Collecting and Avoiding the Autograph Trap

I remember the first music autograph I collected it was a signed album from a band called Slade. I was always interested in getting albums signed in the 70’s and I collected numerous items of signed music memorabilia throughout that decade. Rock autographs filled up my collection and over the years I have collected thousands of autographs, signed guitars and music memorabilia including several Beatles autographs, however I never did manage to get a John Lennon autograph.

Most collectors of memorabilia whether it be signed sports memorabilia, celebrity memorabilia or the occasional autographed photo are not as fortunate as me and do not have the available time to dedicate to collecting collectible memorabilia. For those who do not have the time but love collecting, they have to buy autographs. I myself have been selling autographs in one form or another for nearly 40 years!!!

Buying autographs can be a tricky business as there are lots of unscrupulous dealers and people who deliberately forge signatures.

To avoid the autograph trap is what every buyer wants to do, so here are some simple steps to try and insure your money is well spent.

For example if you are looking to buy a signed Manchester united shirt or a signed Chelsea shirt it would be advisable to buy it from a British UACC registered dealer or an AFTAL approved dealer. You are probably wondering why? AFTAL and UACC are governing bodies who check regularly on there dealers and both organisations have strict policies as to the buying and selling of autographs. Also that is the country where those teams play! Over the years I have stood outside football stadia to get the occasional football autograph, signed football jersey, signed footballs or for those in the U.S. soccer memorabilia. In the UK that can be a cold and thankless task as the sport is played during the winter.

I have on occasion had the time to jet off to the U.S. and do some collecting there, when in the U.S. I concentrate on collecting actors autographs, Hollywood memorabilia, actresses autographs and if I have time I trail round the stores in L.A. for horror movie collectables.

In fact the last time I was in the States I attended several conventions and memorabilia shows where I picked up loads of collectible memorabilia namely, star trek memorabilia, star wars memorabilia and several celebrity addresses of which I will be writing to in the upcoming months.

On the subject of celebrity addresses please be careful as not every celebrity signs all there fan mail, some have autopens and others get there secretaries to sign on there behalf, I have seen many movie star autographs over the years like this and have had to disappoint several fans when I tell them.

So as the Sergeant in “Hill St Blues” said “BE CAREFUL OUT THERE”!!!

MUSIC AWARDS 2011

This year I took the time out of my hectic schedule to sit down with a glass of wine and watch the Brit Awards. Unfortunately I was unable to make it to the ceremony myself, due to work commitments; however, my trusted autograph collectors were available to take my place in the exciting process of autograph collecting.

I was blown away by Adele’s emotive performance of “Someone like you.” I was not surprised to learn that her current album has reached the number one spot in the charts. I am desperately seeking an autographed album from Adele which I shall hopefully receive in the foreseeable future. Another highlight of the evening has to be the phenomenal performance delivered by Take That. After 15 years it is obvious that the boys still love what they do. With the return of Robbie Williams to Take That I am keen to collect memorabilia signed by the entire group. It is not surprising that the boys scooped the award for British Group. Not only was I able to get hold of music autographs but other famous autographs such as movie autographs were available to me through the exceptional A-list attendance on the night.

Another music awards ceremony which was hosted recently was the NME Awards. Dominated mostly by an indie rock genre of music the ceremony saw the likes of Biffy Clyro, Muse and My Chemical Romance all receiving awards. As always, my trusted collectors were on hand to catch the artists, enhancing my collection of rock autographs. Also attending were the cast of the television show “Skins” who won the award for the best TV show, allowing me the opportunity to get signed photographs and memorabilia, from not only musicians but also actors and actresses appearing on television at the moment.

We offer::

Autographed album
Collect memorabilia
Music autographs
Famous autographs
Movie autographs
Rock autographs
Signed photographs

A TRIP TO IBROX

Over the weekend I took the train down to Glasgow to stay with my Aunt, who stays not far from Rangers Football Club’s stadium. Keen not to miss an opportunity to collect we took a trip to the grounds in the hope of meeting a few of the players to collect some football memorabilia.

On arrival to Ibrox I was overwhelmed by the atmosphere. This spurred on my desire for collecting. I was given a tour around the grounds and admired the trophy case. As I was doing this a couple of the players walked past me. Keen not to miss this opportunity I approached the players and respectfully asked for them to sign a few items for me. After coming away with a few signed football shirts I thought that my luck would be cut short for the day. However, I was not willing to give up on hope.

After the tour was over I decided to go for a bite to eat in the café. As I was enjoying a coffee I could see a small gathering forming out the window which turned out to be the team manager, Walter Smith, and the assistant manager Ally McCoist. Being a loyal fan of the team I promptly left my coffee and headed out to greet the men. It seemed that I was getting lucky in the way of football signed memorabilia as the two men seemed happy to autograph footballs and sign photographs for me. Satisfied with the amount of memorabilia I was now able to add to my collection of sports autographs I decided to head back to my Aunts house for some home-made delights. However, one more encounter was imminent.

Maurice Edu, who is undoubtedly my favourite football player, was entering the premises as I was leaving. Star struck at the encounter I managed to persuade Edu to autograph footballs. He also signed shirts, as well as photographs.

