Building an Autograph Collection through Book SigningsHave an autograph collecting story you would like to share? Maybe you have a question about an autograph you have just discovered. Comments or questions, we'd we'd love to hear from you. Go to Your Autographs I rarely attend book signings. I would like to attend more, but since I don't live in a major metropolitan area most of who we get at local bookstores, even the mega-stores like Barnes and Noble, are fiction authors (who I don't collect) or local authors. However, it is possible to build a nice collection of signed books by notable authors without leaving your home. You can do it through the internet. Just hook up with some of the bookstores in major metropolitan areas who host the big names when they are in town. They will take your order over the internet or phone, and then ship it to you for the price of the book and postage. I have had books signed by Henry Kissinger, basketball great Bill Russell (who was a VERY tough signature before he became an author), and Jimmy Carter. I have an extensive collection of autographed astronaut biographies, and most of them came directly from book signings. If you collect signed fiction, a huge selection could be built quickly by placing your name on the reservation list of out of town book signings. The best story I have from 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. Several years ago 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." These books were being sold without a mark-up for the autograph because of the owner's 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 Mobile Register that they would sell a signed copy to anybody for retail cost of the book and beat the eBay sellers at their own game. When I called the Monroeville bookstore to place an order, the employee's only questions were "How many and where do you want them 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. I would guess that even more dealers ended up with signed copies than otherwise would have.
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