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Chapter IV: Autograph Organizations.
Joining an autograph organization can be useful for a collector,
especially a beginner. We have found many seasoned collectors
have long given up on some clubs. Very often I am told by a collector
that there needs to be a new club formed as they dropped out
of the one they have been a member for several years because
of all the problems they encountered with the members of the
board and the club itself. You may read some articles from club
officers stating how there is a continuing need to build membership.
There are many major reasons why they need to build membership
in an industry that has grow so large. There are also very valid
reasons why so many members have not renewed their membership!
If you are serious about collecting historical high end autographs
you may want to consider joining the Manuscript Society. Membership
is $60 per year. You can purchase safely from most of their advertisers.
Their website is www.manuscript.org. It’s still recommended
to do your homework and check any dealer with others.
In my opinion, the best organization to join whether you are
a beginner collector or seasoned dealer is the International
Autograph Collectors Club, AdA1986. This club was founded in
1986 and is based in Germany. This club is totally free of internal
politics and infighting. It is focused on educating the collector
and dealer. The club offers a forum to exchange ideas, internationally.
They are constantly printing articles on autograph collecting,
reviewing all autograph related reference books and will publish
just about anything else that can help the collector. If possible,
I highly recommend you attend their yearly meeting, it is an
autograph treat. The club magazine, which is issued four times
a year is a collectors item! Membership in this fine organization
is as little as $15 a year and you can join by logging onto their
website at www.autograph-club.org. Associated with this club
is the best autograph educational website which is used by nearly
every professional dealer in the world. Should you have a signature
that you question or would like to know more about a specific
signature log onto www.isitreal.com. Listed are all the signatures
that have been identified to be signed by the Autopen (signature
signing machine), secretarial, rubber stamped and preprinted
signatures. This site contains a wealth of information, which
is updated nearly daily.
Chapter V: COA's, Certificates of Authenticity
(Continued)
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