I was very pleased with my success in collecting and I was excited about arriving back at the Memorabilia4U headquarters to show off all the football memorabilia I was able to obtain.

How to Collect Football Autographs Signed Football Shirts and Autographed Footballs from Sports Players

Champions League Knockout Stages :::::

At this time of the year I make a point of sitting down every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evening to watch the E.U.F.A. champions and the Other E.U.F.A. tournament which tends to change its name every second year. There is nothing better on a cold wintry February night than sitting with a beer and some snacks and watching the world’s best football tournament on T.V.

Not only that but with my collectors at the airports Training grounds and at the match venues it is a great time to collect football memorabilia from some of the most famous teams in Europe. My collectors did a great job down in London getting Signed shirts from most of the Barcelona squad, however we did not do so well on Arsenal signed football shirts.

 Collecting signed football memorabilia can be a time consuming business as most of the training grounds are all enclosed and most of them have a no visitor policy. Gone are the days of the public being able to spectate and get autographs of their favorite player coming off the pitch after a training session.

The only way to get these superstars nowadays is to try and get them to stop in their cars just outside the training ground or hang out at the airports awaiting them arriving in or flying out to football fixtures. I took the trip down to Glasgow airport recently and got an autographed shirt signed by Alex Ferguson and other items of football signed memorabilia from both the Rangers squad and the Manchester United squad, the former being at their training ground the day before the fixture.

Another way you can collect is if a company is launching football merchandise they will often have autographed photos of players or the players themselves autograph sports memorabilia at the venue. And the one thing I have learned about collecting autographs is always carry an autograph album and a sharpie pen with you at all times as you never know who you might bump into.

Autographs memorabilia and signed sports memorabilia are not always easy to collect, if you go on my website memorabilia4u.com you will see both of the items I have mentioned in the previous paragraph. What with the security being tightened in general and around the football grounds, it’s getting harder to collect sports autographs on a regular basis and I am noticing more and more autographs for sale which are not genuine. For those of you who like to get autographed sports memorabilia, signed shirts and jerseys, autographed footballs and other sporting memorabilia, I suggest that you only buy sports autographs and sporting memorabilia from a reputable dealer, namely a UACC registered dealer or an AFTAL approved dealer as AFTAL and the UACC are always checking the dealers stock to make sure that there items are genuine.

So be careful when buying fully signed Manchester United shirts, Chelsea signed shirt, rangers autographs, Celtic memorabilia as well as autographed footballs as they are as rare as hen’s teeth!!!!!

Certified Autograph Dealers - Autograph Authentication Course

One of the things that I pride myself on is the continuing need to keep up to date with all the current trends in the autograph and memorabilia industry. With this in mind I am going to attend an autograph authentication course on the 29th of October 2010, this course is being run by AFTAL (autograph fair traders association limited) of which I am on their Approved Dealers list. Although virtually all of my autographed photos are hand signed in person autographs, there are items which cannot be collected in person or by my agents as these celebrity autographs are either vintage autographs where the celebrity is deceased or customers asking me to authenticate their signed photos or famous autographs. The course is going to cover famous signatures, how to spot auto pen signatures, secretarial signatures and forgeries. At the end of the course provided you pass you will be elevated to a certified autograph dealer with AFTAL. 

Robbie Williams

I truly believe that you can never be too careful when it comes to providing your customers with authentic autographs and authentic Holly wood memorabilia. Memorabilia 4U provides a lifetime money back guarantee with all of its items and signed memorabilia. As an autograph dealer making sure all my framed autographs go out in pristine condition with a certificate of authenticity is a priority.

Pele Signed ShirtsI was just looking through some ebay autographs the other day and I was shocked to see how many badly forged items there were in the following categories; sports memorabilia, music memorabilia and movie memorabilia. In my opinion I would have said that 90% of the items for sale were not real hand signed autographs signed in person by the celebrity. With this in mind and a statistic I heard the other day saying that 80% of all signed memorabilia is fake it is very much “Buyer Beware”.

So with this in mind when you are looking to buy autographs please make sure you research the autograph dealer thoroughly before purchasing your football autograph, sport memorabilia or movie star autographs. On the up side there are organisations out there which give the buyer guarantees, if you deal with a UACC registered dealer or and Aftal approved dealer they are monitored regularly to ensure that the items they sell are of the highest standard and although they cannot guarantee that every item is an authentic autograph they do give the buyer peace of mind in the fact that if it is not you will get your money back.

As I always say the best way to get authentic autographs or authentic memorabilia is to collect the item yourself, however that is not always possible as it takes a lot of time and patience to collect signed memorabilia whether its autographed albums, autographed photos or signed posters you certainly need time to collect and if you are buying autographs please check out the dealer who has too many famous autographs for sale, especially beatles autographs and beatles memorabilia. As these are the most copied and forged autographs and running them a close second is Elvis Presley autographs and then Frank Sinatra memorabilia. So make sure you do your homework when it comes to purchasing autographed memorabilia and signed sports memorabilia.

Careful Collecting!!!