Few collectors would disagree that best autographs are those that are receved in person. Trouble is, its often expensive and time consuming. Sometimes its impossible. Neil Armstrong, to just name one tough autograph, wouldn't sign if you were sitting next to him at an airport. Barry Bonds would just stare at you even if you asked politely.

All of that's true, but its still not impossible to get some GREAT autographs in person, if you're in the right place at the right time and pull the trigger.

I don't have a Neil Armstrong, but I do have several Barry Bonds autographs. A family trip to Cancun just after Barry Bond's rookie year brought me several Barry Bonds autographs way back when he was much smaller and a lot nicer. At the time he was a high profile player, a few years later he was was at the top of the pyramid and an almost impossible in-person autograph. His star has been tarnished in the last few years, but in my opinion, the future value of his autograph, though it might be lessened among sports purists, will be heightened among the generalists who collect "big names." Regardless of monetary value, when I look at the autographs I remember good times.

One of my favorite entertainers was Don Knotts. He didn't even have to speak to be funny, but when he did he was one of the best. I got his autograph at a personal appearance at a local mall over a decade ago. I picked up a signed photo of Howard Morris (Ernest T. Bass) while I was there. Last year I bought a Hal Smith (Otis Campbell) signed photo and had it professionally framed with the Barnie and Ernest T. It looks great.

A few years back, my family spent a pleasant day at a local water park. While we were cooling off under an umbrella, we heard a small commotion nearby. It was Mick Foley of WCW and WWE wrestling fame. All I could my hands on was a french fry cup from the concession stand. I borrowed a pen. After a short, pleasnat conversatio with him, he signed as Cactus Jack and that signed french fry cup is a part of my collection.

My wife and I spent last New Years's Eve in Biloxi Mississippi. the high point was a midnight Little Richard concert. He's getting old, but he still puts on a great show. To my surprise and delight about the middle of the show he held up a poster and said that he would be happy to sign one just like it after the show to all that bought a poster for $20. He repeated the offer a couple more times, even mentioning that he was getting up in years and he wasn't going to be here forever. Both my wife and I bought a poster and got them signed. One is framed in my computer room.. Not surprisingly to me, only a hundred or so took Richard up on his offer. A signed Little Richard poster could get around $200. Little Richard is normally a tough autograph.

Over a lifetime, most people could build a nice autograph collection capturing nice memories, but they have to be ready to jump on opportunity.

It was once a lot easier to get good autographs through the mail. Internet websites that share celebrity addresses have hurt. Many began to ask themselves if it was really worth it to spend their free time giving free autographs to people who in many cases didn't care who the celebrity was and planned to sell it on eBay as soon as they got it. Others realized that selling their own autographs could be another income stream. Big name sports stars, particularly baseball, and astronauts are two groups who once signed freely, but now cash in.

But there are still many who will sign for only the price of postage going both ways. One can still easily get enough autographs with the aid of a good celebrity address book to pay for the book several times over. The autograph industry also has a monthly publication called Autograph Collector that each month includes a list of celebrity addresses. Recent back issues can be bought cheap on eBay.

My favorite "through the mails" usually have more story attached than monetary value. One of my favorites is the recently deceased Lloyd Bucher who's claim to fame was as commander of the U.S.S. Pueblo, captured by North Korea. Eight-two surviving crew members were held captive for 11 months. North Korea still holds the ship captive and, oddly enough, its a major tourist attraction there. I asked Bucher for an autograph - free, of course. He answered with a form letter signed "B," stating that he had recently became aware that people were profiting from his autographs and he might has well start selling it himself. I decided to buy a signed copy of a "Time" magazine cover story for $10. Commander Bucher must have felt guilty because along with the signed cover, he sent a note signed "Pete," a signed copy of his painting of the Pueblo (he was also a great artist), a small portfolio of his art and three copies of his other paintings in the form of greeting cards. I also kept my cancelled check with his endorsement on the back. A few years later I added to the collection a White House letter (autopen) from the Bucher estate that then President Clinton had sent Bucher in answer to a letter that Bucher sent Clinton. The subject is not directly addressed in the letter, but his estate says that Bucher was concerned about Clinton's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy regarding gays in the military.

I asked the Dennis the Menace cartoonist, Marcus Hamilton, for a signed sketch and he sent me back a nice one. A couple years later, he bought a Dennis the Menace poster from one of my eBay auctions. I then reminded him that we had "met" before and I asked him for a sketch for my daughter. A few days later it was in my mail box.

I asked the horror writer Dean Koontz to autograph a video box. The movie was an adaptation of one of his books. He sent me back an 8 page info sheet with a note on the first page "Bill - I can't sign the video box because I had nothing to do with the film --- and I LOATHED it!. He also included a nice signed photo, "Boo! Dean Koontz 11/12/96."

