Original Grays Sports Almanac from BTTF II on eBay

[DB537]

Seller identifies himself as 'Dangerous' BoB Widin, one of the assistant property masters for the trilogy.
You can see his name in the graffiti on the side of Hill Valley High School, and on Doc's 1985A Blackboard.

It was difficult to determine from the photo, but this is definitely NOT a Markpoon replica, and appears authentic.
He also has listed an original parking pass from the first movie. It is not allowed to post live auction links here, but
they are listed on eBay as 'BTTF Sports Almanac The Real Deal' and 'Back to the Future Parking Pass'.

 

[Alan Castillo]

While they of course could be genuine, I am always apprehensive of listings where a seller provides such scanty, brief and unsubstantiated information.

"I was the set propmaster on all three BTTF's. ( Dangerous BoB on IMDB) you can see my name on the side of Marty's high school. This is the real book used during the filming."

My first question to the seller would be .... prove it.

From what do you gather that the almanac appears authentic ?

 

[Alan Castillo]

Since I don't believe that anybody here is going to rush off and spend that amount of money to buy this as the listing stands, I think this is more of a 'verification of authenticity' thread, and therefore see no problem to post the link for ease of reference for the discussion

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BTTF-SPORTS...626?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4adb401fb2

 

[Bigdaddy]

I don't believe for a minute this is the real deal.

 

[vidman]

looking at the guys feedback he must not have been such a great propmaster if he is selling fast food watches and generic glass bowls,,,, hmmmmmmmmmm.......

 

[DB537]

I found this about Dangerous BoB: http://blog.doppler-photo.net/2011/07/riding-tracks-with-dangerous-bob-widin.html

Just to clarify, I also posted this to verify the authenticity. Based on photos of real props, I tend to believe that this is actually a real
one. I wouldn't necessarily base my judgment on the appearance of the ad itself since Bob would be an older guy and would therefore
probably not be as technically proficient with computers/eBay/etc as younger folks would. Even people who have worked in movie
business have listed ordinary random stuff on eBay before.

I would never spend this much on an original since there are quite a few real ones still out there, and the Markpoon replica
is a virtually perfect copy for less than 1% of the price. They printed a lot of extra copies of these for the movie because it was
an important prop that got a lot of screen time.

Here are some photos of various Almanacs that are known to be authentic for comparison:

 

[Alan Castillo]

I found this about Dangerous BoB: http://blog.doppler-photo.net/2011/07/riding-tracks-with-dangerous-bob-widin.html

Question number one Daniel, how do we know that that ebay account really belongs to who the seller says it does :lol ?

Personally, just because it says so doesn't cut it for me. In these things I am a doubting Thomas from A to Z :lol

Just to clarify, I also posted this to verify the authenticity.

No worries buddy, I know you did.

Thing is, before even starting to verify the authenticity or otherwise of an item itself in cases like these, it is also vital, for example, to first establish some basic provenance

We all know how these things go regarding props.

It is not surprising that genuine articles pop up in the most unlikely of places from the most unlikely of sources.

But again, this is what fraudsters know ..... and take advantage of.

 

[DB537]

Update. I sent Bob a message through eBay yesterday suggesting that he post a picture of himself holding the Almanac to help prove the authenticity of the listing.

He did take my advice and posted not only a photo of himself but a number of other items verifying his identity including personalized autographed photos of people he has worked with. This IS 'Dangerous' Bob Widin in the photograph, and he is wearing an original Hill Valley High School jacket that was made for the movie.

Based on this evidence and the picture he has already posted of the Almanac compared to the other known originals, I strongly believe this to be a 100% authentic/original prop.

 

[Vivek]

Yep, looks like it is the real deal. But his listing doesn't include the word prop in the title and hence won't show up in many search results. I've informed him to update it with better keyword title.

Here is his full updated description and all the newly added photos.

"I was the set propmaster on all three BTTF's. ( Dangerous BoB on IMDB) you can see my name on the side of Marty's high school. This is the real book used during the filming.

Several people have inquired about the authenticity of this Gray's Sports Almanac. In an effort to prove I really am "Dangerous" Bob Widin and this really is an authentic Almanac from BTTF2, I have posted a photo of me today holding the Almanac and wearing the original Hill Valley High Varsity jacket that we didn't use. The one that made the final cut did not have the bulldog logo. I have also posted many photos from my film career including the shower scene just before we cut off Pepe Serna's arm and leg in Scarface, some photos from Harry and the Hendersons and of course Michael J. Fox.

Also there is a photo of a very rare sleep mask given to crew for all the night work we had to do after letting Eric Stolz go.

