There are people for whom collecting autographs is a way of getting closer to celebrities or acquiring personal mementos from people they admire. You may treat autographs as symbols of your encounters with people you idolize or can use them only as tangible representations of fame.
Whatever might be the reason for collecting autographs, you must make sure that you are either getting them from their famous owners or from reliable autographs dealers. In fact, these are the only ways of getting hold of autographs that are of high value.
Do you already have a few autographs in your collection? Are you wondering whether they are valuable enough? If yes, the discussion below will help you to determine the value of those autographs.
Gather Knowledge About the Items
You should always treat autographs as collector’s items. So, like any other collector’s item, autographs will also require you to take a path filled with twists and turns if you are interested in finding their actual worth.
You’ll have to take certain measures to get an accurate estimate of an autograph. The most crucial one among them is determining the identity of the person signing the autograph.
If you have received the autograph directly from the signer, the job of evaluating the item will become a lot easier for you as you know that what you have is 100% original. However, if you have purchased it from someone, make sure the seller knows everything about the origin of the autograph.
If you fail to acquire enough info from the seller, you can check indexes featuring records of signatures of celebrities and other famous figures and compare your item with the original signature.
Find Out Whether the Autographs Are among the Most Sought-after Pieces
The exact value of an autograph is determined based on how sought-after it is. In other words, supply and demand are the main factors deciding the true worth of an autograph.
Collectors keep looking for autographs of iconic figures. These are people who are relevant to every generation and their iconic status remains intact across genres. Some examples of such icons include Marilyn Monroe, George Washington, Babe Ruth, Charles Dickens, John Lennon, Mozart, and so on.
It’s obvious that it’s impossible to get these people to sign autographs for you. As these people are already dead and their fame and aura have not reduced even slightly after their demise, the demand for their autographs is still the same. However, the supply is no longer there.
So, autographs belonging to any such icon automatically become of great value. If you are buying them from someone, make sure you are paying for the real thing and not for any replica.
Check the Format of the Autographs
If the autograph is on a piece of paper or if it has been cut from a signed document, you should consider it valuable. However, the value of an autograph will be comparatively low if it’s a part of an album.
Final Words
If you are purchasing autographs from a top autograph dealer, you can rest assured about their authenticity. However, you should be ready to pay a sizeable amount to get hold of such original items.
