In Poway, one of the surrounding counties of San Diego, a statue was unveiled of Padres Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn. It was a wonderful event, and the papers here covered it heavily. One of the things his son, former player Tony Gwynn, Jr. said, was how great it was to have his dad watching and filming his basketball games. I remember a few years when I coached youth basketball, and our team played against his. Another Padres player -- Gary Templeton -- also had a son on the…

I met actor Jeffrey Tambor at an event and told him how much I loved him in “The Larry Sanders Show.” He grabbed my hand, thanked me, and talked about how much that show meant to him and what it did for his career. We had a nice chat about the show. I was tempted to bring up the episode he was in of “Taxi” which was terrific. I thought about telling him how…

After seeing the discussions on this site regarding autographs versus selfies, as well as observing fan groups based both on autographs and celebrity photo ops, I'm prompted to ask revisit the question of whether autographs represent the best celebrity-related souvenir. 

I myself am of an age right at the crossroads of Gen-Xers and Millennials. Fittingly, I tend to see both sides of this. People older than me tend to gravitate toward autographs while people in their teens and twenties…

Just check out this sellers scam.

He thinks he is so clever but he is just a thief.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/4242kenneth/m.html?item=252866602846&rmvSB=true&hash=item3ae006275e%3Ag%3ANjEAAOSwj25Y8QSE&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

My wife’s favorite singer is Bruce Springsteen. She’s from Jersey, what can ya do? She was going to drive up to meet him at the book signing in L.A. She’s glad she didn’t, as many in line didn’t get to meet him. You had to show up and camp out at midnight. I told her that one of the bookstore chains has been selling numbered books autographed (it was written…

Here in San Diego -- the sports fans are still bummed the Chargers moved to Los Angeles. I hate to admit that as bothered as I am by that, I’m more concerned with how my fantasy football team will do next year.

The stories about the Chargers that make me happiest always seem to involve the best Charger player of all-time: Lance…

Usually when you hear about bogus stuff involving sports memorabilia, it’s companies pawning off forgeries. This latest one I heard about is interesting, because it involves the athlete. And I’ve often wondered if athletes did this.

One of the reasons I’ve thought about it is hearing pro athletes talk about all the stuff fans want to buy from them. Another reason is when I worked as a morning DJ at a radio station, we had an attractive DJ working…

One of the most complex things to explain to newer autograph collectors is to explain what a certificate of authenticity (COA) is what what value it holds. The problem lies in explaining what a COA is and what it is not. At their best, for the most part, a COA is the hobby equivalent of the TSA in that is presents an illusion of security. The first thing that must be clarified is that a COA is not a legal document, regardless of its wording. Novice collectors tend to fall victim to the…

A few of my friends who are autograph collectors used to get lectures from me. One of them always brought a guitar for autographs. The musicians hated it, and it created a bad vibe for everyone. I always said if you can, wear a shirt that the artist will like seeing. They’ll know you’re a fan and not just an ebay dealer. Of course, when I wore a “Help” shirt, McCartney drove his Corvette right by me, waving and winking, but never stopping to sign for me.…

The “Eisenhower Cabin,” one of ten cabins on the Augusta National property, was built by the golf club’s membership for member Dwight D. Eisenhower after his election as President of the United States. He had joined the club in 1948 and had visited Augusta National five times before his election, 29 times while President, and 11 times after he left office. His stays there were at times lengthy. The cabin was built according to Secret Service security guidelines, and, during his presidency,…

As a kid, sport autographs were my favorite to acquire. As an adult, they’re my least favorite. I won’t delve into all the reasons why, but it makes the fact that this is the third story I’ve written about the Tom Brady missing jersey all the more frustrating. And I hate the Patriots!!!!

I wrote about it being stolen. I wrote about it being recovered. I thought that would be all that was needed with this story, but when I found out about how it…

It's been kinda slow in Northeastern Ohio as the concert season slows down in the winter months.  However, there were a few that came to town and a program at the Rock Hall which enabled me to add to the collection.

First, the Rock Hall hosted a movie screening of the documentary Take Me To The River and had a panel discussion with a few musicians, the director and producer after the film was shown.  It is a very good documentary about Stax records that had some young rappers…

Just sitting here watching Conan O'Brien (I'll never forget the time he held up a copy of Autograph magazine to talk with Will Ferrell about a story I wrote about him). Anywhooo....he talked about the autographed Playboy magazine that sold for $4,900 (which is way over-priced and will never be worth that). Conan's joke was, "It was inscribed 'To my good friend Dr. Ben Carson...

Anyway, that's not why I'm writing this blog at 11 p.m. It's because I went to a mall I hadn't been to in…

CinemaCon is a big movie convention in Las Vegas that’s attended by many movie theatre owners and people in the business. Unlike ComicCon, it’s not something the casual fan would want to attend (not to mention the tickets being a 10 times the price of ComicCon). They have trade shows that show off various products that theatre owners might be interested in…

Collecting autographs has made me crazy. For example, I can’t look at a photo of somebody famous without a signature on it, and appreciate it. The picture just looks...so naked without a dark black Sharpie signature across the top!

Speaking of naked...there was a music website where a guy was bragging about a photo of Jim Morrison he purchased for thousands of dollars. It had never been published before, and the person with the negative was only…

I notice that while there are often beginner collectors looking for advice on specific autographs or tips on starting out in the hobby in general, one thing that seems to be overlooked in the "Autographs 101" department is how this website functions. By that, I mean that new users come to this website without a basic understanding of this hobby and what to expect from this website, and sometimes they walk away (for good) frustrated because their venture into…

I did a blog about the Tom Brady Super Bowl jersey that disappeared. I thought it would only be fitting (no pun intended) to do the follow up.

A media executive working for the Mexican media named Martin Mauricio Ortega is the suspect. He’s the former director of the tabloid La Prensa. He went to the Super Bowl as a working…

No autograph is more popular than Mickey Mantle's. And no autograph is forged more.



Many Mantle forgeries are easy to identify, once you know what to look for. Telling a skilled forgery from a genuine Mantle takes a lot…

Everyone is talking about the death of rock ‘n roll legend Chuck Berry. Well, a few days before his passing, another legend died. Hardly a household name, but he certainly was in my household.

James Cotton was Muddy Waters harmonica player, who in the ‘60s, played a lot of shows at the legendary Fillmore. As a kid obsessed with…

I have always had a passion for autographs, collecting, and handwriting, along with a passion for America's…