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

I am a 44yr 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.

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.

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. 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. The photos that are posted along with the celebrities autograph I obtained were all gotten directly from the Internet.

After my first year of collecting, I had accumulated over 240 autographs, and this blog had generated over 650,000 views to date.

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

LINKS TO EACH AUTOGRAPH ON RIGHT

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Nicole Kidman (Born 1967 in Honolulu, Hi) is an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award winning Australian Actress. Born to Australian parents in Honolulu, the family moved back to Australia a few years after Nicole was born. Her first film to gain her prominence in the US was the 1989 film “Dead Calm”. Her many film roles since have included “Days of Thunder”, “Billy Bathgate”, “Far and Away”, “To Die For”, “Batman Forever”, “Eyes Wide Shut”, “Moulin Rouge”, “The Others”, “The Hours”, “Cold Mountain”, “Bewitched”, “The Stepford Wives”, “Nine”, “Australia”, “The Golden Compass”, and many others. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2003 for the film “The Hours”. She has won Golden Globe Awards for her roles in “Moulin Rouge” and “To Die For”. Formerly married to actor Tom Cruise, she is now married to Country Singer and fellow Aussie Keith Urban. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk-of-Fame.

Autograph #273 in Collection.

Michelle Stafford (Born 1965 in Chicago, IL) is a Daytime Emmy Award winning American Actress. A longtime cast member of the daytime Soap “The Young and the Restless”, she first joined the cast in 1994 in her role as Phyllis Summers. She left the show in 1997 before returning in 2000. In her career, she has been nominated for 8 total Daytime Emmy Awards with two wins. In 1997, she won the Daytime Emmy for Supporting Actress, and in 2004, she won the Daytime Emmy Award for Lead Actress. Her other Television credits include “Jag”, “Frasier”, “Charmed” and many others.

Autograph #272 in Collection.

Shirley Jones is an Academy Award winning American Television, Film, and Stage Actress and Singer. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1961 for the film “Elmer Gantry”. Her other film credits include “Oklahoma!”, “Carousel”, “The Music Man”, “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father”, and many others. To many, she is best known for her starring role as Shirley Partridge in the 1970-1974 Musical Sitcom “The Partridge Family”. The series also starred her real-life Stepson, David Cassidy as her on-screen son Keith Partridge. She and David Cassidy were the only members of the cast that actually sang on the songs used on the show. Other Television credits include “Hotel”, “Murder She Wrote”, “The Drew Carey Show”, “Empty Nest”, “Days of our Lives” and many others. She is the mother of actor/singer Shaun Cassidy. She and Shaun Cassidy are the only Mother/Son duo to each have #1 hits on the Billboard Charts. She was named after child star Shirley Temple. She has a Star on the Hollywood Walk-of-Fame. Previously married to Actor Jack Cassidy, she has been married to comic actor Marty Ingels since 1977.

Autograph #271 in Collection.

Whoopi Goldberg (Born Caryn Johnson in New York, NY in 1955) is an Award-Winning American Actress, Comedienne, Singer/Songwriter, Producer, Activist, and Talk Show Host. In her stellar career, she has won a Grammy Award, 7 Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, 2 Golden Globe Awards, and won the 1990 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in the film “Ghost”. Her film resume includes “The Color Purple”, “Ghost”, “Sister Act”, ‘Sister Act 2″, “Rat Race”, “Clara’s Heart”, “Eddie”, “Soapdish”, “The Lion King”, “Boys on the Side”, “Ghosts of Mississippi”, “The Player”, “Toy Story 3″ and many others. Her television credits include “Law and Order: Criminal Intent”, “Everybody Hates Chris”, “30 Rock”, “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, and many others, and she has also served as a co-host on the popular daytime talk show “The View” since 2007. She has a Star on the Hollywood Walk-of-Fame.

Autograph #270 in Collection.

Claire Danes (Born 1979 in New York, NY) is a Golden Globe Award winning American Television and Film Actress. Her Television credits include “My So-Called Life”, “Law and Order”, and the Made-for-HBO film “Temple Grandin”. Her role on “My So-Called Life” earned her a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award nomination in 1994. Her film roles have included “Little Women”, “How to Make an American Quilt”, “Home for the Holidays”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines”, “The Rainmaker”, “The Mod Squad”, “Brokedown Palace”, “The Hours”, “Shopgirl”, “Stardust”, “Stage Beauty”, and others. She was offered, but turned down, the role of “Rose” in Titanic.

Autograph #269 in Collection.