Sending money for autographs? WTF?

[Ethan Van Sciver]

Oh, I have and I do. But I resent it when it's requested. I realize that some people are busy, don't regularly sign, and are particularly difficult to get signatures from. In that case, I'll write a beautiful letter and enclose a twenty or something.

But people that demand to be paid? They get a stiff, brief letter of request. As in, it doesn't matter if I like your work or not, here's some money, sign this please.

How often do you send money? Or do you at all? Does it annoy you?

[DanaRenoMBA]

Actually, It did used to annoy me, but I must have mellowed. I now will routinely pay ten or twenty dollars for an authentic autograph. I am not sure of the reason why, it could be that I am no longer working and I have enough money. Or maybe I am willing to pay for something like a signed CD. I get a CD in addition to the signature.

[Ethan Van Sciver]

It's always the lesser actors that want to be paid. I wanted all of my LEAVE IT TO BEAVER dvds signed, for example. Barbara Billingsley, Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers will all sign for free, if you write a nice letter. I'm guessing Lumpy and Eddie Haskill are going to require a small payment though.

[khackdrums]

I have sent donations to a celebrities charity before, not because it was required, but because I thought it would be nice. I have always written these donations off when tax season comes around.

Khackdrums

[chriscollector]

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.

[arrowsup]

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?

[autograph hound]

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

[chriscollector]

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.

[mufcdd]

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 **** hobby principles?

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.

[dobie516]

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.