On August 29 2015 , on the date that would have marked Michael Jackson's 57th birthday, fans realized a MJ autographed item was listed on eBay recently. Item description stated this picture was hanging on the wall of MJ's recording studio. MJ took it off the wall and signed the back of it. Item was listed as still in good condition.
Seller's account name was Chantal818 and item was located at Playa del Rey, California. The asking price was $1,100. It looked like every other item listed for sale on eBay. That's until you look to the 5th picture. The inscription of the picture read " To WADE the Best friend in the universe Love Michael Jackson".
Wade? Chantal? Robson? "Are Robson's selling autographed Michael Jackson memorabilia in the middle of a childhood sexual abuse lawsuit against Michael Jackson?" was the first question that came to the minds of the fans who discovered the item.
eBay is filled with forged MJ autographs and some come with elaborate but still forged back stories to make items seem legit. So there was a little doubt initially. "Perhaps it’s a fake, someone forged it", “perhaps someone is trying to make it look like the item is from Robsons” or "perhaps it's just a coincidence" thoughts were brought up during fan conversations. "Before we rush to conclusions, how can we confirm it is indeed Robson family selling this item?" was also discussed.
It turns out confirming the authenticity was actually going to be a relatively easy detective work. It took Suzy from michaeljacksonallegations a visit to Chantal Robson’s public Instagram page to confirm it is indeed Chantal who listed the item. A month ago Chantal posted a picture of her dog and that picture showed the exact same table and exact same chair that could be seen at the photographs of the autographed picture. (Note: Chantal's public instragram page also mentioned Wade recently visiting her in California).
With this confirmation fans are left with uneasy feelings. Although we don’t know the specifics of Robson’s allegations (as most of the details are redacted), we know that the cited legal codes covered acts like anal rape and sodomy. Most of the fans are left with the question if someone ALLEGEDLY did such heinous acts towards you or your sibling would you hold on to the items that they gifted you and would you try to make money from such items? Fans seems to be in consensus that a person that makes such serious accusations would most probably throw, burn, destroy such items from their ALLEGED molester and not sell them on eBay for cash.
The inappropriateness of such sale (and I’m being kind) and the irony that the item inscribed as “Wade the best friend in universe” isn’t lost on Michael Jackson fans.
In this instance, it is impossible to not remember the lyrics to “Money”. “In the devil's game of greed and lust. They don't care. They'd do me for the money. They don't care. They use me for the money”.
Note: As DailyMichael site, we were torn about posting this blog post. While we wanted fans to know about the situation, we didn’t want to bring attention to the item. We trust Michael Jackson fans wouldn’t buy this item.