Welcome to the great world of Autograph Collecting! A fun and rewarding hobby!

I am a 43yr old, married, Disabled, father of 3 living in northern Texas. I love movies, television, music, reading, travel, sports, and politics and was looking for a new hobby that could incorporate as many of these activities as possible. I came upon the hobby of autograph collecting and was intrigued. When I was a kid, I had written to some of my favorite sports stars and had enjoyed good success in getting autographs from quite a few of them. I still have some of these autographs today and they are displayed on this blog.

I decided to give the autograph collecting hobby a try in late October of 2008 and decided to write a short letter to actor Karl Malden. I had found a number of websites that list addresses for thousands of celebrities and I quickly made my own database of addresses of celebrities that I would like to get autographs from, if possible. Being a huge “The Streets of San Francisco” fan, I wrote to Karl Malden and sent him an index card to sign along with a prestamped return envelope. Much to my delight, a few weeks later, he returned my card signed along with another signed card. That was it. I was hooked. I had originally intended on just collecting signed index cards that I could put into an album but quickly discovered that most celebrities would send a signed photo if you requested one or they would sign a photo that you mailed to them directly. So, armed with my list of addresses, I started randomly picking out Stars and started sending out letters requesting autographed photos. I always made a point to include a self-addressed, stamped return envelope and tried to write very short, honest notes to each celebrity letting them know exactly what I appreciated about their work or career. I wrote another letter to Karl Malden and sure enough, he sent me a signed photo to go along with the 2 signed cards he had previously sent to me. I also discovered a number of Stars that you can contact via email so I sent out a large number of email requests.

Slowly, but surely, the successes started rolling in. I started getting signed photos from people from all over the spectrum of Movies, Television, Music, Politics, and Sports. To this point, I have Actors, Actresses, Comedians, Authors, Singers, Models, Historical Figures, Governors, World Leaders, a former US President, Sports figures, Coaches, Writers, Producers, etc. etc. I have taken all my best photos and have framed them and have displayed them on the walls of our computer/guest room. The collection is quite impressive to most that see it in person. On one wall, in one row, I have framed photos of Karl Malden, Tina Fey, Tony Danza, Martin Sheen, Robert Redford, Jacqueline Bisset, Henry Winkler, and Mary Tyler Moore all in one row.

I have found in researching the hobby that there are literally hundreds of thousands of autograph collectors around the world. Most celebrities are literally buried in fan mail each week. Even a Star who you might consider obscure or one that has not worked in decades, still gets a ton of mail from people seeking autographs. Some stars will charge for their autographs but most will still sign for free. Some stars sell autographs through their own websites. Other stars do not sign autographs at all. You dig around enough through all the autograph websites and you quickly learn who the good signers are and who the bad ones are. Many will only send you a photo if you have included a self-addressed stamped return envelope. Many will only sign if YOU send them a picture, many will not provide a picture for you. You will learn all the rules of each person as you dive into the hobby. Many Stars will reply quickly within a month or so, but many may take up to a year for you to get a signed photo back. Many of your requests will go unanswered and you will never get anything from the Celebrity. By what I have read, the success rate is about 60% right now. If you can live with never getting a response to 40% of your requests, then you may enjoy the hobby. Many collectors have no intentions of holding on to their autographs and only obtain them to put them on EBAY or other websites in order to sell them. I personally do not intend to ever sell any of the autographs that I have received. I really enjoy the ones that come in with my name written on the autograph so that it will be harder for my family to sell them on EBAY after I pass away…..

So far, this is a fun and rewarding hobby. It is fun to actually look forward to getting the mail each day. Out of the stack of bills that roll in, there is the chance that their will be a large manila envelope with another signed photo inside. The reward from the hobby is the sense that you are making a tiny little connection with the celebrity that you received the signature from. Some Celeb’s have written little notes along with their photos and a few have even personally answered my emails to them. Making this tiny little connection with these Stars makes the whole hobby very worthwhile.

Are they Real?

I have no idea. I have found that the hobby is one that is based very heavily on faith. Faith that what you have received was actually signed by the star. The only autographs that you can be sure are real with 100% certainty are the ones that you physically saw the star actually sign…in person. Every….EVERY…EVERY…. other autograph on the planet..including those sold in memorabilia stores, online, by dealers, by other collectors, on EBAY, etc……can never be guaranteed to be authentic and real. Someone can offer you a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) to prove that the signature is real….but unless you physically saw the star sign the photograph…yourself….you will NEVER know for sure.

