Anyone who is over the age of forty remembers how popular collecting baseball cards was back in the late 1980s through the early 1990s.  For me, it was the 1988 Topps baseball set that piqued my interest in collecting baseball cards again.  Unfortunately, the popularity of collecting baseball cards then was brief.  Many of us spent a lot of our money on worthless rookie cards that ended up on the curb, along with the rest of our cardboard treasures from back then that amounted to…

Autograph collectors are certainly not the easiest people to purchase a gift for.  That is what makes purchasing an autograph for someone who is not an autograph collector so much fun.  Imagine a family member who is a New York Yankees fan receiving an Aaron Judge autographed baseball.  Or a friend who is a Star Wars fan receiving a Daisy Ridley autographed photo.  That is the magic of autograph gifts.…

I recently had the honor and pleasure of meeting David Proval.  The venue was SopranosCon in New Jersey.  I wanted to add his autograph to my Mean Streets photo.  The photo already had the autographs of Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese on it.

I made all of the necessary preparations.  I placed the photo into a protective folder, and then into a protective envelope.  I tested my blue Sharpie, so that his autograph would match Robert De Niro’s and Martin Scorsese’s…

On June 18, 1978, my father treated me to my first New York Yankees baseball game.  We sat in the upper deck.  It was Bat Day, and I could not wait to see Reggie Jackson play.  He put on an incredible show during batting practice, hitting one baseball out of Yankee Stadium and onto River Avenue in the Bronx.  At least that is how I remember it.  I was eight years old.  Unfortunately, his performance in the game was not as exciting.  He went 0-4, striking out four times.

Four years…

It was my freshman year of college in the spring of 1988.  I walked to a local convenience store to purchase a few necessaries.  While I was checking out, I noticed a box of Topps baseball cards on the counter.  I could not resist.  With the exception of one pack in the spring of 1986, I had not purchased baseball cards since 1981.  That was the year that the New York Yankees lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.

I spent the entire summer of 1988 completing that set.…

When I realized that Val Kilmer would be attending Terrificon this August, I immediately thought of my Warwick Davis signed Willow photo, and how incomplete it was without his signature.  A decision needed to be made.  Was it too far away?  Would I regret not attending, since he makes rare appearances?  I did not hesitate, and I immediately purchased a ticket.…

"We all have our hobbies."

That was the response that I gave to an elderly gentleman back in 1999.  My best friend and I were waiting on line outside of the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City.  A new Star Wars movie was about to be released for the first time in sixteen years.  The elderly gentleman was with his wife, and he asked me what we were all doing on the sidewalk.  After I explained our purpose, he said, "They should get a giant cage and lock you all in it."  After I…

I have been collecting autographs since I asked Phil Esposito to sign a scrap piece of paper in 1981 at the age of eleven, but it was never a true hobby until twenty-one years ago.  It was then that I not only continued to collect in-person autographs, but also made quite a few purchases from dealers.  It was not until seven years later that I discovered Autograph Collector Magazine.

I was browsing through the magazine section of my local Borders bookstore when I noticed a…