About 30 years ago, San Diego had its first “Street Scene” which were these cool festivals they had going for about 25 years. They ended up getting a lot more contemporary bands (ie hip-hop and alternative), but the first one had a lot of groups I loved. And I was determined to get some autographs. Robby Kreiger of The Doors, was playing with keyboardist Brian Auger. I had…

What do Oscar Robertson and Matt Groening have in common? Well, nothing really...but I'm combining stories about them for this blog.

I’m always fascinated when a Hall of Famer sells stuff from their legendary career. I understand when they die, and their family sells it. But, I recently heard about Oscar Robertson, one of my all-time…

You know what bothered me about the show “American Pickers”? As entertaining as it is, watching them discover all these hidden gems among a trash heap someone has in their barn, they always end up over-paying for items. I suspected this for years, and finally a magazine did an article stating the same thing. It said they would make no money paying the prices they pay for the items they have, since they’re basically buying many of them for what they’re worth.…

I love sports, but baseball kind of bores me. That doesn’t mean I don’t like baseball collectables. I remember being a kid and the excitement of getting Pete Rose and Johnny Bench rookie cards. I remember at a card show buying a Robin Yount rookie card for $10, after a kid had it autographed by Yount (his dad freaked out because he said it totally ruined the value of the card; it increased it for me).

I always…

Recently, a WNBA game between the Las Vegas Aces and Washington Mystics had to be canceled because the Aces couldn’t get to Washington. There was a flight delay of 8 hours. The team tried splitting the group up and flying on separate flights, but that didn’t work either. Since the game was canceled a mere hour and a half before tip-off, fans…

I’ve told this story before, but as a kid I was getting autographs after a San Diego Clippers game. They had played the Chicago Bulls, and we were all anxious to get their best player -- Reggie Theus (this was before they got Michael Jordan). It wasn’t that he was on the all-rookie team, or an all-star two different times, that one woman…

First, let me state something. I DO NOT want this website to become a place where people fight regarding politics. Second, as much of a doofus as I think Donald Trump is, I find it disgusting when people compare him to a Hitler, Nazis, or the KKK. But...that being said...this meme is still funny…

I haven’t gone to Comic-Con the last few years, but I always try to find good autograph stories from friends that have attended. Nancy Gutierrez told me a great story about being able to get into an autograph signing with the cast of “The Walking Dead”. Since I’ve heard so many horror stories (no pun intended) about people going to…

Most of us remember the Saturday Night Live bit that had William Shatner at a Star Trek convention. He’s answering bizarre, detailed questions about the show that he’d have no way of possibly knowing the answer to. They were such detailed things about a specific aspect of a certain episode, he finally, in exasperation, shouts “Get a life!”…

I was bummed when Sacha Baron Cohen dropped out of the Queen movie. He looks more like Freddie Mercury than Rami Malek, and I think he’s a better actor.

Cohen is probably best known to people for the character Borat he played, in a very bizarre and funny movie. He pretended to be from another…

Everywhere I’ve ever lived, my places have pens in every room, and piles of magazines. The reason is this. As a writer and journalist, I sometimes have an idea and I’m in one room, and wish I had a pen nearby. Or, you may be on the phone and somebody says something you need to write down. Regarding magazines, I only have a subscription to a few,…

Tab Hunter died just a few days shy of his 87th birthday. I didn’t really want to write a blog about him, for a few reasons. First, anybody under the age of 55 probably doesn’t know who he is. Second, my interaction with him didn’t go so well.

In 1955 he starred in “Battle Cry” and the following year it was “The Burning Hills.” He found bigger success in the 1958 music “Damn Yankees.” He also had a hit single in…

Aside from the "is it real?" questions we have about some auctions, I have a different question. Does it make it even worth buying the item if there's a high price to pay in addition to what the item ends up costing you? For example, I LOVE the items RR Auctions gets. Years ago, I purchased so many things from them. But that 22% premium you pay on top of it, is a bit high, don't you think? If I buy an item for $500...that means I'm paying over $100 in edition to that, and then more money on…

I thought I’d write a blog about autographs I didn’t get. What I mean by that is, people I could’ve gotten, but just didn’t want to. Now, I’ve had my share of ones I didn’t get because I dropped the ball. Three musicians come to mind.

When Joan Jett was playing at the House of Blues, I went…

I was talking to rapper Ice Cube one time, and told him I thought about bringing an empty ice cube tray to have him autograph. He looked at me like I was nuts, but hey...I think sometimes things like that are more interesting. Wouldn’t it be cool to have Willie Nelson’s autograph on a package of rolling papers? Anyway, I asked Ice (that’s what his friends call him) what the weirdest thing was he’s ever signed. He got this big grin and said,…

I was tempted to blog about the autograph Paul McCartney signed on the famous “Carpool Karaoke” segment on James Corden’s Late Night show. They drove down Penny Lane, while singing along to Penny Lane on the radio. When taking a selfie at the wall with the street sign “Penny Lane” he autographed it. I wonder if somebody will tear down that wall to get to that signature on a brick [fun fact: when I took the Beatles tour in Liverpool, they said they stopped…

I find this story interesting for two reasons, One, it involves an incredible collectable. A signed letter from Neil Armstrong along with a vial of moondust. Two, it involves a proactive lawsuit, which I never understand. The last time there was one of those, I think it involved Robin Thicke (being thick) proactively suing the estate of Marvin Gaye so they couldn’t claim his song “Blurred Lines” was a rip off of “Gotta Give it Up”  (it didn’t work, as the Gaye…

This might be the dumbest blog I ever write. It might also be one of the shortest. But...you know how people say that you start to look like your pet dog? And usually those stories have photos of people with their dogs, and you laugh endlessly.

Well, I've noticed something over the years, being an autograph collector. Sometimes husband/wives have similar signatures. The…

My favorite “Wizard of Oz” autograph story involves a reader of Autograph, but I can’t remember his name. When our magazine was actually at newsstands, I met with Steve Cyrkin one day, when he had a booth set up to get subscribers at one of those autograph shows at the Marriott in L.A. next to the airport. It was a fun time, and I was thrilled…