How to Send Autograph Requests to Celebrities

Autograph collecting is a fun hobby that is easy and rewarding from the start. Many celebrities, movie stars, and athletes are eager to hear from their fans and gracious enough to autograph items sent through the mail.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Paper and Pen (Word Processor) for writing letters
• Envelopes
• Stamps
• Photographs or index cards or items to sign
• Internet
• Access to a forum to obtain addresses

How to Send Autograph Requests to Celebrities

1. Log onto the Internet. The Internet is a power tool for almost everything nowadays and the same goes for autograph collecting. There are many sites that have great addresses for whatever celebrity that you would like to contact. One outstanding site is www.startiger.com because it is reasonably priced and the members post successes and failures along with each address. So, if an address worked many times, it is a safe bet that it will work for you. Creativity is another way to acquire addresses. If you hear that a celebrity will be on Broadway, in concert, or filming a movie in town, you can obtain these types of addresses easily and try them.

2. Choose whom you would like to write to and then compose a letter to that person. Celebrities appreciate personalized letters, just like anyone else, so mention what makes you a fan and ask them politely if they would fulfill this request by signing the enclosed item or providing an item of their own. There are very generous celebrities that will send a nice signed head-shot. If you send a picture or index card or baseball, and it is in front of them, they will sign it and send it back. Not all celebrities are willing to find a picture and send it to you. However, it does happen.

3. Make it as easy for the celebrity as possible. A very good rule of thumb in sending a request is to send a self-addressed envelope along with the letter and the item. However, do not count on getting a reply if you have to make the celebrity address an envelope to you and buy a stamp. Purchase an envelope big enough to accommodate what you're sending and also purchase another one that is one size smaller for the return envelope.

4. Place everything into the envelope addressed to the celebrity and do not forget the return address. The post office does not like phantom letters post 9/11 and neither do paranoid celebrities. Weigh the item on a postal scale and attach the appropriate postage.

5. Write down to whom you sent the request to and when you sent the letter. You may receive a response in one week, three months, never, and anywhere in between. The more requests you send out, the harder it is to keep track of whom you are contacting.

Tips & Warnings

• The website mentioned is a really great resource and everyone is into helping fellow collectors so you can learn a lot by just reading what is posted and even inquiring through email. Sometimes choosing a rising star to write to is a great way to get what will be a hard to get autograph later. Someone like Johnny Depp was thrilled to receive mail when he was up and coming but, as his star rose, just keeping track of the sheer volume of letters is impossible for him. There are many websites that detail how long the response took, what the response was, and where to send the response to.
• Sport stars are very difficult to contact through the mail. Very popular movie stars are also super hard to reach because someone, such as Brad Pitt, gets too many letter to respond to. Some celebrities send back photographs with pre-printed signatures on them. They are not hand signed and are worthless, unless you like the picture.