A side hobby of mine that I started last year was collecting Doctor Who autographs through the mail(TTM). Most of the main actors/actresses are still alive and if you send them a nice letter and a SASE they usually will send you back an autograph.

Anyone else out there collect TTM autographs? More importantly if anyone collects Doctor Who autographs and they want to trade, let me know!

I have many thru-the-mail and in-person autograph cards in my collection. Most are sport card autographs from before the certified authentics were produced, but also some TTM non-sport signatures. Funny thing is that its not my mail.

I bought them from dumped collections, which can be found buried in dealer bargain boxes or on the Bay. My advice is that if you see something you like you have to be careful about providence, never pay very much, and only buy TTM signatures when you can't get a certified one for that person.

If you are going to do the mailings yourself it's a fun and cheap way to build a collection. However the big problems are that the signatures that are returned may not always be authentic and, even when they are good, you will have a tough time proving it in this age when everyone expects a certified autograph card.

That's why I say that thru the mail autographs are only for the individual collector who is not concerned with value. Don't think that they are worth more than a couple of bucks to anyone else because most buyers with any experience shy away from them for fear of fakes and prefer to keep only certified cards.

I used to do sports ones back in the day. I remember buying the baseball player address book back in the 80's. If I look hard enough I should be able to find my Andre Dawson 89 Fleer all star card!

These autographs are for me only. If I get extras I may trade for ones I need. It is cheap but if I can find any autographs on ebay for less than $10 delivered I will buy it. Comes out about the same with postage to the UK.

quote:

Originally posted by ifish73:
I used to do sports ones back in the day. I remember buying the baseball player address book back in the 80's. If I look hard enough I should be able to find my Andre Dawson 89 Fleer all star card!

These autographs are for me only. If I get extras I may trade for ones I need. It is cheap but if I can find any autographs on ebay for less than $10 delivered I will buy it. Comes out about the same with postage to the UK.

I get pretty bummed out when I see the autograph cards of older common players and even some decent stars on eBay. Most are going for under $5 and that's just a shame. It took a long time for collectors to get those signatures, but when they pass away no one else wants them and they wind up in garage sales.

I bought a stack of about 200 signed index cards years ago, along with yearly albums that had autographs. There were some well known hockey and baseball players in the collection and the person who got the autographs was obviously a big fan. Then somehow it all wound up in the basement of a hobby store. Index cards was the most common way of getting autographs at one time, now no one even thinks about index cards. But like you said, its only for me so I don't care about the value, I appreciate the work that went into it.

I collect autographs TTM and find it a really fun hobby
From Doctor Who I have Chris Ecclestone, Billie Piper, John Barrowman and David Tennant.

quote:

Originally posted by WarriorBabe:
I collect autographs TTM and find it a really fun hobby
From Doctor Who I have Chris Ecclestone, Billie Piper, John Barrowman and David Tennant.

You wouldn't be chance have any extras of Piper or Barrowman you would want to trade? I have heard that Piper is a good signer but I have not sent any to her yet. I am always looking for autographs on index cards or album pages so I can mount them with a photograph.

I have two JB autographs, a 10x8 John Barrowman and a postcard of Captain Jack, I love them both though and don't think I would trade, sorry!

Just remembered have a Freema Ageyman as well

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Originally posted by WarriorBabe:
Just remembered have a Freema Ageyman as well

Now you are just rubbing it in!