Not a good thing!

[indyreds]

Yesterday I had gotten an email sent back for an email requested auto with a quick note saying I hope that this works as an autograph for you and a scan of an autographed photo was attached. Looking around for some new email addresses and I ran across this golfers page where she will email you an autograph? Yeah this is a possible sad new trend. Here is a link to golfer Sandra Gal website with her policy:
http://www.sandragal.com/main.htm
It is scary to see that coming as it might be an end to email autos should this catch on!

[Riggs]

wow thats the first i have seen of this. Hate to say this but i could see this being the norm before long with some, not all.. Still have to believe there are enough athletes/ celebs that care enough to send actual autographs out to fans.

Makes me wonder how many athletes/celebs get there inbox spamed with request for autographs? If there good signers prolly a lot & Recipients spending there own dime to send stuff out only to have maybe 1/4 of there 8x10's or 5x7's end up for sale?

just thinking out loud again.... lol

[cyberer]

a person that would have that obviously doesnt understand the appeal of an autograph- holding a physical object that was held or touched by the athlete or celeb that you are a fan of...

[Sawks14]

a person that would have that obviously doesnt understand the appeal of an autograph- holding a physical object that was held or touched by the athlete or celeb that you are a fan of...

Or maybe they understand it all too well and are tired of seeing their autos on ebay and their email addys on website to website.

The email auto to me has always been a different level of generosity from an athlete or celebrity. Thats taking an email and well out of your way to respond with a tangible auto and mail it out. I don't think anybody can object to people not doing it.

That said...an email auto...seriously? Thats going out of your way to just rub it in that your not going to sign.

[Trocat]

I got one of those from Jose Calderon.

[ChrisR]

It weeds out the true fans. This has been going on for at least 6 years now that I know of. However, if you actually write a letter and send the SASE, you get an autograph.

I LOVE THIS, there is nothing more aggravating to me than someone posting an email success than 200 "Fans" promptly post "I am so going to send to them right nowz, thankz =) it's garbage. They care nothing for the person, only "need" that autograph so it can get placed in a box/album only to lead to the question "Who is this person and why did I want their autograph" when they finally go through that autographs a year later.

I say good for stars to start doing this. I feel it's above and beyond when a star not only pays for the photo but signs it too. They don't need to pay for supplies and postage on top of it. If someone is a fan the $1 or so postage each way should be deemed well worth the investment. If someone dosen't think a certain star is worth the time and $3 or so bucks they are clearly not anywhere near a fan.

[REDANDGOLDPRIDE]

It weeds out the true fans. This has been going on for at least 6 years now that I know of. However, if you actually write a letter and send the SASE, you get an autograph.

I LOVE THIS, there is nothing more aggravating to me than someone posting an email success than 200 "Fans" promptly post "I am so going to send to them right nowz, thankz =) it's garbage. They care nothing for the person, only "need" that autograph so it can get placed in a box/album only to lead to the question "Who is this person and why did I want their autograph" when they finally go through that autographs a year later.

I say good for stars to start doing this. I feel it's above and beyond when a star not only pays for the photo but signs it too. They don't need to pay for supplies and postage on top of it. If someone is a fan the $1 or so postage each way should be deemed well worth the investment. If someone dosen't think a certain star is worth the time and $3 or so bucks they are clearly not anywhere near a fan.

I'm with you there. I wouldn't say it's a "good thing" it's kind of dumb to send someone a digital autograph but you can't blame them. Email TTM'ing gets abused pretty badly, it seems like the email success threads are just people sending to everyone they can just to do it and "get" the autographs even though they truly don't care much about it. It's a waste for the celebrity and agents, a waste for the postal service, and basically a waste for you if you don't really care about it.

This goes in in regular TTM'ing as well, people just sending because "so and so is a great signer" but not as bad as emails.

[cyberer]

as someone that abuses the email threads in the manner described above (getting autos from people I know nothing about), I will say that I agree with the sentiment that you put forth. I do not feel that any star is obligated to send me an email autograph. However I do reserve my right to send to anyone for any reason, whether I am a "true fan" of theirs or not. I am trying to build the best autograph collection that I can, and if someone is offering me a free auto for no effort on my part I'm going to get it.

[jyosi]

I started collecting autographs when I was about 10, got really into when I was 14, and when I was 18 I reached what I figured was the pinnacle of the hobby (got Micheal Jordan and LeBron James on jerseys in person within a week of each other) and stopped until just recently. I'm 24 now.

What I learned is that the 3,000+ signed cards that I have mean absolutely nothing to me anymore, over 70% of the baseballs I have signed now I don't care for, and I wouldn't miss most of the 8x10s one bit.

Moral of the story to me was step back and think about what you are actually doing. Sure it was fun getting all of that stuff signed back then, but damn do I wish I wouldn't have wasted so much time, energy, money on it now. The quality trumps quantity and all quantity does is take up space, but you feel bad throwing it out because you want to believe it is worth something.

Which leads to my next opinion that email successes are just worthless. They are always low-grade stock photos of second-rate athletes/celebrities and they have no story. "Cool Coach K auto. How did you get?" Oh, I just wrote an email to his agent asking for one. That isn't going to be an interesting story to anyone. Is it really even cool to own that? I know mine is as other people have said, just packed in an envelope in a box somewhere and I will never display it. That was the only email requested I ever sent and I'll never send another one. At least TTM you sent a card or photo that had some sort of journey to get back to you and you can keep records and make mini-projects and make it more than some piece of cardboard being mailed to you by a secretary from a pre-signed stack.

I guess I'm just trying to say think about what you are actually trying to accomplish in your collection and is a Sandra Gal autograph really going to improve what it means to you? I almost think she should be thanked for not wasting space in your closet with a worthless signed photo.

And one more opinion of mine. Autographs are about experiences and stories. I have awesome stories form in person failures that an email or ttm success can't even touch.

Bottom line, maximize each item in your collection and don't just add autographs for the sake of having them. Not for the sake of the celebrity, I couldn't care less about their inbox being full, but you will regret having so much worthless stuff later.

[REDANDGOLDPRIDE]

Bottom line, maximize each item in your collection and don't just add autographs for the sake of having them. Not for the sake of the celebrity, I couldn't care less about their inbox being full, but you will regret having so much worthless stuff later.

Well said.