I still love paint pens they are less streaky than silver sharpie! Alsoalot of celebrities do not like blue markers. I have been called a professional before for having blue. Chad Smith of the Chili peppers and Cher are just to name a few that if you go at them with blue they will skip you or ignore you. Hope this helps.

I am relatively new to the hobby and do know that those who want signatures in Blue sharpie are often considered professional. I also know that autographs in blue sharpie typically capture a higher price when sold. Why is that? Is it because of the contrast that it provides against the picture?

"Blue" sharpies do have a very true ink that stands up well and lasts longer over time than black, especially when exposed to light. Black has a bit of yellowness that tends to come out and black may even "dissapear" over time. Some stars are just looking for a reason to say no to signing. Blaming it on a blue sharpie is just plain silly. I am always ready to ask the celeb to inscribe. Usually solves the issue.

No proble, Russ. That part of why this forum and my column are here - to create productive dialogue among collectors that will help enhance everyone's collecting experience!

I have found that if you are getting an autograph on a 3x5 card or something, if you get them to sign in pencil, the autograph won't fade because pencil ink will last forever! Also, if I want to get a picture of a celebrity signed, I will cut their pictures out of old magazines that you can find for pennies on the dollar at most flea markets and thrift stores. If all you want is an autograph and don't care about what it is on, this is ideal. And if you send it through the mail, you have not lost anything very valuable if it gets lost or damaged.

One of the few tricks I use when I do a NASCAR signing is to bring a silver Sharpie to an event, especially if you want a diecast signed. If you are going to an event where they are more than one driver signing, bring several of them.

One, most collectors want to get their diecasts signed on the windshield (sponsors logos on the hood, too small of a space on the roof with the moving roof flaps) and the only way it can be seen easily is to use a silver Sharpie.

My best example is the Clint Bowyer signing I went to in 2007. At the time, he had Jack Daniels as a sponsor and drove an all black car. I thought the better of it and got a silver Sharpie for my car to be signed. As I was standing in line, one of his PR people went through the line and was asking for a silver Sharpie. I handed mine and she thanked me.

Well, it became my turn in line and the PR girl went to Clint and said he was the one who gave up the pen. He thanked me, shook my hand, and asked me how many autographs I wanted...I got three hero cards signed, my diecast signed, and four trading cards signed.

Ever since then, I have carried a silver Sharpie to a signing when a diecast is involved. You never know if they need it more than you do.

I've never nor will I ever use a blue sharpie, it's personal preference. Since autograph collecting hit mainstream and card companies got involved, blue denotes big business, or a reseller gathered it, or a paid for signature, just my opinon...

Also, another hard and fast rule, never use a sharpie on baseballs, the ink soaks in a mashes in real leather or yellows with black. The only only exception is if you buy one of those stadium balls in a pinch, the kind with a team logo, you can't use a ball point pen, the cheap Taiwan pleather can't hold the ink and they fade, here a sharpie must be used.

I used Blue sharpies when getting my home plate signed by hall of famers, over 50 autographs and no smudges or bleeding, everything came clean and color never faded. I have seen bases signed with black sharpies and they come out almost faded and bleed, and yes I have seen the yellow bleed from the black ink. My friend has a baseball bat that he tried to get signed by players and it didn't work out too well, smudges, bleeding and because it was a glossy bat, the whole thing is a mess

what type of pen/marker would work best for a Jeannie Bottle autograph?
EX. gold/silver paint pen/marker ; sharpie ; etc. i'd really appreciate your opinion.