I write my letters, I get some of them back with signed photos, and I publish what they send me. I trust that most of them are real and authentic and I am perfectly happy with that. If I could not live with that understanding then I am in the wrong hobby because I have not seen a single one of my autographs signed in person.

In the hobby, autographs can be classified as Authentic, Pretty sure it’s Authentic, I think it is Authentic, Pre-Printed, Autopens, secretarials, signed by Elephants holding sharpies, forgeries, etc. As stated before, the only one’s that you will ever know are 100% authentic are the one’s you see the star sign in person.

I have listed links on the right side of this blog that will take you directly to the autograph of each of the successes I have had to date. If you would like to give the hobby a try and find someone you are interested in, leave a comment with your email address and I will be happy to email you the address info that I used to obtain the autograph. All comments are moderated and I will not publish your email address on the blog.

Good Luck and thanks for visiting! Have a great day!

LINKS TO EACH AUTOGRAPH ON RIGHT

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Susan Lucci is an Emmy Award winning American Actress, long considered to be the current “Queen” of Daytime Television. She started her signature role as “Erica Kane” on the popular soap “All my Children” in 1970. In the 29 subsequent years, she has received an amazing 21 Daytime Emmy Award nominations for the role, with one win in 1999. With the 21 Emmy Nominations, she has become one of the most honored performers in Television History, Daytime or Prime time. She has a well-deserved Star on the Hollywood Walk-of-Fame. She has guest starred on a number of TV shows over the years, including “The Love Boat”, “Fantasy Island”, “Hope and Faith”, “The Fall Guy”, “Dallas”, “Saturday Night Live”, “Dancing with the Stars”, and many others. She has also starred in a number of Made for Television films including “Mafia Princess”, “Lady Mobster”, “French Silk”, “Seduced and Betrayed”, “Blood on her Hands”, and others.

Autograph #210 in Collection.

Patricia Neal is an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Tony Award winning Stage, Television, and Film Actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1964 for her role in the film “Hud” in which she co-starred with Paul Newman. Her film career started in 1949 and includes roles in “The Day the Earth stood still”, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, “The Fountainhead”, “Hud”, “In Harm’s Way”, “The Subject was Roses”, “Ghost Story”, “Cookie’s Fortune”, and many others. Her stellar Television career includes “The Homecoming: A Christmas Story”, “Little House on the Prairie”, “Tail-Gunner Joe”, “All Quiet on the Western Front”, “Ben Casey” and many others. In her career she has received two Academy Award nominations with one win, two Golden Globe Award nominations with one win, and three Emmy Award nominations. She won a Tony Award for Best Actress in 1946 for the play “Another part of the forest”. She is still active in acting and currently has two film projects that are either filming or that are in pre-production at this time. Now 83 years old, she lives in New York City.

Autograph #209 in Collection. Best Actress Academy Award winner #7 in Collection.

Gina Tognoni is a Emmy Award winning American Daytime Television actress. She has been nominated for Daytime Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actress a total of 3 times for her role as Dinah Marler on the daytime Soap Opera “The Guiding Light”. She won the award twice, in 2006 and 2008. She started in daytime Television in 1995 with a role on “One Life to Live” and has also appeared on TV series such as “Law and Order: SVU”, “The Sopranos”, “Fastlane”, and others.

Autograph #208 in Collection.

Piper Perabo is a talented young actress best known for her starring role in the 2000 film “Coyote Ugly”. Her other film projects include “Cheaper by the Dozen”, “Cheaper by the Dozen 2″, “Rocky and Bullwinkle”, “Lost and Delirious”, “The Cave”, “The Prestige”, “First Snow”, “Imagine Me and You”, “Beverly Hills Chihuahua”, “Because I said so”, and many others. She has also appeared on Television is series such as “Law and Order:Criminal Intent” and “House:MD”.

Autograph #207 in Collection.

Charlton Heston (1923-2008) was an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award winning American Actor, Director, and Writer, and was one of the most popular film stars in Hollywood from the 1950’s through the 1970’s. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1960 for the film “BEN-HUR”. In his long acting career, which began in 1941, he starred in such films as “Ben-Hur”, “The Ten Commandments”, “The Greatest Show on Earth”, “The Greatest Story ever Told”, “Planet of the Apes”, “Airport 1975″, “Earthquake”, “Will Penny”, “The Omega Man”, “Soylent Green”, “Midway”, “Wayne’s World 2″, “True Lies”, “Any Given Sunday”, and countless others. He also appeared in a number of TV shows such as “Dynasty”, “The Colby’s”, and “The Bold and the Beautiful”. He served as President of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and also previously served as the President of the Screen Actors Guild. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk-of-Fame. His birth name was John Carter. He passed away in 2008 and will long be remembered as one of the true legends in Hollywood History.

