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
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Music autographs
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Movie autographs
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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 Buy Authentic Autographs and Signed Photos of Famous Celebrities

Buying autographs has now become a very risky business, what with bogus autograph dealers and forgeries rife in the market place it is very difficult for the collector of signed memorabilia and hand signed photos to garner authentic sports memorabilia, music memorabilia or movie memorabilia. With this in mind I have tried to put together a guide below for the novice to obtain authentic autographs and memorabilia and eliminate the collectors worst nightmare a FORGERY!!!     

The easiest thing in the world is for somebody to get a photograph and forge a famous signature and low and behold a piece of Frank Sinatra Memorabilia or item of music memorabilia which to the untrained eye looks like a genuine collectible autograph.

 My advice to anyone who wants to collect a genuine autograph is try and get the celebrity to sign the item for you. I would strongly advise that you do not try and get signed movie posters as these are easily damaged in a crowd looking for famous autographs (made that mistake already!).This is not always possible and the next best thing is to use a trusted autograph dealer especially if you collect vintage autographs or even more so if you collect rare autographs.    

There are several associations that promote genuine autographed memorabilia the most famous being the U.A.C.C. ( Universal Autograph Collectors Club). They have two types of membership, Registered Dealers and members.  

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.

For many years I have collected celebrity autographs in all kinds of weather, waiting for movie stars at film premieres to get authentic autographs or waiting in line at sports memorabilia shows to meet the occasional sports personality and after many hours of queuing coming away with a smile on my face and genuine autographs.

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.

Happy collecting............

   

Awards Season 2011

Collect Famous Celebrity Autographs, Movie And Music Memorabilia During Awards Season

February is normally the month of the year when all the awards ceremonies are in full flow. You have the Oscars the Brit Awards, BAFTA’s and virtually dozens of other ceremonies taking place in the capital of the U.K London.

This is a great time to get out your autograph books, posters and your photos and get along early to these red carpet events. I unfortunately will not be making it down to the awards this year due to business commitments but I have several of my agents collecting famous autographs, movie memorabilia and hopefully collecting lots of autographed photos for my website. Sometimes there are unexpected celebrities attending and when I am normally there I get a few of my autographed albums topped up with movie autographs and sometimes rock autographs depending on the awards ceremony.

If you are a collector of movie memorabilia, whether it be signed movie posters the occasional actor autograph or Frank Sinatra memorabilia, star trek autographs this is the right place for you as there will be loads of celebrities and a great chance for you to get them to autograph photos or even signed jerseys as I forgot to mention there will be stars of the music world attending and you can even collect autographed music memorabilia and signed music autographs.

Attending award shows are a wide scope of celebrities enabling me to gain access to a range of famous celebrity autographs. So this will be a good opportunity to collect Star Trek memorabilia, such as signed Star Trek posters, autographed Star Trek merchandise and signed Star Trek collectables. Furthermore, the actors Kiran Shah and Warwick Davis, both known for their roles in Star Wars will be signing memorabilia. I am keen to collect Star Wars memorabilia, signed Star Wars merchandise and Star Wars collectables as it is particularly popular form of movie memorabilia, attracting a wide range of attention from all parts of the world.

I recently had several collectors at the BAFTA award ceremony to try and collect a much sought after vintage autograph, Christopher Lee. Unfortunately my guys and girls were unable to get anything signed by Christopher but they did manage to get an awesome piece of music memorabilia. Sir Paul McCartney signed an old Beatles album on the same night. It just goes to show that you never know what you are going to get no matter how well you plan.

I was planning to go over to the States in time for the Oscars but as with the Award ceremonies in London I am just too busy working on another website which is unrelated to the memorabilia industry. I am fortunate enough to have several good friends in Los Angeles who occasionally rub shoulders with the rich and famous and over the years have supplied some memorable pieces of signed memorabilia.

If you are in London or L.A. be sure to dig out your autograph album and get down to the award ceremonies.!!! Happy collecting............

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!!!!!