silver paint pen or gold paint pen on it

lets see how many tips i can rattle of for an autograph seeker, i use a blue vis a vis pen, these are better than sharpies, because they are more bold, and the great thing about vis a vis is if you have multiple items to get done the dry a lot quicker than sharpies and thus dont smear, if you are in a cold weather city like i am dont leave the cap off of your pen outside ive seen this happen with so many ppl and then they wonder why there pen isnt working when the celeb actually gets to them, by the time the celeb gets to them the pen has dried out,the only thing that is bad about silver sharpies is it isnt really a real good looking silver, if you get a decocolor pen, it works out a lot better for anything you ant to get done, do not i repeat do not shake a paint pen when it is cold out in your city, i have also seen this happen to many times then i care to mention of ppl who keep shaking there paint pen and testing it to see of it is working, then when the celeb comes out the pen usually explodes all over the place, this is bad for the celeb and all of the fans, another thing that i hate about ppl who are waiting to get autographs is when they tell a bunch of people what is going on and who is coming and so on, if the person doesnt know what is going on it isnt your responsibility to let them know, i know that is harsh, but if you want to get your item done then your best bet is not to start blabbing out infor to ppl who probably dont know what is going on. most of my autographs that i have gotten have taken place when there is either 1 other person or noone around to get them, another tip when getting autos is to have your car close by and follow the celeb, most times when the celeb is at a venue they usually come out after the show and leave right away,i know this sounds bad to, but what the average fan doesnt know is that the person will probably sign for you the second they get out of there town car or limo at there hotel or at the airport, perfect example for me was just recently when stephen king was in town to do a lecture series about one of his books, he came out after the show and said he was tired and had to go, well 2 of us out of the 10 or 15 that were waiting there followed him to his hotel which was 3 blocks down the street, waited for him to get out and approached him about signing for us, he started to sign for us and then i started talking to him about the boston red sox, and he ended up signing 2 books for me, he would have signed more but i only brought in 2, that is another key when getting an autograph or multiple autographs, do your homework and find out something the person is into that is not something he would get talked to about everyday, for stephen king it was the red sox.another tip for ppl is when a person says no originally and they start to walk away from you, ask them to personalize the photo or baseball or whatever you are getting signed, this happened last year with mark teixiera when he was on the yankees, he came out and turned everyone down, so we followed him to where he was eating his dinner, he came and said im not going to sign for you guys , and then i said you can personalize it and he came right back to me and asked me my name, he then explained himself by saying you know i just dont like signing autographs if you guys are going to sell them, the only he actually stopped is because we asked him to personalize, most people when getting autographs go with the pack, if you want to have success you need to break a couple of rules everyone now and then and not go with the grain,those are the ppl that have the most success, also while you shouldnt share info with just anyone, it is important to gain friendship with a couple of autograph seekers that you can trust, also if you can form a good relationship with doormen and lim o drivers this will go along way in helping you get autographs, this helped me get dustin hoffman and joe montana, dustin hoffman was in town and i would have never known about it but a dorrman told us that he was here to go to an art exhibit and to check out a site for a play he was hoping to get running, well sure enough that day me and one other guy got him to sign 2 photos each, for joe montana the driver told us what flight he was on and what terminal he was going to drop him off at so i headed out to the airport to try fir him, he originally turned us down then when i approached him again when he was in the security line he said come on guys, i told him to look up at the board cause his flight had been delayed 30 minutes he then said he would sign one autograph for each of us, while he was signing he told us you know i do shows right, i then said hpow many shows have you done in minnesota he then paused and said yeah your right, this brings me to my next point you cant treat these celebs like they are gods, yeah give them there common courtesy and say please and thank you but sometimes you have to tell them how it is to get an autograph. my example here is for kevin youkilis, he came out of the skyway and me and my buddy were the only 2 up there and there were about 30 other ppl downstairs waiting for autos for the red sox,we followed him through the skyway and he said he wasnt going to sign for us cause we followed him, well my friend had had it and had given this guy his space the last 3 days at the hotel, so after he was done shopping for a new phoen he walked back up to him and youkilis gave one of his excuses again by saying hed get us at the ballpark, we were irate, we then told him that he had said that the last 2 days and that he doesnt even give us the time of day at the ballpark, he then said alright and said hed sign one for us,sometines you have to know what buttons to push and when to push them, if you do get autographs signed with blue pen, make sure you have a black pen with you just in case the celeb doesnt sign in blue, there are a couple of celebs who hate blue pens,cher, jonah hill,david copperfield,viggo mortensen

Hey Lou, something that I have been trying for the past year on my requests using trading cards is that I go over it with an eraser ever so slightly to take off all that gloss. It has been working FANTASTIC!!! Have had no problems through the mail or in person.

Hey Oriole, the beauty of this hobby is that you can make it whatever you want it! Some people like the thick, bold presentation of a Sharpie marker, some like the little subtleties that an ink pen will give you, and so on. But, as a general rule, people use these guidelines:

Baseball - blue ink pen (black tends to fade over time)

Baseball cards, magazines, and photos - Blue, black, or silver marker

 After joining this forum, I learned about requesting autographs via the mail. So this spring training, I sent out around 60 requests during the first week of camp. That was about a month ago, so far I haven’t received any auto's in the mail. On average, if you try this technique how many players do you get back, 20-40%??? Or did i just waste time and money?

Thanks!