Autograph #206 in Collection.

Do you desperately have to have a real Michael Jackson autographed photo?

Looking for one on EBAY?

Buyer beware!!

EBAY can be a useful resource for autograph collectors. Many private collectors will sell extra autographed photos that they have and many autograph dealers will use the site to try sell their excess photos. Like every other business on EBAY, the autograph sellers can range from highly reputable autograph dealers all the way down to outright crooks who forge celebrity signatures and then try to pass them off as authentic to unsuspecting buyers.

Like I have always said…..the ONLY autographs that YOU know are 100% real are the ones where YOU saw the celebrity sign the photo or item in person. Everything else out there in the world has a chance of being a fake. YOU may have seen the celebrity sign the photo….but if you try to sell it on EBAY….then, of course, the buyer is in the boat of having to have faith that your signature is indeed real. After all, they DID NOT see the Celebrity sign it, they are taking your word for it’s authenticity.

As you know, EBAY sellers, especially commercial businesses, rely heavily on the feedback system used by EBAY to allow buyers to rate sellers and vice-versa. Obviously, if a seller or dealer of autographs starts peddling obvious fakes or misrepresents the photos…..they are going to get bad feedback and this will be reflected on their EBAY page. I have bought a few photos from reputable dealers on EBAY. What do I consider reputable? I only look at dealers that have a 99.9% satisfaction rating or higher. With every business in the world, there is always going to be a small amount of customers that are not happy, no matter what, so I figure 99.9% satisfaction is pretty darn good. There are quite a few memorabilia dealers with that high of a rating on EBAY.

Michael Jackson died a few days ago. He was well known in the hobby to be a very hard autograph to obtain. You look on EBAY today and literally thousands upon thousands of people are on the site trying to sell their cherished Michael Jackson autographs. For a guy who apparently signed very few actual real autographs in his career….they sure are coming out of the woodwork now after his death. Looking through the listings of autographs, alarm bells are screaming all over the place that most of these are not real autographs or are reprint autographs being passed off as authentic. There is a big difference. Michael Jackson might have signed one 8×10 photo. That is the original, authentic, hand-signed autograph. Someone might have then made 1,000 copies of that autographed photo. These 1,000 photos are REPRINTS. They are not, repeat…NOT authentic autographs. The only authentic autograph was on the one original photo that was signed. ALL these other photos…..are copies. Look REAL close at the wording on some of the EBAY ads for autographed Michael Jackson photos. Some use terms like “AUTHENTIC HAND-SIGNED REPRINT”. Many people just zero in on the words “Authentic” or “Hand-Signed” and block out the word reprint. These signatures are NOT real! You would normally see a reprint autographed photo of a celebrity going for anywhere from $1-$5 on most days on EBAY. There are sellers on EBAY right now that have hooked suckers into buying reprint photos of Jackson for over $100……all because the unsuspecting, naive buyer thinks that they are buying an actual autographed photo. Looking through the listings of autographed photos of Michael Jackson….I see the same exact photos popping up from lots of different sellers….all with widely varying prices. All suggest that “THEY” have the one “Real” authentic photo. Looking at the photos….they are all identical. I would bet than no one is actually selling the one real photo that Jackson actually signed sometime in the past……all that are being peddled are reprints or fakes. The reputable dealers on EBAY who have actual real authentic autographed photos of Michael Jackson all have very high bids on their products and small numbers of bidders. The people peddling the fakes, have tons of bidders and prices a lot lower….but still way more than should be paid for what they are actually getting. I like EBAY but it is really sad that they don’t have more oversight on their posts to try to protect all these naive bidders that are getting ripped off. I am not an autograph expert by any means but I would guess that if you bought a Michael Jackson autograph on EBAY anytime in the next few months….you are probably looking at least a 90% chance that your photograph is either a reprint or a fake.

If you put in a bid for an autographed photo on EBAY….you might want to surf through all the listings REAL CLOSE and make sure you do not find that exact same photo for sale by the same seller or another seller. If you are buying a true authentic signed photo….no other photos will look EXACTLY like it. Be very careful!!

If you want to take that chance, good luck.

$1-$5 for a reprint is fine. There is no limit to the number of reprint autographs that may be floating around out there. If more are needed, someone just makes thousands more copies and the supply is endless. There is however, a finite number of real authentic autographs. People who pay $100 for a reprint photo are being royally ripped off.

