Authentic or Unauthentic Autographs- A Subject of Debate

            

As the money has hiked up with prices reaching at its peak so does the market and its stock crashing down and rising again. Popular personalities and celebrities do earn a lot of money in selling their products and middle class persons are the bridges to connect to high class and lower class .People have a lot of hobbies collecting autograph is one among them. Celebrities and famous people do sign their autograph and give to people as the token of their gratitude. Athletic players do sign their balls and bats with their signatures to their fans and other people who made it a hobby of collecting autographs.

 

 

Authentic or not is another subject of debate which can be sort out later as debate usually takes more of a leisure time and space of its own kind. Memorabilia gift for all people can be one such example of dream coming true of a peasant or middle or lower class families as to sell them with more price and get more money for authentic autographs and little less money for unauthentic autographs. Sport people and star people both sign their autographs on their football, shirts and jerseys. Most of the time it is a doubt that some of the autographs are authentic and some are unauthentic. Authentic signed autographs on items are rare and those which are unauthentic are very easily available just like stamp collection. Collection of particular items is rare quality found in either rich people or well considered persons.

Movie Memorabilia

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. The first is highly recommended as the selection procedure is very strict and to add substance to this statement there are less than 275 members worldwide who have achieved this lofty status. Memorabilia 4U, my company is RD 292. A person who is a U.A.C.C. member is just someone who has joined the club and has no accreditation other than being a member.  So always buy autographs and signed memorabilia from UACC and AFTAL approved dealers.

  

A U.A.C.C. registered dealer is different from a U.A.C.C. member in as much as a member pays an annual fee to be a member of the organisation, whereas a Registered Dealer has to have been a member of the U.A.C.C for at least 3 year and dealt in autographs for at least 3 years. After a very strict selection process in which you need two registered dealers to forward your name, your company and autographs are subjected to scrutiny by the board and should you be successful in passing this test you are awarded a registered dealer number. Passing the initial criteria is not all that is required, you are under constant scrutiny form fellow dealers and Board members to make sure you keep the high standards set by this orginisation. 

An A.F.T.A.L. approved dealer is an Autograph or memorabilia dealer resident in the U.K. and Europe who has passed a thorough examination into their background and the items they have for sale further to this they all have to sign a contract agreeing to the following code of ethics This condensed Ethics Code briefly sums up what every AFTAL approved dealer has signed and agreed to. Failure to conform to this code could result in expulsion from AFTAL.

An A.F.T.A.L. Certified Dealer is a dealer who has attended a course run by A.F.T.A.L on how to identify Forgeries, Scanned, Printed, Autopen and Stamped signatures and has passed all the criteria laid out in the course content.

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 U.A.C.C certified dealers and A.F.T.A.L approved autograph dealer especially if you collect vintage autographs and authentic autograph collectibles or even more so if you collect rare autographs.

Happy collecting………     

PETER ANDRE COMES TO ABERDEEN

Last week can be considered as a memorable week. One of my all-time favourite celebrities came to Aberdeen. I headed down to the shopping centre where he was signing in the hope of meeting the gossip magazine star and in hope of getting his autograph.It was no surprise when I arrived there was an absolutely massive queue of women and children awaiting his arrival, all in anticipation of meeting Peter Andre in the flesh.

After almost an hour of queuing I could hear people begin to scream and chant his name. It was at this point the excitement started to really sink in. Pete was escorted through the crowd and greeted all his fans on his way to the perfume store where he was to sign.

After almost three hours of queuing it was my turn to go into the shop and meet Peter Andre. I have met a lot of celebrities in my time of autograph collecting but I have only met a few that I truly admire. So when I met Peter I was truly star struck! It was obvious that Peter was pushed for time as there were so many fans that wanted to meet him; however, he seemed very relaxed and signed photographs and even signed albums whilst chatting away. It was very refreshing to discover that somebody I have a lot of admiration for was a genuinely kind person.

I like to take advantages of the times when celebrities visit my home town as it is an easy and more convenient way of collecting memorabilia than travelling long distances to award ceremonies and other events. Furthermore, it is a good opportunity to broaden my collection of autographs for sale.

Not only have I been given the opportunity to meet Peter Andre but I have been able to obtain signed memorabilia to add to my ever growing collection of famous autographs.

To see more autograph collections and autographs for sale please visit our website at : Memorabilia4u.com

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............

