I have never sent a celebrity money for an autograph and I have never purchased an autograph either. I personally wouldn't encourage it.
I do have some American dollars left over though from when I was at Istanbul Airport (long story lol) so I have thought about including $2 or something with my requests if I am not able to get hold of IRC's or stamps but it would definitely be as a last resort.

I sometimes purchase autographs from a celebrities official website. The ones I have purchased so far have all been older celebrities who are no longer in the limelight. I have no problem giving them a few dollars for their autograph as they're no longer earning mega bucks in the business!

I also regularly attend conventions. I really enjoy the experience of meeting celebs, getting their autograph, my picture taken with them and having a chat so I don't mind paying to meet them.

I can understand paying for Shipping and the pic but not for eBay prices of 20 bucks or more.

Yeah, I'm fairly sure all of my TTM autos are authentic, except for my Doris Day. I only write to people who I'm sure are signing, and usually I use home addresses. I don't write for AP or PP. Esther Williams just sent me a pre-print, but I expected that might happen.

And so far, my success rate within a three month margin is 100%. :)

I usually don't pay for an autograph. There are some people that I really want, and may eventally have to pay for, but for now I won't.

[quote="arrowsup"]It gets expensive to buy/print the items to be signed, pay for postage and shipping materials, and get a 50%(?) success rate. One thing is for sure....when you buy an autograph from the celeb you are getting an authentic autograph. Can you say that about the ttm autos you receive?[b] If you factor cost + failure rate + authenticity problems I estimate each authentic autograph costing about $20.00 US[/b] (That makes Leah's $3.50 fee look cheap huh?). So what is so wrong with buying them? Is those **** hobby principles?[/quote]

LOL what? Sorry but no, just no. I have no clue where you pulled that figure from.

As for a 50% success rate, where does that come from? Is that your personal success rate? Mine is well over 80%.

As for "authenticity problems", well just research the person first. If they dont sign or send PP/AP/LP/sec/stamps then I dont write. That puts that problem to bed straight away (except when you catch a celeb when they've just changed to sending fakes)

Theres nothing wrong with buying autographs, I do it regularly, but theres a heck of a lot wrong with the estimates in your post.

20$ for each authentic???????????? How you get that number baffles. me. If you have that much failure you are doing something wrong. There are so many blogs/sites with TTM info it's become much easier to find correct info. As for authentic; that's another easy one to avoid. Only write to known authentic senders. I don't feel a PP is worth the postage so i don't send.

I'm paying about 1.50$ per authentic 8x10. That's including postage to and from, and my own 8x10's. If it was costing me 20$ per autographs I wouldn't bother with fanmail. You can easily buy them for 20$ each.

Leah Remini is a RARE case. She actually does the stuff herself. For her to handle her own mail and send out authentics, and allow you to choose from 6 different photos it's well worth 4$. That's about what we would pay to have a photo printed, cardboard, postage to and from. If more celebs did that I would be thrilled.

Cept for when you write Shirley Maclaine appearantly....heh :neutral:

Leah Remini will charge you the shipping fee ($3.50 US last I saw) so she can send you an authentically signed and personalized photograph. Is she charging for her autograph?, will you pay it?, or does that go against the hobby principles?

It gets expensive to buy/print the items to be signed, pay for postage and shipping materials, and get a 50%(?) success rate. One thing is for sure....when you buy an autograph from the celeb you are getting an authentic autograph. Can you say that about the ttm autos you receive? If you factor cost + failure rate + authenticity problems I estimate each authentic autograph costing about $20.00 US (That makes Leah's $3.50 fee look cheap huh?). So what is so wrong with buying them? Is those damn hobby principles?

I don't pay ever. I feel there are more than enough stars to write to.

If someone sends me a price list and I really want them or am a big fan i write back that I have paid ten-fold that price per signature in movie tickets, dvd sales, website hits, and being a loyal fan for X-years. Obviously they don't care about the fans feelings so i have no problem letting them know exactly how I feel.