Letters of Provenance
Every lot sold through Nostalgia Bandit is accompanied by a Nostalgia Bandit Letter of Provenance — issued automatically, at no additional cost, with every purchase.
What It Is
A Nostalgia Bandit Letter of Provenance is a formal document printed on official Nostalgia Bandit letterhead and hand-authenticated through multiple physical layers. It reproduces the complete final auction description for the lot in full — including all provenance documentation, attribution, supporting evidence, and condition details as presented in the catalog listing.
The letter is personally signed by Jason DeBord, founder and principal of Nostalgia Bandit, who researched and wrote every description in the catalog. The signature is attributed by name. There is no ambiguity about who is vouching for the item or on what basis.
Why It Matters
Most auction houses issue Certificates of Authenticity as a matter of marketing — a signed card with a title and little else. A COA with no research behind it, no named signatory, and no documentation is worth exactly what it cost to print.
Worse, existing provenance documentation — letters, prior COAs, photographs, correspondence accumulated by careful owners over decades — is routinely discarded when an item changes hands through certain channels, replaced with a house card that serves the seller’s brand rather than the object’s history. The chain breaks. The record disappears.
The Nostalgia Bandit Letter of Provenance takes a different approach. We don’t erase history. We add to it.
The Authentication System
Every Letter of Provenance is built with multiple layered authentication elements designed to function as a permanent record that survives across decades of ownership transfers. Each element is documented here with photography of the actual materials and techniques used.
Premium letterhead. Page one of every Letter of Provenance is printed on Mohawk Superfine 80lb Luxe stock — an 80lb cotton-feel paper with a rich uncoated texture, manufactured to archival standards. Subsequent pages are printed on 28lb archival-grade stock. The paper is chosen for longevity; these documents are intended to last as long as the artifacts they accompany.
Embossed seal on every page. Each page is impressed with the Nostalgia Bandit embossed seal — a physical authentication mark that cannot be reproduced through photocopy, scan, or digital reproduction. Page one is sealed centered above the footer in formal certificate tradition; subsequent pages are sealed in the lower right corner in the notarial position. Every page is authenticated; no page can be substituted.
Hand-signed in four colors. The signature page carries a four-color hand signature using archival-quality pens. Each signature is executed in four registered layers: yellow, teal, and pink Sakura Gelly Roll Moonlight pigment ink, with a primary black signature applied in Sakura Pigma Brush archival pigment ink. The colors correspond to the Nostalgia Bandit brand palette. Each signature is unique by virtue of being hand-executed; the registered color offsets create an authentication mark that cannot be reproduced through digital means or photocopy.
Brand sigil. The Nostalgia Bandit mascot appears below the signature on the signature page, completing the document as a recognizable brand mark in anaglyph color treatment.
Verifiable text. The complete lot description on the Letter of Provenance matches verbatim to the lot’s permanent record at nostalgiabandit.com. Future buyers can independently verify the document’s content against the public record at any time, even after the auction concludes.
What It Includes
Every Letter of Provenance is printed on official Nostalgia Bandit letterhead, featuring a hand-pressed seal and the personal signature of Jason DeBord. Each contains the complete lot title and attribution as cataloged, the full auction description including provenance documentation, evidence of use, condition notes, and any supporting materials referenced in the listing, along with the auction name, lot number, and sale date.
Issued With Every Lot
The Letter of Provenance is not optional and not an add-on. Every winning bidder receives one automatically with their item.
The Bandit’s mission doesn’t end at the close of auction. Every artifact that leaves here carries its history with it — documented, sealed, and signed. A record of where it’s been and what it meant. The Letter of Provenance is that record. Think of it as the manuscript that travels with the artifact — the written history of the object, bound to the object, for every owner who comes after you.
It ships in the box. No follow-up required. No exceptions.