One of the topics in the forum here has to do with one's favorite autographs. It makes me wince. Years ago, my wife and I went to a local show called Wonderfest. Ray Harryhausen was one of the guests. We attended the day's events, and went home to walk the dogs. We returned in a nearby part of town for the night's event...a showing of King Kong with Ray and his wife. As we were walking in, the line was forming to get in...we got in line...right behind Ray. We were seated right next to him. We got to gab quite a bit during the day, but at the theatre, he was AWESOME! Not sure how long we talked to
Ray and his wife but they were great. This was years before I even thought about getting autographs and most, if not all, of the celebrities were free at this show. Ray and his wife told stories to the point that the folks waiting to transport them were getting restless. We parted and floated home. We had a lot of time with the father of Kong and Sinbad's skeleton army. We never even thought about an autograph. Sigh...would love to be looking at it now. I'd post over on the other thread!

Any of you have these moments where you wish you'd thought about what should have come immediately to mind?

I attended a convention where Harryhausen was the guest of honor but I did manage to get his autograph on the program book.

As for the big question you asked, I also sat through a talk once by Theodore Sturgeon (no offense, but he was an extremely boring speaker), and then I didn't have the nerve to push through the crowd and get his autograph. Shortly after that he died.

I am a big certified autograph card collector, yet for personal encounters I would much rather have a photo with the person than their signature on a scrap of paper. Outside of a paid appearance, I am actually very reluctant to ask for a "free" autograph because I can see where it might be regarded as an invasion of personal space. Also some celebrities seem to always have the idea that you are not really a fan, you just want something to put up on eBay. And when you get turned down, as is their right, it still is a disappointment. So for autographs I go the paid route and attend in-person signings or just buy into the great wealth of certified cards that are out there.

And when I do get autographs at paid events I also always buy that photo time because that is the memento that I can really remember years later.