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”!!!

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!!!!!