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Album cover or photograph?

If you were going to take something to have signed, which is generally considered more desirable, an album cover or a photograph? I'm just limiting the question to these two items since these are easy to carry and also easy to frame and display, as opposed to something like a book or a guitar, although I guess I could also include something like a concert/promo poster.

And a follow-up on getting photographs signed...imagine you do a google search and find a photo (which is someone's copyrighted work) on the web and have a print made at a local lab, and then have it signed. If you were then to sell/auction it sometime in the future, could the copyright holder of that photo demand part of the profits from the sale? I'm assuming yes, so then to avoid that scenario, what if you properly bought the photo from a gallery or the copyright holder in the first place? Would you then be free to keep all profits from a potential sale of the autographed photo?

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Permalink Reply by James on October 5, 2019 at 3:58am

Between an LP or a photo, I would much prefer a signed LP. However, I also like signed books, always have. For me, personally, I’ve always thought more favorably of a signed book rather than a signed photo. I do have signed photos, but they’ve never excited me as much as a signed book because, since we are usually speaking of something that is the creation of the artist or celebrity, to me a signed book is more significant than a signed photo. Plus, since I rarely display my autographs, the display practicality never really enters the picture (pun not intended). The most important thing to me, as a collector, is simply knowing I own the celebrity’s autograph.

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Permalink Reply by JD Thomas on October 5, 2019 at 8:56am

Great point, Keith, about not having control over what type of pen being used. And interesting take, James, on books. Thanks again for sharing your viewpoints everybody!

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Permalink Reply by JD Thomas on October 6, 2019 at 8:38pm

OK, I've got a followup question on this, concerning ink color. I take it black ink is standard for signatures, but if you've got a black and white photo, or an album cover that is black and white and kind of tough to find a clear spot to sign, black ink would not stand out. What's the best course of action in this case? Is a blue sharpie or paint pen the best choice? Is a color like orange or baby blue or yellow, while probably standing out well, frowned upon? Does using an odd color hurt value?

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Permalink Reply by James on October 6, 2019 at 9:47pm

I think the most important thing is for the autograph to stand out. So when an artist signs in a dark area of the album or photo with a black sharpie, therefore making the autograph difficult to see, the item is nearly worthless, because it is just too hard to see the signature. So I would say that, generally, silver paint pen looks great for autographs on the dark part of an album or photo because the silver will look nice and bold. Silver on white, however, is another matter entirely. It doesn’t look as nice. Also, blue doesn’t tend to work well on dark areas either.

As for odd colors hurting value, I’m not sure...perhaps. However, if you use...say...an orange pen, but the autograph is bold...I wouldn’t be too concerned. I’ve had autographs signed in green pen, and it looks fine to me. Red pens are also fairly common, so they’re not really a problem as far as I’m concerned. Best colors, though, are black, sliver, and blue, imho.

On basketballs and footballs...silver paint pen is by far the best to go with...much better than black sharpie.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on October 7, 2019 at 4:07am

Hi JD,

Here are some examples of contrast helped along by pen color:

Black on light:

Blue on light:

White on black:

Silver on black:

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on October 7, 2019 at 4:24am

PS - Note what the blue does to the b/w photo. That is a good use of color IMO.

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Permalink Reply by JD Thomas on October 8, 2019 at 2:00pm

Thanks for the examples!

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on October 9, 2019 at 8:05pm

You are most welcome. :) As you can imagine, there are a ton of variations so it is always best to have a few things to choose from at the last moment, with contrast the key.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on October 9, 2019 at 8:29pm

This, although in my collection, is what you want to avoid - black on black. I have it for sentimental reasons and also because I got it when it was new for flipping a coin. I have seen much worse for black on black including an IP Nimoy that was mine - black ballpoint on black semi-gloss paper. Oh well. At least I got the Vulcan greeting and a city block's worth of conversation! :) I did meet Walken another time as well but did not ask for an autograph.

Which of these pens, these mediums shown above, do you prefer and why? For example, some paint pens can bleed into themselves making strokes harder to discern, others not. Sharpies are rather slick and can streak a bit, and neither of those scratch the surface like ballpoint of fountain. All the rest of my collection is ballpoint of fountain (vintage theater and Hollywood etc) save for 2-3 felt tips from the 60's-70's.

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Permalink Reply by JD Thomas on October 9, 2019 at 10:34pm

I don't think this is that bad, actually. He signed in about the best possible place.

I like paint pens for photos, but you do have to be careful that it doesn't get smudged or even totally ruined before it dries. And depending on the pen thickness and if the person makes their lettering very tight, everything can combine into one giant mass. The Kraftwerk is very nice and clean!

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on October 10, 2019 at 1:55pm

You are right - Walken did sign in the best place possible and he did crank out a lot of his name compared to his more recent sigs. He is also overtly nice (when he thinks he knows you) but this was not an IP graph. That was 1990 - both graph and meeting. It's just the worst I have next to this - but I looked for this on and of for 15+ years and this is all I came up with so it will have to do. It was signed by Vivien Leigh and her husband/Director Laurence Olivier after the November 26th performance of A Streetcar Names Desire - the original East End run in London. Again, regarding color, if the collector had not used red ink this would be a very different display. The red ties it in with the playbill! And note that Leigh had a very light scratchy hand to start - like a butterfly wing. There are many that have this contrast. Just not many of this date. ;)

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Permalink Reply by Rich on October 10, 2019 at 12:27pm

I tend to get 11 x 15 photos signed, sometimes 8 x 10s. If a vinyl is available and I don't have a copy signed, I'll do that. Keep in mind that some album covers just aren't that great visually, so if you want a better image then the photo option opens the doors.

Regarding the copyright issue, many artists have PR pages with publicity stills that are fine to reprint (it's kinda the point after all). These images are usually pretty big too and apt for printing in any size. Also, if it's an artist who's been on tour in recent years, it's usually pretty easy to find performance images on social media or a photo site such a Flickr. This allows you to contact the photographer directly and just ask (many are cool with it) to use it.

When possible, I bring both. I (finally) met Jade Bird last Saturday, and she was cool signing whatever at the merch stand. In this case, the photo turned out better.