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Autograph Blues

Char Aznable

Lieutenant Commander
Being a lifelong trekkie (ever since my Mom got me the starship enterprise 1701 hallmark ornament in 1991), I've been to many conventions obviously. That means I've gotten quite a few autographs over the years growing up. Recently, however, I wanted to possibly sell a few of them in order to give my financial situation a bit of a boost (I'm not destitute mind you, but business has just been a bit slow) and I went to a shop that deals in cards and autographs to get it appraised and hopefully sell one or two.

Well, it turns out they can't accept them since apparantly you need to have a certificate of authenticity to prove it's not a forgery, which only at least one of mine have (this Shatner portrait I got for Christmas when I was 'lil) which I didn't want to sell as it has sentamental meaning to me. :klingon:

It's annoying to be sitting on a goldmine you can't make use of . . .
 
^I wouldn't do it. Unless they are worth thousands (which might keep you afloat for a few months depending on your situtation), it will be fleeting. I cashed in saving bonds for a couple of thousand dollars few years bach when thing were really tight. After a couple of months, it was as if I never had that money.

Besides I doubt the portrait is worth much. Shatner isn't exactly an A-lister not to mention there are hundreds if not thousands pictures of him out there with his signature on it.
 
Unfortunately, even with COAs you probably wouldn't get more than a few bucks for each of them. You could always try eBay, but it's probably best to just keep them for yourself.
 
I'm in agreement with the others who have responded. You're not going to get much out of them, no matter how much you paid.

The thing about eBay is that they all claim to be "real, hand signed" just like yours. And the latest estimate I saw is that the FBI estimates 85-90% of autographs on eBay are forgeries. Oh, they'll all come with a COA. But all that means is somebody says "sure, it's real."

I could go out there today and sign a bunch of William Shatner pictures and make up my own COA on my printer. It doesn't mean they're real. It just means gullible people will think "Oh, COA means it's legit, let's throw money at it!"

And that's where the scam artists come in. They'll sell as many as they can, then go away for a little while, and come back with new eBay names, doing it all over again.

That makes it tough for those who have legitimate autographs to get noticed, or to sell them.

Shatner is selling his autograph for between 60 and 100 bucks, depending on the convention. Even if you paid on the low end of that, you will not make your money back with or without a COA. Same with any other pictures you've got signed. You'll be lucky to make 10 bucks back.

Do you have cable? If so, go to ... I believe it's the History channel (it'll be on the basic cable tier) and look for a program called Pawn Stars. Doesn't matter what episode. You'll see someone walk in with something they have valued at X price. The dealer would like to have the object, but also needs to re-sell it, make their money back and make a profit. Without that profit, they can't pay employees, pay the lights, etc. They'll call in an expert to authenticate the item. If it's real, the expert will say "it's work Y amount." The dealer will then offer a value of - at most - half of the value, generally a quarter of the value.

You could try an auction somewhere. You'll have to pay fees to the auctioneer/auction house, plus they'll get a cut of however much it goes for, even if it's just a dollar.

I know, it sucks that you've put a small fortune into collecting autographs, and you can't make money out of selling them. Thank the scam artists for that. Oh, and that's not a new thing. Even while President Lincoln was in office, there were forgeries of his signature being sold. About the only autographs you can collect that won't need a COA is autographed trading cards ... the kind that come already signed in a box of cards, marked by the manufacturer. Here is an example from Rittenhouse (they have the license for Trek cards currently). The problem with those is, you have zero interaction with the celebrity. It's pulled from a pack of cards, or bought from a dealer/eBay.

My suggestion to you is to keep your collection as it is. Keep the memories, and every once in awhile, pull the binder off the shelf and go through the pictures, reliving the treasured moments you had with those celebrities.
 
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