENSURE THE AUTHENTICITY OF ANY COLLECTIBLE SOLD BY THIS DEALER.”

Section 1797.3 (e)(2) [regarding advertising]:

Shall include in each television or online advertisement relating to a collectible the following written on-screen message, which shall be prominently displayed, easily readable, and clearly visible for no less than five seconds, and which shall be repeated for five seconds once during each four-minute segment of the advertisement following the initial four minutes:
“A written certificate of authenticity is provided with each autographed collectible, as required by law. This dealer may be surety bonded or otherwise insured to ensure the authenticity of any collectible sold by this dealer.”

Section 1797.3 (i)

A dealer may be surety bonded or otherwise insured for purposes of indemnification against errors and omissions arising from the authentication, sale, or resale of collectibles.  [Really?  Thanks for the permission California!]

[fine.books]

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@shakhammer8u4s wrote:

Hi Joe,

The law does not require a surety bond.  It requires disclosure regarding whether a dealer has a surety bond.

The relevant provisions that mention surety bonds:

Section 1797.3 (b)(5) [regarding text that must be on the COA]:

Indicate whether the dealer is surety bonded or is otherwise insured to protect the consumer against errors and omissions of the dealer and, if bonded or insured, provide proof thereof.

Section 1797.3 (d):  

No dealer shall display or offer for sale a collectible in this state unless, at the location where the collectible is offered for sale and in close proximity to the collectible merchandise, there is a conspicuous sign that reads as follows:
“SALE OF AUTOGRAPHED MEMORABILIA: AS REQUIRED BY LAW, A DEALER WHO SELLS TO A CONSUMER ANY MEMORABILIA DESCRIBED AS BEING AUTOGRAPHED MUST PROVIDE A WRITTEN CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY AT THE TIME OF SALE. THIS DEALER MAY BE SURETY BONDED OR OTHERWISE INSURED TO ENSURE THE AUTHENTICITY OF ANY COLLECTIBLE SOLD BY THIS DEALER.”

Section 1797.3 (e)(2) [regarding advertising]:

Shall include in each television or online advertisement relating to a collectible the following written on-screen message, which shall be prominently displayed, easily readable, and clearly visible for no less than five seconds, and which shall be repeated for five seconds once during each four-minute segment of the advertisement following the initial four minutes:
“A written certificate of authenticity is provided with each autographed collectible, as required by law. This dealer may be surety bonded or otherwise insured to ensure the authenticity of any collectible sold by this dealer.”

Section 1797.3 (i)

A dealer may be surety bonded or otherwise insured for purposes of indemnification against errors and omissions arising from the authentication, sale, or resale of collectibles.  [Really?  Thanks for the permission California!]

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Thanks, Adam; the article linked to the the OP simply claims, "...dealers must be surety bonded to protect against errors and omissions, and in possession of a State resale certificate."

The whole of it is preposterous, however.  Ten times damages plus Court costs?  Simply unreasoning legislation.

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[maxine*j]

This is a link to the actual bill, for anyone who wants to read the entire thing which, in my opinion, seems weirder the longer one studies it:

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB1570

[taylor_memorial]

California excels in the wierd and arrogant.

For my part, I'll just change my wording to "appears to be signed" by the author on (wherever). or similarly politically worded phrases that allow for a mistake on my part.

[raeford-books-and-movies-plus]

I normally dont comment of this subject but i can name a few publishers that do produce signed books with out COA such as easton press there is also the matter of Sports Cards they come in a Pack signed and have no COA i have seen the cases and court system in CA i think i will be adding a exclusion of shipping to CA this is again a waste of CA tax payers dollars which i dont care about i live in NC we have are own issues with new laws

[taylor_memorial]

I can't speak for all Easton press signed editions, nor for the Franklin first editions, but the Franklin Presidential Library comes with a little booklet written by someone--with living Presidents (at the time of publication) it is usually the Secretary of State. Kissinger wrote Nixon's.

Not a COA, per se, but it certainly adds value. I would think that any publisher that goes to the trouble of paying someone to sign 1500 pieces of paper and then tip them into the book would be assuring the validity of the signature.

Too bad Kieth no longer hangs around here, he could verify the spectrum of inserts.

[fine.books]

Bump.

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[shakhammer8u4s]

Some good news here.  The law has been amended such that all books, manuscripts, and correspondence, as well as any ephemera not related to sports or entertainment media, are now categorically excluded from the regulation of “Autographed collectibles” under California’s autograph law.