What appears to be a questionable letter relating to Marilyn Monroe has been sold on EBay by the same vendor who listed the “ElizEbeth” Short letter (it’s been removed). I was going to ignore the Marilyn Monroe letter, but with the sale price of $879.99, I thought I should comment, especially because the vendor, VintagePhotosForFans, does not offer a certificate of authenticity.

Let us count the red flags: An item supposedly found at an estate sale, listed on EBay, and sold with no certificate of authenticity. But there’s more!

Let us compare the many ways the EBay letter appears to be questionable, using another letter that sold at auction relating to Marilyn Monroe with an image that is widely available on the internet.

Above, the questioned letter that sold on EBay for $879.99.

For comparison, this is a letter that was part of a lot that sold in 2019 for $2,250 listed with LiveAuctioneers.com.

First, the letter sold at auction, typed on standard 8 1/2 by 11 stationery. Notice the letterhead.

And the letter listed on EBay, on paper measuring 6 1/4 by 7 1/2, a nonstandard size for stationery:

I think we can already see the problem. The letter sold at auction has an elegantly printed letterhead befitting the organization, listing prominent members. The letter listed on EBay doesn’t list any members and is rather tacky.  The letterhead font in the EBay letter also appears to be condensed and drastically kerned (“squished” to the lay person), unlike the font and spacing on the auctioned letter. Notice that in the auctioned letter the two-letter telephone prefix is rendered slightly larger — HOLLYwood 5311 – as appropriate for the period. The EBay letter treats all letters the same HOLLYWOOD 5311, with no indication that this is a telephone number.

We could quit now, but let’s see what else we can find…. Notice that the auctioned letter uses double quotes around “Mrs. Dewey, I wouldn’t ever want my Aunt Grace to know I was naughty,” contrasted with the single quote marks around the word “goof” in the EBay letter. Although single quote marks are common in today’s less formal writing, single quotes in the typewriter era were only used as apostrophes and within double quotes. And nothing else.

Also the notice the spacing after periods:

From the letter sold at auction.

From the EBay letter.

Notice that the typist in the auctioned letter has inserted numerous spaces after each period, far more than the two spaces generally taught in typing classes. In addition, the typist of the auctioned letter avoid hyphenating words over two lines, while the EBay letter has hyphenated “re-fers” on the third line.

Finally, let’s check the signatures:

From the auctioned letter.

And the EBay letter.

Pay particular attention to the capital D in “Dewey” in the two letters.

I think it’s clear that signature on the left is authentic and the one on the right is a clumsy attempt to duplicate the original.

Some unfortunate individual, alas, has learned an $879.99 lesson about buying unauthenticated items on EBay.