Tips on Collecting Sports Autographs, Signed Sports Memorabilia and Autographed Shirts

Signed sports memorabilia is my passion and I have many famous autographs in my collection other than George Best autographs I have several autographed albums with a Bobby Charlton autograph and autographed photos of virtually every Premiership team in my collection. It has taken years of collecting sports autographs and memorabilia to arrive at where I am now with over five thousand authentic autographs and items of autographed sports memorabilia. I have also traded in authentic sports memorabilia for over 7 years now and have had many sports autographs sold on my website and traded with other autograph dealers items of sport memorabilia, I can still remember my first autographed football it was back in 1971 when Aberdeen beat Celtic in the Scottish Cup Final. I managed to get several players to sign a plastic football at the start of the 1972 season after one of their training sessions.

I have joined several autograph organizations namely the UACC and AFTAL and have risen to the prestigious ranks of UACC Registered Dealer and AFTAL Approved Dealer in the last few years. Even though I deal in memorabilia I must confess that I am a collector at heart and hate putting autographs for sale when I could hold on to them but I only have so much storage room in my house !!!!!

For those of you interested in collecting signed sports memorabilia, I will try and pass on some valued information I have acquired over the years collecting authentic sports memorabilia. It is very difficult to collect all types of memorabilia and autographed photos unless you have autograph collectors working for you. If you have you have got to make sure they are indeed collecting the autographs and not simply buying sporting memorabilia from another collector, which in turn could lead to the possibility of fake memorabilia.

Collecting sports autographs is not as easy as you would assume, what with most teams training grounds being enclosed it makes it very difficult to get signed photos, signed memorabilia or an autograph football. Although it is difficult you will still get players stopping to sign the odd football autograph and autograph footballs for the fans.

Often what works well is trying to get the away teams for signed memorabilia as they will sometimes train at the home teams ground the night before and in the past I have managed to obtain several items of autographed memorabilia by this method including a Chelsea shirt signed along with a few special pieces of soccer memorabilia.

You could also try and find out where the away team is staying as they generally use the same hotel on a regular basis this is the method I prefer and in the past I have obtained football signed memorabilia but you must make sure you have the correct football merchandise with you at all times.

The last way I collect autographed football items is to attend the ground the day of the match, this has often proven to be fruitful as I not only have collected soccer autographs but rock autographs and signed music memorabilia. I recently got a Rod Stewart autograph at a Celtic game that he was attending. It is very rare to get music memorabilia or music autographs at a football match that instance was one in a million.

My most treasured football autograph was collected in my home town many years ago, it was a George Best autographed photo, which is also my favourite framed autograph to date.

If there is anybody out there who wants to buy autographs……….

Check out my website memorabilia4u.com

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!!!!!

Collect Golf Memorabilia and Movie Autographs During Spring Vacation

Every year everybody starts planning holidays as soon as the New Year celebrations are over and like everybody else I have started planning my bi annual visit to the United States. Normally I go to the big apple or Los Angeles to collect celebrity autographs I cannot get in the U.K. however, this year I am going to do something different! I am going to go to Arnold Palmer’s golf tournament in Bay Hill Florida to collect some golf memorabilia. The reason for this is I have had many requests for American golfers and scores of requests from my golfing buddies for an Arnold Palmer autograph. So in March true to form I will be spending a week in Florida, but not all of it is work I plan to bunk off for a couple of days down to Miami to check out a couple of autograph dealers my friends have bought items from before.

After a week in Florida I am off to my favourite haunt L.A.

I am really lucky as I have an old friend who stays there and puts me up free of charge every time I go across which is a great help to the wallet! On my visit this time I will be frequenting a couple of VIP nightspots to increase my stock of movie autographs and movie memorabilia. I am hoping that I will be able to pick up a couple of vintage autographs to add to my personal collection before I jet back to the U.K. although I may have to buy autographs from other collectors if I am going to make this a very successful trip. 

I was just thinking about the last time I was in L.A. out drinking with my friends we walked into a bar and stumbled across a celebrity for obvious purposes will remain nameless, as we had a very drunk night drinking tequila every way possible until the early hours in the morning!!!  

Hope you all have a great year and are lucky enough to plan holidays overseas.

Sporting Memorabilia- Boxing Memorabilia and Boxing Autographs for Sale

It is really strange how you sometimes get possession of an item of boxing memorabilia from the strangest of connections. I have recently got and autograph of Manny Pacquiao from a friend who was visiting his father out in the Philippines. This is an amazing item of signed sports memorabilia, it is the first item of signed memorabilia I have had in my possession from the great boxer himself. The signed boxing glove will certainly not be amongst my autographs for sale and it ranks as one of the best sports autographs I have received in many a year.



I am hoping that the next time my friend goes across to see his father he will bring me back some more sport memorabilia signed by Manny maybe even some signed pictures or signed boxing shorts.
Talking about boxing myself and two friends are trying to put on an evening of boxing in Aberdeen along with a former two weight British World champion. I am unable to mention any names as the deal has not been concluded but for boxing fans this is going to be a real treat. Not only will they see some great bouts but they will be able to collect items of celebrity memorabilia and many authentic autographs on the night from Scottish world champions and boxing legends.
I will keep you all informed of the progress of the boxing night in my next update, however I must sign off as I am going down to Glasgow to collect some music memorabilia this evening then staying overnight and trying to get a couple of autographed photos at the Rangers F.C. training ground as my best friends birthday is coming up and he is is desperate to get a certain football autograph before the gentleman retires at the end of the season. Sorry I can’t mention the name as it is strictly hush hush and of the record!

Michael Jackson Autograph- Michael Jackson Memorabilia- Michael Jackson Signed Photo