Don’t know if you have a reprint? Easy test….. Take your photo and get a fingernail file or something else with a sharp edge. Get a magnifying glass. Take your photo and use the file to try to scrape off a tiny portion of the signature on the photo. If you can scrape some of the ink off the photo, then the photo was actually signed. (by somebody) If you cannot…..the photo is a COPY. Now, even if you are able to scrape off ink….that still does not make it a 100% real autograph. If you did not see Big Bird sign it yourself….then who knows who actually signed it….. It might have been Kermit, Miss Piggy, Big Bird’s secretary, the janitor, etc. You get the idea. And then of course, there are autopen signatures…..but don’t even get me started on those……I’ll leave that to another post.

Jerry Seinfeld is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning Actor, Writer, Producer, and Comedian. He is easily best known for his role, as himself, in the long-running hit sitcom “Seinfeld”, a show which many consider to be the funniest sitcom in Television History. He starred on the show from 1989-1998 and also served as the shows Producer and one of it’s lead writers. He has starred in a number of cable comedy shows which feature his successful stand-up act and was also featured in the animated film “Bee Movie”. His work on “Seinfeld” earned him 10 Emmy Award nominations with one win and 4 Golden Globe Award nominations with one win.

Autograph #205 in Collection.

Anthony Zerbe is another example of one of the greatest Film and Television Character Actor’s of our time. This Emmy Award winning actor started in the industry in 1963 and continues to enjoy a successful career that has included roles in over 100 different films and Television shows. His TV career spans shows such as
“The Big Valley”, “Bonanza”, “Mission Impossible”, “Harry-O”, Frasier”, “Gunsmoke”, “Cannon”, “Dynasty”, “The Rockford Files”, “The Streets of San Francisco”, “Judging Amy” and countless others. His film career includes films such as “Cool Hand Luke”, “Will Penny”, “Rooster Cogburn”, “The Omega Man”, “Papillon”, “How the west was won”, “The Dead Zone”, “License to Kill”, “Star Trek Insurrection”, “True Crime”, “The Matrix Reloaded”, “The Matrix Revolutions”, and many others.

Autograph #204 in Collection.

Sir Elton John is an Award Winning English Singer, Songwriter, and Composer, and one of the most successful artists in music history. To date, he has sold over 200 Million records worldwide in a career which started in the 1960’s in England. His extensive collection of awards includes 5 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award. To date, he has had 56 top-40 hits on the Billboard Charts including 9 songs that went to #1. In 1994 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His many chart hits include “Crocodile Rock”, “Philadelphia Freedom”, “I’m still standing”, “Tiny Dancer”, “Candle in the Wind”, “Bennie and the Jets”, “Don’t let the sun go down on me”, “Little Jeannie”, “The Bitch is Back”, “Levon”, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, “Lucy in the sky with diamonds”, “Don’t go breaking my heart”, “Island Girl”, “Daniel”, “Nikita”, “The One”, “Circle of Life”, “Can you feel the love tonight”, “Blue Eyes”, and countless others. I had the opportunity to see Elton John in concert with Billy Joel and he is one of the best stage performers I have ever seen. His list of hit songs is so extensive that he can play for 2 hours in concert and not come close to playing even half of the hit songs he has had in his career.

Autograph #203 in Collection.

Kelsey Grammer is an Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winning Television and Film actor, producer, writer, and director. So far in his career, he has received a total of 14 Emmy Award nominations with 5 wins, and 8 Golden Globe Award nominations with 2 wins. He is, by far, best known for his role as Dr. Frasier Crane, a character that he has portrayed on the hit series “CHEERS” and “FRASIER” and also in a guest appearance on the hit show “WINGS”. He is the first actor to be nominated for Emmy Awards for portraying the same character on 3 separate shows. As a producer, he has watched over shows such as “MEDIUM”, “THE GAME”, “BACK TO YOU”, “GIRLFRIENDS”, “FRASIER”, and many other projects. His directing credits include 37 episodes of “FRASIER” and numerous other TV projects. His television resume includes “CHEERS”, “FRASIER”, “WINGS”, “THE SIMPSONS”, “BACK TO YOU”, “MEDIUM”, “BECKER”, “JUST SHOOT ME”, and others. His film credits include “DOWN PERISCOPE”, “TOY STORY 2″, “ANASTASIA”, “X-MEN:THE LAST STAND”, “SWING VOTE”, “15 MINUTES” and others. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk-of-Fame.

Autograph #202 in Collection.