I know I have aged a bit over the decades, but I think you can still identify the guy holding the Almanac as the same guy in the photos. "

 

[Roland]

Even without the new evidence that Bob posted, I would say it's authentic. It's not a Markpoon replica (neither v1 nor v2). As far as I can see on his picture, the gloss effect of the silver background is identical to any other original almanac and slightly different from Markpoon's. If this is just a replica, it's the best one I have ever seen of this book. It would be interesting to see pictures of the inner pages, but even without them I have no doubt that this is a real almanac.

 

[Alan Castillo]

Aha, now many skeptic people will be a bit less so (myself included).

Glad to see the seller has been illuminated by you Daniel :thumbsup

If it is an original, I wish him luck in the sale

 

[Bigdaddy]

I don't believe for a minute this is the real deal.

OK the minute is up, now I believe it. :lol

 

[Alan Castillo]

OK the minute is up, now I believe it. :lol

Don't worry Andrew ..... I don't 100% yet :lol

 

[TheHVPS]

I was searching Etsy a few days ago for BTTF stuff and I came across an account called ChezNancy claiming to be Dangerous BoB, they have the Almanac on their Etsy page....if this is an authentic prop then it might be of interest to someone to know that they also have a straw holder from the 1955 Lou's Diner scenes haha - https://www.etsy.com/shop/ChezNancy?ref=l2-shopheader-name

 

[Roland]

I was searching Etsy a few days ago for BTTF stuff and I came across an account called ChezNancy claiming to be Dangerous BoB, they have the Almanac on their Etsy page....if this is an authentic prop then it might be of interest to someone to know that they also have a straw holder from the 1955 Lou's Diner scenes haha - https://www.etsy.com/shop/ChezNancy?ref=l2-shopheader-name

A dangerous thing to sell the same stuff in two different places. What if someone buys it on eBay and another one on Etsy at the same time?

 

[Alan Castillo]

A dangerous thing to sell the same stuff in two different places. What if someone buys it on eBay and another one on Etsy at the same time?

IMO, I don't think anybody is going to pay either $6500 (ebay price, with OBO), or $7500 (etsy price) for this.

Even if someone does, it is highly unlikely that 2 people will at the same time, and he would have time to delete one of the listings.

A calculated risk I'd say :thumbsup

 

[Alan Castillo]

Looks like it sold. The ebay listing has been ended early / no longer available.

Highest offer declined was $3500, so must have sold for higher (?).

 

[IconicHorror]

Is it me, or aren't these things selling almost constantly (along with the "Oh-La-La" magazine) in nearly every major entertainment auction? Did they make, like, dozens of originals that were used in 50 different scenes? And people keep buying them for thousands.. I'm no authority at all,but it sure looks suspicious at best. I'm sure you guys know if there's a 'tell', but da#$ed if I know how people could part with their hard-earned cash with such a seemingly voluminous and endless supply of paper product.

 

[DB537]

Is it me, or aren't these things selling almost constantly (along with the "Oh-La-La" magazine) in nearly every major entertainment auction? Did they make, like, dozens of originals that were used in 50 different scenes? And people keep buying them for thousands.. I'm no authority at all,but it sure looks suspicious at best. I'm sure you guys know if there's a 'tell', but da#$ed if I know how people could part with their hard-earned cash with such a seemingly voluminous and endless supply of paper product.

All of the Almanacs, Oh La La, newspapers, matchbooks, and ALL of the other paper props in the trilogy were made by Earl Hays Press, a prop house in LA.

Because the Almanac was the most important prop in the story, they made MANY extra copies for use in the movie. In the business of filmmaking, it's much less expensive to have 50 extra copies of the book made, than it would be to delay production on the movie while you're waiting for replacement props to be made. Remember that there are also many, many different takes of each scene that were filmed, not just the ones that were edited into the final film. You can see one such outtake in this video.

I have identified at least eight different authentic Almanacs that have come up for auction/sale online over the past 5 years. All of them were authentic production-made originals. There is another genuine Almanac that was recently listed for sale on eBay from a seller in Germany. (Link to the ended listing)

There are always tells that can be used to identify and distinguish authentic props from replicas. For example, there is an EXTREMELY TINY detail in the front cover of the Markpoon replica Almanac that I can always use to identify his replica from an original. Even though it's virtually impossible to notice unless you just happen to know exactly what to look for, I can always tell when I see it.

It appears that Dangerous Bob took my advice and got in touch with Desi from screenused, because his Almanac is now listed in the catalog for their upcoming auction.

 

[ath200]

Hi i want to know if this is Original Almanac.
item23423816d2http://www.ebay.com/itm/Back-to-the...474?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item23423816d2