Some of my other favorite "through the mails" are a Dale Earnhardt / Richard Petty duel signed TV Guide. A "Grumpier Old Men" VHS box with the signatures of Sophia Loren and Jack Lemmon, a signed Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger vintage comic book and a General Colin Powell Newsweek Cover. Generally, you will not get your most valuable autographs through the mail for free, but its still a cheap, but fun way to add to a collection.

I have many though the mail autographs in my collection, but a few favorites not yet mentioned are Bill Cosby, Shirley MacLaine, Charlton Heston, Tony Curtis, Dick Van Dyke, Dolly Parton, Hulk Hogan, Dick Clark, Annette Funicello, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Dennis Weaver, Burt Reynolds, Art Carney, and Rod Stewart. Several of those just named are now deceased, so a good time to start writing for autographs is "now."

Today, when most people think auctions, the next thought is eBay, but before the internet, auctions were mostly "live," that is, with an auctioneer and an audience with paddles in their hands. The old comedy sketch made light of the fellow afraid to scratch his nose. I don't attend many auctions, but they are alive and well. In fact, many eBay sellers buy some of their inventory in this way.

I did attend one very good auction awhile back. An antique dealer's gambling addiction got him in trouble and the government ordered his $2 million dollar inventory auctioned off to the highest bidders. I added some nice ones to my collection that day at a very nice price: P.T. Barnum, Oliver Wendell Homes, Thomas Nast (he basically invented our image of Santa Clause), Henry Clay, Booker T. Washington, World War 1 Flying Ace Eddie Rickenbacker, Peter Cooper (invented jell-o and a ton of more important things), General George Marshall as Secretary of Defense, and some other good ones.

If you get a chance to bid at an auction like the one I described, don't let it pass you by.

I find most of today's estate sales over priced because too many people think everything is worth a fortune on eBay. There are still some good ones, but one has to spend a lot of time sorting them out from the bad ones. Too many times, the good stuff is cherry picked and put on eBay before the walk-in customers ever see it. The few good ones nowadays are generally out in the woods, down little country roads conducted by family members instead of professional estate liquidators.

I did find one of my favorite pieces at an estate sale. I usually like to look through the junk that most everybody else ignores. I found a Three Stooges signed picture (not really a photo, but a copy of a photo on paper, the kind that were distributed to fans because photos were too expensive). It's a good one of Larry, Moe and Shemp signed "To Inez & Drummond ... Moe .. Sincerely ...The 3 Stooges ... 2/15/48". I didn't notice that it was signed by Shemp until I got home. Larry didn't sign. This photo was mixed in with the wallpaper that was used as drawer lining. I asked the guy in charge how much and he said "free." I wasn't thinking clearly at the time, because I laid it down to look for something else. Some guy grabbed t and we got in a little argument. He told the guy in charge that he'd be willing to pay for it. I said I'll give $20, and the man stormed out of the house mad. The picture is worth a few hundred dollars. I have it framed with another Stooge photo signed by Larry and three vintage trading cards. Unfortunately, I didn't pull the trigger when I could have had a Curly Joe Howard signature for $100 a decade ago. I do have signed photos of the other two third Stooges, Joe Besser and Joe DeRita.

I've bought a few autographs at flea markets. I once bought a stack of a bout a hundred for 50 cents each that a had been part of a school class project. Several are inscribed to "The Holly Pond Glee Club." Chyna Phillips, Toni Tenille, Dick Martin (of Rowan and Martin fame), a Brady Bunch photo signed by creator Sherwood Schwartz, James Caan, Bo Derek, Amy Grant, Naval Admiral Elmo Zumwalt are a few of the names. Nothing of great monetary value, but certainly worth more than what I paid. Point is, autographs can be found at flea markets.

aBay deserved its own lens, so check my lens list. In my opinion, regardless, of what you hear, today's eBay is the best place to buy genuine vintage autographs. Not necessarily today's hottest stars, but vintage - with a little knowledge, its not the mine field as generally accepted and its a buyer's market mainly because its generally accepted to be a mine field.

I rarely attend book signings (in person, that is). I would more often, but since I don't live in a major metropolitan area most of who we get at the book stores, even the mega big ones like Barnes and Noble, are fiction (which I don't collect) or local authors.

