I'm big into sports memorabilia. For some reason I keep a lot random shit from playing days/games I've been to etc. My dream is at some point to have a man cave with a leather lazy-boy, billiards table, big screen, dart board, cowboy clicker, wet bar w/decanter and all of my random ass sports memorabilia surrounding me.
Anyway, one of the things I always loved was autographs, but it comes with a couple stipulations. First I really hate going up to an athlete and asking for an autograph with some random napkin and pen. I feel dirty when I do it and I'm sure they hate getting that all the time when they are trying to have dinner with their family. Second, I hate paying for a stock autograph, it's just not the same. It's akin to baseball cards as a kid. In my mind the only acceptable ways to acquire a baseball card is to 1. Pull it from a pack you bought. 2. Trade. 3. Win a bet with the card as collateral. Now in terms of autographs there are those autograph sessions which is somewhat acceptable because you get pictures and handshakes but still, it's not the same.
So anyway a guy I know has somewhow cracked the autograph code and has a great system to acquire sports memorabilia.
This guy is a HUGE Cowboys fan, so obviously he collects a lot of memorabilia.
Anyway here is his system for scoring autographs.
First, he buys a relatively cheap pictures of players (8X10). Typically he finds these through websites selling pictures and Ebay.
Next he takes those pictures puts them in plastic/bubble wrap then he puts them in a manila envelope that is self addressed with postage. THEN he puts that inside another manila envelope and sends it to the team headquarters.
Now here's the key in my opinion.
He writes a generic portion of the letter explaining "I've been a fan since X, I have a whole room with Y." He also includes a segment explaining that he's just looking to add this to his collection, he's not going to sell it on Ebay, If the player wants to make it personal or do whatever to prevent selling that's fine, and if they don't want to sign it it's no big deal.
He typically gets them back and frames them any way he wants and adds it to his collection.
I like the idea because you still have a good story to tell, and there's that hunting aspect to it, but it's not like you're throwing $50 bucks down just so you have a picture with a name on it.
Anyway I thought it was a great idea and thought I'd pass it along.
