Sending valuable items through the mail to be signed:

In general it is unwise to send valuable items through the mail to be signed. I have had a number of items lost in the mail, and many times a celebrity will keep an item sent to him. In the Autograph Times there was an article about a collector who lost a card signed by Presidents Hoover, Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush (and Bess Truman through Barbara Bush) by sending it to the White House for President Clinton’s signature. I estimate the value of this item to be around $10, 000.

If you must send a valuable item to be signed, ask permission first. Send a polite letter to the celebrity stating that you would like to send a valuable item and enclose a SASE for a reply. If you don’t get permission don’t send the item. If permission is received, mail the item by registered mail.

Always remember though that there is still risk involved when dealing with the postal service and with shady secretaries. The collector who lost the card signed by the presidents had obtained permission from the White House to send the item.

Over-eager autograph collectors recently have taken unfair advantage of certain celebrities by flooding their offices with repeat requests. This is unfair to both the star and to other collectors. To help solve this problem a growing number of celebrities keep track of who requests autographs from a celebrity; multiple requests are denied. Some of these celebrities include George Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Brooke Shields, Katherine Hepburn, and Stephen King You should assume that every celebrity now keeps similar records.
 

The Universal Autograph Collector’s Club is a wonderful organization for autograph enthusiasts. Everyone with an interest in autographs should join. Members receive The Pen and Quill, a bi-monthly publication for collectors that includes addresses of celebrities, new Autopen patterns, examples of successful responses, and more. Membership also entitles you to certain rights: all members including dealers must abide by the UACC code of ethics. Complaints among members are settled through club arbitration, and members are informed of forgeries that are sold by unscrupulous dealers. It is also a forum for making friends who are interested in autograph collecting. A year’s membership is a bargain at only $25. For more information, write:

Or you can look up the information online. (click on the image below for information.)
 

There are several magazines that serve autograph collectors:

The Autograph Times
(2303 N 44th St #225; Phoenix AZ 85008)
Semi-Monthly, newspaper format.

An excellent newspaper for beginning collectors.

Autograph Collector Magazine
(510-A South Corona Mall; Corona CA 91719-1420. Telephone: 1-800-996-3977)
Monthly, magazine format

This magazine has a few interesting articles each month, but beware that it is owned by Odyssey Group, a company that sells many of the autographs it features in its articles. (Conflict of interest?)

The Pen and Quill
Bi-monthly. Published for members of the UACC (see information above). By far the best publication for autograph collectors.

Invariably a collector will want to know the value of the autographs in his collection. Remember when using a price guide though that it is just that, a guide. The only way to know for sure the real value of an item is to see what a collector will pay for it on the open market.

It is also important to note that the prices listed in such guides are “retail” values, that is, the value that a collector pays a dealer for an item. It is not the amount a dealer will pay a collector. Expect that value to be 40-65% less than amount listed in the price guide. This is fair because dealers have to make a living from their transactions.

That said, the best price guide available is The Sanders Price Guide to Autographs, by George and Helen Sanders. The book is in some bookstores or may be purchased from Autograph House. (Click here to see how to get it cheaper!)

This guide is not only a price guide but also a spectacular introduction to all aspects of autograph collecting. It contains 50,000 prices as well as examples of signatures, lists of dealers, chapters on areas of collecting, and much more.

The sports category has been deleted from the current edition since this subject is covered in The Sanders Price Guide to Sports Autographs, also available from Autograph House (write or call for more information).

Perhaps the best way to keep track of prices, though, is to subscribe to many dealers’ catalogs. A price guide lists the average sale price of autographs, which means that bargains can be found that are much less than the listed values. For example, a plain signature of Gerald Ford is listed in the Sanders Guide as being worth $125, but every serious collector knows that it is foolish to pay more than $20 for one. By seeing directly what sells at what price through autograph dealers you can gain a full understanding of the autograph market.