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Hello guys,

Im raising funds for charity through an auction. We are working on a 'shoe string' budget and can barely afford postage! - 27p each item here!

We were wondering what kind of success rate we would have without an SAE - I have sent alot of and had a reasonable reply so far (Lewis Hamilton, Sir Alan etc .. over 15 in total)

Do you have any idea of which agents or celebs will reply kindly, and who will ignore us?

I know this may be cheeky, but desperate times are calling for desperate measures!

Hello
I am currently collecting autographs for my fundraising auction too. I have had a pretty good success rate with email. In just over 2 months I have received almost 30 items including books, jackets, autographs. These were all sent postage and envelopes provided by the celebrity. If its for a good cause most people will send it to you for no cost. Hope this helps! Good luck! {thumb2}

CrazyClum wrote:Hello guys,

Im raising funds for charity through an auction. We are working on a 'shoe string' budget and can barely afford postage! - 27p each item here!

We were wondering what kind of success rate we would have without an SAE - I have sent alot of and had a reasonable reply so far (Lewis Hamilton, Sir Alan etc .. over 15 in total)

Do you have any idea of which agents or celebs will reply kindly, and who will ignore us?

I know this may be cheeky, but desperate times are calling for desperate measures!

Hi CrazyClum

Thanks for your question

Believe me, if you can possibly afford to send out at least a basic second class stamped envelope it will make a TREMENDOUS difference to your success rate even for charity.

I always send out an SASE/SSAE with EVERY request. I'll tell you why (sorry to all those who have heard this before )

Back in about 2006 I did an experiment whereby I mailed out 50 request letters to celebs and DID NOT include a stamped reply envelope. Out of those 50 I only got about 6 back.

Then a few months later, I retried the EXACT same 50, but this time I enclosed a stamped envelope and I received 40+ successes. The biggest difference is though, that if you make even the tiniest effort to pay the return postage then you will find celebs and their agents will often bump this up (i.e. pay the extra postage) to send you bigger and better stuff - books, DVDs, clothing, posters etc.

In the long-run you will find the investment in the postage will provide you with much, much bigger and better successes - which you can then sell for more for your charity, AND recoup your original postage costs!!!

I know it is a real issue to find the postage sometimes, but if you can - it is well worth it. In reality, about a quarter of those I send an SASE out to return it to me unused anyway, but at least enclosing it shows them you are being respectful.

Hope this helps, and the best of luck!!
Ian

Hello Ian,

You have been so helpful with all of this.

I sent a SSAE with some, just a letter with others and have had a great success rate so far - 40% say with just a letter have replied, whilst 60% with a SSAE.

The items are on eBay now - search WBEC - I hope they sell well.

Cal

CrazyClum wrote:Hello Ian,

You have been so helpful with all of this.

I sent a SSAE with some, just a letter with others and have had a great success rate so far - 40% say with just a letter have replied, whilst 60% with a SSAE.

The items are on eBay now - search WBEC - I hope they sell well.

Cal

Fantastic, I'll have a look!!!

Great to hear you are getting some decent responses. Keep up the good work

Ian