Great Deal or Ripoff? Can You Tell The Difference?
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Great Deal or Ripoff? Can You Tell The Difference?

By: Ruth Moore

The term autograph refers to a person's signature and is usually used in particular for the practice of collecting autographs of celebrities which is known as philography. While an individual's writing style does change throughout the life of a person, the degree of change may vary greatly. The signatures of Washington and Lincoln changed only slightly during their adult lives, while John F. Kennedy's signature was different virtually every time he signed.

Many factors affect an individuals signature, including their level of education, health, social environment and even sex, just to name a few. For instance someone who has had a limited education compared to someone with a High School Diploma will differ and they in turn will differ from someone with a Masters degree. Health problems such as poor sight, Schizophrenia, and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome will have some affect on a persons handwriting and a disease like Parkinson's disease can have traumatic effect on a persons signature.

Many individuals have much more fanciful signatures than their normal cursive writing, including elaborate ascenders, descenders and exotic flourishes, much as one would find in calligraphic writing. This might be found in today’s society amongst celebrities who often sign numerous autographs each day. Their normal signature, which might be found on a check or a personal letter, will be very different from an autograph that they sign on 3x5 card or 8x10 photograph. Simply because they sign so many photographs for fans that they have a tendency to scribble or abbreviate their signature. This does not mean that their autograph is any less important than their signature only that their actual signature may be harder to find.

Some collectors may specialize in specific fields, such as Academy Award winners, or general topics, such as their favorite bands. Still others will try to collect all the actors in a certain movie or television show. The variations of interests of collectors are virtually limitless.

Autograph collecting is an enthralling hobby to collectors, who enjoy assembling a series of photographs, letters, or objects that have been signed or autographed by a notable person as a way of capturing a piece of history or owning something that was personalized by their favorite celebrity. However, collectors must be aware that the hobby is fraught with documents, photographs and sports items that were signed by forgers seeking to profit by selling forged items to unwitting buyers. Sometimes just the signature has been forged, in other instances the entire document has been fabricated.

Forgers will often go to great lengths to make it so that their forgeries appear authentic. For instance, to forge a historical document they might use blank end papers from an old book to write their fake signatures in an attempt to match the paper of the era in which a historical personality lived.

However, there are also fakes that are not intended to defraud as in the use of an autopen. Politicians have used the autopen for decades because their signature is required on so many documents that it is not humanly possible for a politician to personally sign them all. In fact, a photo signed by astronaut Neil Armstrong prior to 1980 is most likely an autopen signature since Armstrong declined to sign most autographs. He now signs personally for he has had a decline in the amount of mail he receives.

Many large corporations also use the autopen for signing business letters. One might think that autopen signatures would constantly match one another. However, even autopen signatures will eventually change as the signature drum becomes worn and thereby alters the signature. Due to these professional imitations, one must be wary of buying presidential or astronaut signatures from unknown sellers.

Another type of fake that is commonly seen on eBay is called preprinting. Preprinting is when the item is only a photocopy of an actual autographed photo, usually printed on glossy home photo paper. Since this is almost always disclosed to the buyer, some may not consider these actual forgeries.

In any case, autograph collecting is an popular hobby because it is, for the most part, reasonably priced, does not take up much space or time, and fun for people of all ages.

Article Source: http://articlenexus.com

Ruth Moore is a writer for her hometown newspaper and owns a celebrity gift shop. Big Fan Gifts and Collectibles www.bigfangifts.com

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