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Daryl Hall and John Oates - Beginner Seeking Autograph Advice (UPDATED)

-- Update --

Just a follow up. I decided to get the autographed Hall and Oates album that Joe W. had mentioned in the post below. The idea was that we would purchase this so my son would at least have an autographed album and we could continue the quest to get a personalized one. So I decided to do the Roger Epperson quick opinion, even though it had the JSA Authentication, and then decided to buy when I got a positive reply. I even went as far as to get screenshots of the listed item, before refreshing the page after I purchased for some form of history (I can furnish these if needed for comparison).

The one issue is that I was sent a different one (V40896) than the original one (V40898), that I saw on eBay. I am not sure if I should be okay with this or not. Ian had commented that he didn't like the Daryl signature on the original eBay LP. I have taken a couple pictures of the received LP for possible opinions from the community (see attached).

I guess I could spend another $15 to get a quick opinion but this one is also PSA verified like the other one. Let me know what you think if you have the time, thanks.

-- Original Post --

Hello.  I am new to the forum and to autograph collecting in general.  I might be wrong but I think I have a situation that might be a little different from most.  I am seeking one single autographed item, a Hall and Oates “Private Eyes” vinyl cover for my now two year old son. I am posting here with the hopes that I could get some advice from collectors on how to proceed.  I hope it isn’t overkill, but I will outline what we have done so far to paint a better picture of our efforts.

The backstory, in a nutshell, is that we were trying to get my son acclimated to various music over the decades and he seemed to like a lot of hall and oates songs more than others.  At the time he was new to movement and would actually dance along to I can’t go for that. At this time we decided to pursue the idea of getting a “Private Eyes” vinyl album cover autographed by both Daryl Hall and John Oates.

Starting with almost no knowledge on the subject, we began by looking up the subject on the internet and managed to find an article on getting “Through The Mail” (TTM) autographs and also the Fanmail.biz database.  We then located the official Hall and Oates website along with their management company Wolfson Entertainment. At this point we noted that the Fanmail.biz mailing address was out of date and we decided to go with the address obtained from Wolfson Entertainment, which coincided with their Twitter and Facebook contact.  Since mailing the vinyl would be a little out of pocket we decided to give Wolfson a call to confirm that Hall and Oates did in fact accept fan mail and that we had the correct address. The conversation allowed us to communicate our goal with some favorable response. They advised that we send the vinyl, although they could not make any promises which we totally understood - it would be up to the artists.  

I hand wrote a heartfelt letter to the duo making the request on behalf of my son and kept the letter to a single page.  We sent this out to Wolfson, via UPS, with a prepaid return label enclosed in the package and threw in a couple of sharpies.  The package was signed for and accepted after a couple days of mailing.

Ten days later the package was returned, with the return label, but all the contents were still packed the same way we sent it.  It did not have a signature or any correspondence. We hypothesized that perhaps this was reaching too far since Daryl and John might be in different parts of the country so we refactored our plan a little.  

After doing some additional research, we looked into the social media further for each artist to see what our next move might be.  We decided to revise the letter and try to send to each person separately, starting with Daryl Hall who has his Live from Daryl's House in New York. The website also mentioned that Daryl does make frequent visits to the establishment, but I am not sure if this is mentioned for the fanbase or is a fact.  We repackaged everything with the revised letter and did the UPS thing again with the prepaid label. The package was delivered in mid November of 2018 and signed for at the restaurant / venue for Daryl's House. My wife decided to follow each on their respective social media at this time too for any possible fan meetups or signing opportunities.  

At this point we have been waiting since November of 2018 without any news.  At first I was grateful thinking it had a better chance since it was not refused or immediately returned.  I am guessing that we are in the standard wait and hope phase of the TTM process.

I looked over the web to see if anyone else had success with Hall and Oates autographs, finding very little information.  From what I have found, it would seem that Daryl is the harder of the two when it comes to getting an autograph, but I might be completely wrong.  The best case scenarios would seem to be either a meet and greet or a book signing in which both are present. My child is also too young to go to an actual concert so that would leave either of us with a slim chance of getting an autograph signed through a VIP pass.

We are both new to this and any advice would be greatly appreciated, as we are clueless on how to proceed.  I am more than happy to clarify if you have any questions. Thank you for your time.

Matthew

Tags: Daryl Hall, Hall and Oates, John Oates, TTM, Through the mail, advice, autograph, hall, oates

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Hi, through the mail autographs can take extremely long to be fulfilled. People have been surprised years after the original request was made - it truly is up to the artists and whether or not they are inclined to sign at all, let alone expeditiously.

A better tack might be watching auction houses and Ebay for the right item to come up. Who knows, perhaps someone here can accomodate you.

Study their signatures so you can tell real from fake and pounce on any item that meets your specific needs. They are out out there no doubt.

I know that Oates has signed copies of his recent book readily available (or did quite recently). If all else fails you can get individual sigs and frame together with a nice photo, etc. Outside of waiting for a response from either artist, Its really all about what is acceptable to you and your budget.

You may get a response from one, both or neither. And it could take weeks, months, and yes, in some cases years. No way to tell.

Though the mail is tricky, even for musicians who would otherwise sign. For bigger names, it's even more difficult. I'm pretty sure the duo has done meet & greets, but, even then, keep in mind that some of those things have stingy autograph policies, regardless of what you pay.

I could recommend the RACC group on Facebook, but I can't 100% vouch for what type of feedback you'll get. While there are a lot of knowledgable people there on in-person collecting, some have quite an attitude about sharing info, as the focus is on professional collectors (i.e. sellers).

One thing you could try is to send it to a venue if the duo tours again, but then you have a couple extra questions marks - will the venue actually get it to them and would they both sign? Fanmail.biz (a site with plenty of issues) did keep a scouting report of which venues were known to get mail to the artists and which did not. It's a bit stale these days.

that will not work sending to venues

Is that from experience, or have their management been known to reject?

experience I spent my life on the road with bands .it work like that .only touring people can send to vunues to get stuff signed for and forwarded by fed ex or ups like merch or equptment or stuff like that the venue will hold it for arrival of the tour. very common to get some parts or new merch sent to a new venue.

to send to an artist u need to send to manager ,record lable publicist or somebody like that and pray but 99.99 percent it useless especialy for new pop artists they just don't care. 

I do know a lot of returned in the mail is fake cant say how I know sorry  but ive seen stuff signed not by the artist and sent back to people and managers signing and sending it off thinking the people will be happy just to get something back

Just a suggestion. Here is a Hall and Oates signed album at a very reasonable price. JSA authenticated. $129 or best offer. Private Eyes is on this album.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/DARYL-HALL-JOHN-OATES-AUTOGRAPHED-JSA-AUTH...

While I am not known for liking stickers, this item looks super! Great contrast, placement, cover, condition, papers (usually wanted by most), and price. From what you've written, this item seems perfect for your needs. Joe has a good eye BTW.

Hall and Oates sometimes has signed merchandise for sale at their concerts and on their website. Im not a big fan of the Daryl on that lp.

I defer to Ian on the sigs.

Correct.  I picked up their boxset signed at their merch table a few years ago, then got lucky after the show and got them to sign my LP in person. 

Wow, this is an awesome community!  Thank you everyone for the great advice, it is much appreciated.  This will definitely give us a few new directions to pursue for our quest. 

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