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Autograph Magazine is Going Primarily Online

I’m sorry for the delays getting the magazine out. Autograph magazine needs to primarily become an online publication, for many reasons that I'll tell you tomorrow.

We’ll all miss print issues, but I think you’ll love the online benefits: more and larger photos, discussion forums, and feedback on celebrity address success are just a few! Plus current subscribers will get twice the months of your remaining subscriptions (international subscribers will get additional credit).

If you’re not happy, we’ll give you a pro-rata refund. But I think you will be.

I'm heading to a Jewish High Holidays dinner at my mom's house, so I have to leave now. I'll be back online in the morning with more details. Please stay tuned.

Thanks,

Steve

0 members like this

Comment by Stephen Duncan on September 19, 2010 at 2:11pm: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Celebrities-Understanding-Celebrity-Autographs/129289450451856?ref=ts
There are several very good ways to fight this war on forgeries and I applaud any positive effort. My personal approach is by education. Education for the collector/fan and education for the celebrities. Many celebs just do not know how out of control these BOGUS autographs really are. Please join me on my FB page linked above and request as many of your friends as possible to join. I contact dozens of celebs each week through dozens of means to try and get them to understand.

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on September 19, 2010 at 3:30pm: TJ, knowledge is the key to successful autograph collecting. The problem is that fans and collectors get victimized by the forgery sellers with their first purchases, and often don't find out they've been cheated until they try to sell years down the road.

Would you rather learn how to collect safely before you buy, or after you're burned? If we go down with the ship trying to protect collectors, there are worse ways to go.

Comment by Stephen Duncan on September 19, 2010 at 6:37pm: TJ, should we stop trying to find a cure for cancer because that to is (what some people say) a lost cause? How about stop trying to feed the hungry because there are so many more still hungry?
This is our passion, autograph collecting. No one is saying we are going to clean it up the whole industry (heck, the american government cannot clean up the war on drugs and they spend BILLIONS).
If just 10 of the most honest collectors in this country can do their part, .....its a start amigo.

Comment by Mark J Gross on September 20, 2010 at 8:51am: Hopefully, as I myself do not even know as of yet....Steve, will still be able to give everyone a great experience here online reading about autographs, collecting, news, photos, blogs , CONVENTIONS with guests that come out to sign, such as I often attend, and still have we writers feature our interviews and coverage of events dealing with the celebs and collecting autographs, that we cover and write about in many genres! I still hope to report on genre horror , sci-fi and nostalgia shows with first hand interviews and more dealing with our love of this hobby!!

Comment by David Catlin on September 20, 2010 at 1:29pm: TJ...I don't know what you collect but I collect Pro football HOF autographs. I'm fortunate to live by the pro football HOF an have had over 30 years of collecting in person. The whole key is knowledge. My advice to you and anyone who is a collector is subscribe to all of the publications and websites that you can and make connections. For sports autpgrahs one of the best publications is Sports Collectors Digest (SCD) it list numerous autograph shows and articles from some of the top collectors and people in the industry. Going to shows is the best way to make connections and gain knowledge. The more friends you make that have the same collecting interest as you are going to be great sources for legitimate autographs. Yes there are plenty of dealers who are selling forgeries but there are also a number of dealers who are selling legitimate product as well. In my opinion if a seller won't offer a money back guarentee and back his item if it gets rejected by PSA/DNA, JSA or any of the legitimate knowledgeable experts then that should tell you that either he knows that it is a forgery or he believes it might be one.

Comment by Rick Badwey on September 21, 2010 at 12:41pm: Steve, a "Jewish High Holidays dinner"? I thought you were an anti-semite according to SK. Of course, you know I am being totally facetious and sarcastic.
Steve is a hard worker and doing his best to keep the autograph industry alive and well. I think we all wish you well with this concept and I am behind you 100%

Comment by Tim Henderson on September 21, 2010 at 1:05pm: Steve when will the site be up for the online publication and what is the URL? Will you still have all the same colums? I am really going to miss the actual magazine but I understand times are tough! God Bless!!!

Comment by Stacy Saldana on September 22, 2010 at 1:57pm: I still feel like I"m in the dark as to what's going on with the magazine and the online part of it. Are we going to have to pay for this site once our subscription runs out?

Comment by DB on September 22, 2010 at 2:28pm: Stacy - I'll wait for steve to chime in on price but the answer as far as I am aware is yes as it is replacing the print copy.

Comment by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on September 24, 2010 at 9:32pm: I'm sorry to have been so scarce. I'm going to be setting up a forum this weekend to answer subscriber questions. If we have your email in our subscriber database you should have gotten a few emails from us about what's going on, how to access the subscriber section of our site, and what we're offering subscribers. Please send me your regular email if we don't have it.

This is what we're offering subscribers—and I think most will like it.

For current US subscribers, for every month remaining in your print subscription you will get two months of online access to our subscriber section.

Current Canadian subscribers will get 2.5 months of online access to our subscriber section for every month remaining in their subscription.

Current International subscribers will get 4 months of online access to our subscriber section for every month remaining in their subscription.

Since we didn't publish July and August, and only have been getting September up since mid-month, those months don't count against your subscription.

Starting next year, we plan to publish print collectors issues a few times a year. We hope to have the first one out in January, and they'll be on focused topics. The first one will probably be Babe Ruth, then subjects like Marilyn Monroe, The Beatles, modern A-List Hollywood, etc. You can pick the ones you want, and they'll count as a regular print issue would have against your subscription. Hopefully I'm explaining it well.

Autograph Magazine Live! will remain free. Parts of our editorial site will be free: news, events, featured blogs and more. We want to help grow the community and make it safer, so we'll provide the basic things the hobby needs for free. But most features, columns, celebrity addresses, etc., will be for paid subscribers.

One thing I'm especially excited about is that we've acquired the electronic rights to Charles Hamilton's "American Autographs Volumes I&II"—THE BOOK for Presidential and Revolutionary War collectors. It's been out of print since the mid-1980s, almost 700 pages, and copies bring $700-$1,000, when you can find them.

We'll be making "American Autographs" available free to the autograph community, but subscribers will have access to huge images—you'll be able to blow the images up as if you're looking at them with a magnifier. That alone will be worth the subscription price for many collectors.

Subscriptions and renewals will be only $29.95 a year after your current one runs out, with discounts for multi-year subs.

Hope that info helps—and again, please email me with your regular address if you're a subscriber and didn't get our emails.

Thanks,

Steve