LAUNCH OF MEMORABLIA4U NEW WEBSITE

On the 9th of November Memorabilia4U saw the re-launch of its website. In an attempt to make the site more customer-friendly we have added a few extra features, such as a selection of premier movie autographs, sport autographs and music autographs, making your searching less laborious and easier to navigate the autograph or memorabilia that you desire. This currently features an autograph signed by the musical genius that is Michael Jackson, a promotional photograph for the hit movie Titanic, signed in person by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett and also features a limited edition Ferrari cap signed by the formula 1 racing legend Michael Schumacher. As well as this we have formulated a product category list to assist you with more refined searches including categories such as ‘Dr Who Autographs’ and ‘Harry Potter Autographs’ making your search less time consuming and also to display our full range of autographs within these categories. So whether it is vintage autographs, historical autographs or especially rare autographs, you will find our adjustments make it easier for you to navigate around the website. Alternatively, you can contact us directly by clicking on the ‘contact’ category displayed along the top of the website.

Included in these improvements to the website is the ‘Online Framing Service’. This service allows you to preview your chosen autograph within a frame, producing a more attractive final result and also ensuring that you control the additions to the piece of memorabilia, in turn making it more suited to your taste and decoration in the home and also adding that extra wow-factor to the item, as well as adding that final special touch to a gift. By clicking on the ‘Online Framing Service’ icon on the homepage you will see instructions to follow in order to access this service.

Furthermore, we have added a ‘Scrapbook’, which can be located on the homepage, where you are able to view photographs of Celebrities that we have met and also photographs of the celebrities signing the certain pieces or memorabilia. This addition has been made as we fully believe that it is crucial that our customers can trust that the service we provide is 100% authentic. Included in the scrapbook are photographs of celebrities such as, Samuel L Jackson who can be seen signing memorabilia including Star Wars autographs, and many sports legends, including Ernie Els, Archie Gemmill and Colin Montgomery, signing autographs.

In addition to all these amendments, a link to Facebook can be used. By choosing a specific autograph, for example, Pele memorabilia, you can click on the ‘Facebook share’ iconand the autograph will appear on your Facebook, allowing you to display the desired item to friends on the site. You can also join the Memorabilia4U Facebook group and follow us through the social networking site, where new and exciting stock is regularly posted allowing our fans an exclusive first look and the advantage to purchase heavily demanded items before they are added to the website for the rest of the world.

AN EVENING WITH MIKE TYSON

I was recently invited along to an event in Aberdeen Exhibition Centre to a Gentlemen’s Dinner. The main guest being Mike Tyson former World Heavyweight champion, along with Mike was another former heavy weight champion Tim Witherspoon and an another World Title holder Lee McAllister who hails from Aberdeen. During the course of the evening I was fortunate enough to meet Mike and Tim and got a photograph of myself with Mike Tyson which is in the process of getting framed as I write this article.

 

Throughout the evening there were opportunities to purchase boxing memorabilia, boxing autographs and signed boxing gloves via raffles, auction and a game called heads and tails. Amongst the items in the auction there were Muhammad Ali signed shorts, Mike Tyson signed gloves and also a great deal of signed boxing merchandise available at reasonable prices.

This was probably one of the biggest dinners I have attended with over 500 people turning out to see Mike and his fellow World Champions. As you can imagine he was in great demand to autograph memorabilia and he did do several signed photos for charity and for those involved in the organising of the evening. However his time was in great demand and not everyone got signed boxing memorabilia.

I was fortunate in so much as my friends did a private signing session with the champ earlier in the year where I obtained a signed photo, signed boxing shorts and a few unusual items of boxing memorabilia and a personalised autograph.

 

Getting back to the items that were for sale in the auction there was some great Muhammad Ali memorabilia signed in person by the legend including signed pictures, autographed boxing gloves and even a signed boxing robe. All of the items in the auction were fantastic and well presented pieces of autographed boxing memorabilia. But my favourite item was of the greatest pound for pound fighter around at the moment Manny Pacquiao signed shorts which was in my opinion the best framed autograph that was up for auction.

The highlight of the evening was a question and answer session with Mike where he covered his career from start to finish including all of the ups and downs and even a few of the controversial moments in his life, all in all it was a very entertaining evening spent in the company of one of the all time Heavyweight greats.

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. 

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.

I 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!!!