Autograph collecting goes back as far as ancient Rome. The great orator, Cicero, had a letter from Julius Caesar which he highly valued. In the 1800s, J. P. Morgan, the banker, financier, and philanthropist who founded General Electric and one of the wealthiest men in the world during the time in which he lived, put together an extraordinary collection of books, autographs and documents.

But the great thing about the hobby of autograph collecting is that you don’t have to be wealthy to begin. You can sometimes get the autographs of celebrities who are still alive for little more than the cost of some postage and envelopes. You merely have to find the person’s address, write them a cordial letter requesting what you want, and enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE).

There are literally thousands of famous people whose autographs you might be able to get, provided you write provocative and interesting letters. They just might take some of their valuable time to answer a sincere letter especially if you take some of your time to demonstrate the earnestness of your request.

Some autograph collectors will point out that sending a request and a self-addressed stamped envelope to a celebrity expecting an autograph or letter in return has a low probability of success. Experience indicates this is probably true. If your SASE is returned to you from the celebrity’s office there is also a high likelihood that the letter might be have been signed by an autopen, a secretary, or you may just get a stock photo or even a slip of paper saying that particular celebrity does not sign fan mail.

However, if you talk to collectors who have tried this technique in all likelihood you will hear some success stories. It’s one of those things where you won’t know until you try it. This is an age where celebrities are overwhelmed with requests for their signatures so you need to exercise imagination and ingenuity.

Part of the fun of autograph collecting is that you will likely focus in an area that is of particular interest to you. As a result no one knows what success you may or may not have. If you’re aiming for top tier movie stars and sports athletes chances are almost certain you will be disappointed. However if you focus in a less popular niche area who knows what success you might have?

Like many autograph collectors, you will probably want to develop your own specialty and focus on that particular area. The autographs of people who interest you will bring you a great deal more excitement then just trying to accumulate autographs for the sake of building up a large collection.

Collecting the autographs can be a true adventure. You have to be somewhat of an amateur detective in order to make sure that the autographs you have are authentic. As you begin collecting you will be exposed to photographs which can look almost exactly like originals, machines that can also sign a person’s signature, forgeries, and autographs which may have been signed by the celebrity’s secretary in an attempt to imitate their signature. But all of these decoys and traps only serve to make this a more exciting hobby. If you educate yourself and exercise caution, you will find that autograph collecting is an extremely rewarding and gratifying past time.

You can go on eBay or hundreds of other online websites and buy autographs but for the young person or beginning collector the authentic autographs of even minor celebrities can sometimes be expensive to purchase. However for the cost of envelopes, paper, and postage you can perhaps acquire autographs of your heroes on your own. It’s certainly worth a try, and who knows, maybe in your particular niche area the celebrities you are interested in will be responsive to your requests.

But you will never know until you give it a try!

If you are interested in expanding your collection or buying autographs, eBay and has a huge selection. The autographed items available are constantly changing so no matter how narrow your focus you are likely to be able to find items signed by the person you are interested in.

If you’d like to check out what eBay offers, you can choose from the categories on the left, or type the name of the celebrity you are interested in within the search box at the top.

Good luck and happy hunting!