However, it is possible to collect great signed books by notable authors without leaving your home. You can do it through the internet. Just hook up with some of the book stores in the major metropolitan areas who host the big names when they are in town. They will take your order over the net or phone and ship it to you for the price of the book and postage. I've gotten books signed by Henry Kissinger, basketball great Bill Russell (who was a VERY tough signature before he became an author), Jimmy Carter, astronauts Dave Scott, Buzz Aldin (three different books), Gordon Cooper, Edgar Mitchell, Scott Carpenter, Gene Cernan, Alan Bean, Jim Lovell, and behind the scenes NASA guys Gene Krantz and Chris Kraft. If you collect signed fiction, which I don't, this collecting method is really productive.

The best story I have from the book store signings involves one of the toughest signatures of any living author. I know I said that I don't collect fiction writers, but I made an exception in this case. A few years back, I was living on the Alabama Gulf Coast and I came across an article in the Mobile Register about a Monroeville, Alabama bookstore that carried SIGNED copies of the 35th Anniversary Edition of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and sold them at only the book cost because of their respect for Harper Lee, who still lives in Monroeville part of the year. The owners were angry that people were buying signed copies from them at cover cost and throwing them on eBay for a couple hundred dollars. What was their solution? Get the word out through the big city paper in Mobile that they'd sell to anybody for cover cost and beat the eBay sellers at their own game. I would guess that even more dealers called them up for copies. I'm primarily an autograph collector. I've sold tons of other collectibles on eBay, but I usually keep an autograph. When I called to place an order, the employee's only questions were "How many and where do you want it sent to?" I would have loved to have had a hundred, but I took two. I kept one and sold the other on eBay for $250.

Since the VHS format is practically dead, you might want to think about just throwing them away- unless you have one that has sentimental value or have a favorite that can't yet be found on DVD. Very few have resale value.

But consider saving the boxes. Most VHS boxes are collapsible so they are easy to store. They are easy to mail and easy to take to places where celebrities gather, like conventions, fan fests and book signings. Celebrities like to sign them because it shows that you actually liked their work enough to buy it.

Sig: A simple signature

SP: Signed Photograph

ALS (Autograph Letter Signed): Letter written and signed by the subject.

TLS (Typed Letter Signed): Letter typed, but signed by the subject.

LS: (Letter Signed) Letter written by another, but signed by the subject.

DS: Document Signed

SB: Signed Book

FE: First Edition

FF: Free Frank

ANS: Autographed Note Signed

KS: (Key Signature) Considered the toughest, and maybe most expensive, autograph to acquire to complete a subject group.

FDC: First Day Cover

MQS: Musical Quote Signed

Inscribed: Personalized. For example: To Mary

RS: Responsive Signer

Autopen: Autograph originating from a machine designed for the purpose of replicating an autograph. Since the early 1950s all American presidents and many other government officials have used them for routine official correspondence. Also used by many astronauts.

Secretarial: Entirely written and signed by another, but authorized by the subject.

Facsimile: A printed copy of an original autograph.

Store your autographs in archival plastic sleeves or acid-free boxes. PVC sleeves will eventually destroy your autographs.

If you use board backs, use only those that are acid free.

If framing, use only acid free matting and plexiglass with ultraviolet filtering. Ask your framing service to use archival materials or "museum frame."

Never trim to fit a stock frame. Most likely the end result will be a devalued piece.

Don't display your framed autographs in direct sunlight.

Fluorescent lighting will fade autographs over time.

Never repair with cellophane tape. It will only make matters worse. It is best to leave most damaged paper alone. If the papers are valuable, it might be wise to consult a professional paper conservator.

Avoid storing your papers in areas of high humidity or heat.

The value of a signed piece, in the end comes down to what one person is willing to pay, so these values are only guidelines. Prices are based on what the collector should expect to pay a dealer. In other words, these are retail price estimates. Expect significantly less from a dealer, if you are the owner who chooses to sell.

Bud Abbott - $400
Lois Armstrong - $500
Fred Astaire - $200
Lucille Ball - $500
Frances Bavier (Aunt Bee) - $250
The Beatles - $4,000
Big Bopper - $300
Mel Blanc - $150
Humphrey Bogart - $3000
Marlon Brando - $750
James Cagney - $300
Al Capone - $5000
Karen Carpenter - $300
Ted Cassidy (Lurch) - $500
Lon Chaney - $2500
Charlie Chaplin - $1,000
Patsy Cline - $1200
Gary Cooper - $600
Lou Costello - $500
Bob Crane (Hogan's Heroes) - $200
Joan Crawford - $125
James Dean - $6,000
Bob Dylan - $500
Duke Ellington $500
W,C. Fields - $2,000
Clark Gable - $1,000
Judy Garland - $1,000
Cary Grant - $350
Rita Hayworth - $400
Jimi Hendrix - $2500
Alfred Hitchcock - $700
Billie Holiday - $2,000