my hobby : Autograph Collecting

My hobby of autograph collecting is gaining speed but is still a little known hobby. What is less known than the hobby itself is the way to start your collection online using just your PC. That’s right, no investment at all. How? Email. Yes, not only do many celebrities have public email accounts, but many times they’ll send autographs if you ask and provide a mailing address. The celebrities pay for everything! And as for feeling guilty about sticking celebs with the bill, don’t. They will write it all of when tax-time rolls around. It’s a business expense for them! Free for everyone!

Now, let’s keep this little secret somewhat hush, hush, ok? You see, the more people who write to the celebrities the more that celebrity has to sign (some stars hate to autograph), they have been known to just stop signing when they get too many requests. It scares them off. I have seen numerous stars change their emails because a magazine or e-zine published their email address and too many people emailed them.

The hardest part of this method of collecting is finding legitimate star email addys online. You will need to put Google to work. However, when you find a site that has them, you usually strike gold. There are a number of websites that post a bunch of email address online free, so don’t ever pay anyone for them. Also remember not to be afraid of ‘daemon,’ you will see his ‘failed email’ messages repeatedly. As I said before, celebrities will change their emails addresses at times.

Also, you might be surprised at how many people I’ve heard emailing stars a really kind, well-written email and forgetting to put down their own snail mail address. I know of one guy who emailed Howard Stern with an autograph request but didn’t tell Howard where to send it. What did Mr. Stern do? He emailed the guy back a .jpeg photo with a caption under the pic reading “drool over this, dumbass.” Granted, many stars are not quite so rude, but the least you can do is proofread your email.

I have given you some know-how on the subject of beating the postage and supply costs of autograph collecting, now get out there and land some ‘graphs. Let me know how it goes! I always enjoy hearing how the stars are treating us “commoners.” Happy collecting!

By Jimmy Cloward