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Here's a new topic - Is there anything that you make for autograph collecting, home-made? I make my own C5 cardboard backed envelopes, as i only know of one shop that sells them. They look like they have been bought from a shop and making them saves money. I just modify a normal C5 envelope. So, what do you make for autograph collecting?

James {thumb2}

I have been cutting my own stiffeners for envelopes for many years. It has actually given me a very unique sub-collection within my collection. Before I collected autographs seriously I had collected American comics for many years. I sold them off (over 12000 comics from the 1950s to 2000) over a 6 year period on eBay, but it left me with lots of acid free backing boards. If you know what I am talking about, you will know these are white with a glossy effect on one side and a matt effect on the other. I started cutting these down to fit C5 envelopes as stiffeners because they are very lightweight but quite firm. When I write to a celeb I never ask for anything to be signed other than the item I send (photo, book, index card, whatever), so have never asked for my stiffeners to be signed. I now have over 200 of these envelope stiffeners signed by various people as some just sign anything in an envelope. The funniest was Alan David who cut it into two and signed both halves! The most creative was Dee Sadler who stuck a picture of herself on the stiffener, then dedicated a message to me next to it and signed as her character name from Doctor Who, not her real name. Interestingly, they always sign the shiny side.

I also print most pictures I send, and print on 8x5 inch record cards. The latter is a very cheap way of sending something nice to be signed. You can get 100 for about £2/£2.50 in places like staples, etc.

The post office sends free priority boxes. These boxes are fairly expensive to ship, but I've learned cutting them up creates free cardboard inserts.

cdunn wrote:The post office sends free priority boxes. These boxes are fairly expensive to ship, but I've learned cutting them up creates free cardboard inserts.

The postal service frowns on people using their supplies for their own use. That's one of the reasons that postal rates go up every year. I'm sure you can find cardboard somewhere else. I use cereal boxes which work fine.

I sometimes decorate my own note cards but that's really all.

i'm not really that creative at all, but if anything i make a collage of the celebrity's to send out.

I make my own questionnaires when I send requests to astronauts, such as this one:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_cG1vF0sObOM/SiQrt ... G_0267.jpg

I also print my own return address labels. I add clip art in the corner of the label that is related to whatever the person is famous for. Hopefully it's a little more eye-catching...