But that is how people are society these days is all about the monitary value of every thing

it is a darn shame

[quote="nowandagain"][quote="Dallas_S"]Did you get a responce nowandagain?[/quote]

I totally forgot about this. I did receive a response, very similar to what Lucas42 received.

Anyway, not every single reader who reads her book will use every tip in the book (such as the autograph suggestion), but even if someone did they wouldn't know where to look for addresses anyway ... or receive a response (as I would assume they would try for some bigger name celebrities), or keep the autographs for themselves :P

I don't think we should worry too much about the book and what's been said, considering (I believe) it's really only available in Australia. So, the audience for the book isn't going to be that large.

nowandagain [rockon][/quote]

Excellent point nowandagain. I agree about people who read the book wouldn't know where to look for addresses anyway. When I first decided in August 2006 to start autograph collecting, it took me a while to find fanmail.biz & Star Collector located at http://www.star-collector.net/ which are my favorite autograph sites. I looked at many celebrity autograph databases but they require that you pay a subscription fee to get a celebrities fan mail writing address. I like fanmail & Star Collector because you don't have to pay to get the celebrities fanmail writing address.

[quote="Dallas_S"]Did you get a responce nowandagain?[/quote]

I totally forgot about this. I did receive a response, very similar to what Lucas42 received.

Anyway, not every single reader who reads her book will use every tip in the book (such as the autograph suggestion), but even if someone did they wouldn't know where to look for addresses anyway ... or receive a response (as I would assume they would try for some bigger name celebrities), or keep the autographs for themselves :P

I don't think we should worry too much about the book and what's been said, considering (I believe) it's really only available in Australia. So, the audience for the book isn't going to be that large.

nowandagain [rockon]

[quote="nowandagain"]Wow. I really didn't think an author would write such a suggestion in a book.

Given the difficulty in getting autographs from some celebrities, there are many problems with this:

- The cost (as Lucas mentioned - I know I have issues with spending so much on stamps and IRC's knowing that I might not ever see an end result!)
- Time wasting trying to get autographs in the first place
- eBay - too many people are already trying to make money from this scheme
- Novice collectors - they may receive PP's/Autopenned/Secretarial/Stamped autographs and may believe they're real (and pass them off as the real thing when they sell them)
- Not receiving anything at all[/quote]

I gotta agree with nowandagain espically about the Novice Collectors. When I started autograph collecting, I never knew about PP's, autopens, secretarials, rubber stamped autographs, et al. A novice collector who doesn't know about fake autographs might receive a Studio Fan Mail autograph & then sell it as the real thing because they don't know about PP's, autopens, et al. I'm an Alyson Hannigan fan & several months ago, I saw someone on EBAY selling the Studio Fan Mail autograph of Alyson Hannigan as the real thing.

I also agree about the cost. You have to provide the envelopes & if you really want a response, you will need to provide an SASE & also, you will need to pay for the postage to & from the celebrity.

And then, there is the waiting game where you wait for the celebrity to respond to you which can be days, weeks, months, even years & then there is also a chance that the celebrity might not even respond to you.

But there is the chance that you might get an RTS. Let's say that you write to an actor/actress at a TV show & they are no longer on the show, you will probably get an RTS telling you that they are no longer there. Which means, that if you want to get their autograph, you will need to write to their other addresses to get in contact with them.

And I definitely agree about EBAY. Too many people are selling autographs on EBAY & most of them are PP's, autopens, et al. Also, some sellers on EBAY print up a photo of a celebrity & then the sellers sign the pictures themselves & then claim that the celebrity signed the photo.

I gotta agree with what Lucas42 posted in the first post of this thread because certain celebrities have gone as far as to stop giving out autographs because of the fear that people just want to sell the autographs. If more & more people write to celebrities just to sell the autographs on EBAY, this could force celebrities to stop signing TTM or it might force many celebrities to start charging to get an autograph.

The selling of autographs hurts the true fans of a celebrity because true fans only want an autograph because they are fans of a celebrity, they don't want to sell them on EBAY, et al because certain celebrities don't sign TTM for fear that people will sell the autographs on EBAY.

WOW! I had never noticed this topic. That is very rude. Did you get a responce nowandagain?

I know this responce is seven months after the last one but I feel that when I am fortunate enough to recieve a free autograph from anyone it cheapens the stakes to get money for it.

[quote="Lucas42"]It also seems she is advocating getting an autograph from someone who might become famous in 20 years...which isn't a good way for kids to make money immediately![/quote]

I've taken a more generalised approach in my letter which will be mailed out tomorrow.

At least she's taking notice of the situation :D

nowandagain [rockon]

[quote]The celebrities about whom you write are likely to have thousands of requests a week for autographs, but the “quiet achievers” who don’t have their names splashed in daily tabloids would surely give their autographs willingly. Have you considered this aspect of autograph hunting?[/quote]

Thanks for posting the response Lucas!

However, I will point out that the market for autographs from the "quiet achievers" won't be very big, if there is one at all. At least you've managed to bring this issue to her attention, which is a great start {up}

I'll [i]hopefully[/i] be able to get a letter written up and sent out tomorrow :D

nowandagain [rockon]

[quote="Lucas42"]And then there is also the secondary issue of how people like make it so much harder for genuine collectors.[/quote]

Oops, I must have left that point out :shock: That's another valid point Lucas {up}

nowandagain [rockon]