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Autograph clubs were developed for both the collectors and dealers of autographs to obtain knowledge in the hobby of autograph collecting.
Autograph collecting may have started in the 16th century when Germans kept albums of correspondence when they traveled. By the late 18th century in Europe it was popular to collect letters of famous people. Until the 20th century, literary, political, and religious autographs were collected. With the creation of the cinema, radio, and television autographs from popular culture figures were sought. Since the mid-1970s hobby shops began appearing in the United States. The hobby of collecting autographs took off in the 1980s. By the 1990s the industry skyrocketed. According to Brookes Barnes, the autograph market is worth in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Handwritten letters are most sought after and are valued at three to five times the value of typed letters. A handwritten letter from Beethoven fetched $50,000 and a letter from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis fetched $10,500. In the early years sports signatures were particularly sought after reaching high prices. The death of any celebrity resulted in a rise in prices of autograph memorabilia. This made autographs of all types worth collecting. According to an article in the New York Times by Diane Sierpina, there are 1 million autographed document collectors nationwide and there are 5 million autographs collectors in the United States alone. According to Sports Collector Digest, the sports autograph market is worth $500 million. This number is in sports autographs alone; add celebrity, political, and other categories of autographs, and the number might reach the billions.
In the late 1990s according to the FBI, 70% of autograph memorabilia on the market was bogus.[ citation needed ] Due to the large amount of counterfeit autograph memorabilia, autograph clubs were developed to give potential purchasers the confidence to buy. It is a fact that a piece of autograph memorabilia is sold every 15 seconds on eBay or other Internet sites. The Autograph Club was first seen in the 1940s, with the hobby growing different clubs began emerging onto the scene. As the autograph clubs advanced, they began developing many new strategies to help the collector. Historically, clubs occurred in many different countries. Once people started buying, selling, and trading, there was need for people with a common interest to be able to associate with one another despite having no ties other than a common hobby. Autograph clubs were created for interest and enjoyment, along with financial rewards. Involvement in autograph clubs can lead to building advanced skills, knowledge, and experience. Education is the aim of most autograph clubs.
In 2013 the World Leaders Autograph Society was created and founded in Krakow by four participants from Poland, Norway and Slovakia. WLAS is an independent and nonprofit community of people from all over the world who share the common hobby - collecting of autographs of world leaders. This closed community has 35 members from 16 countries - Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden, the Philippines, the USA, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.
Stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects. It is related to philately, which is the study of stamps. It has been one of the world's most popular hobbies since the late nineteenth century with the rapid growth of the postal service, as a never-ending stream of new stamps was produced by countries that sought to advertise their distinctiveness through their stamps.
The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining items that are of interest to an individual collector. Collections differ in a wide variety of respects, most obviously in the nature and scope of the objects contained, but also in purpose, presentation, and so forth. The range of possible subjects for a collection is practically unlimited, and collectors have realised a vast number of these possibilities in practice, although some are much more popular than others.
A collectable is any object regarded as being of value or interest to a collector. There are numerous types of collectables and terms to denote those types. An antique is a collectable that is old. A curio is a small, usually fascinating or unusual item sought by collectors. A manufactured collectable is an item made specifically for people to collect.
An autograph is a person's own handwriting or signature. The word autograph comes from Ancient Greek, and can mean more specifically:
Autograph collecting is the practice of collecting autographs of famous persons. Some of the most popular categories of autograph subjects are presidents, military soldiers, athletes, movie stars, artists, social and religious leaders, scientists, astronauts, and authors.
Sports memorabilia refers to collectables associated with sports. Types include equipment, trophies, sports cards, autographs, photographs, etc.
A trading card is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing and a short description of the picture, along with other text. There is a wide variation of different types of cards. Modern cards even go as far as to include swatches of game worn memorabilia, autographs, and even DNA hair samples of their subjects.
A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on cardboard, silk, or plastic. These cards feature one or more baseball players, teams, stadiums, or celebrities. Baseball cards are most often found in the U.S. mainland but are also common in Puerto Rico or countries such as Canada, Cuba and Japan, where top-level leagues are present with a substantial fan base to support them. Some notable baseball card producing companies include Topps, Upper Deck Company, and Panini Group. Previous manufacturers include Fleer, Bowman, and Donruss. Baseball card production peaked in the late 1980s and many collectors left the hobby disenchanted after the 1994-95 MLB strike. However, baseball cards are still one of the most influential collectibles of all time. A T206 Honus Wagner was sold for $2.8 million in 2007.
Non-sport trading cards are a particular kind of collectible card designated as such because trading cards have historically prominently featured athletes from the world of sports as subjects. Non-sports cards are trading cards whose subjects can be virtually anything other than sports-themed.
The Upper Deck Company, LLC, founded in 1988, is a private company primarily known for producing trading cards. Its headquarters are in Carlsbad, California, United States.
Film memorabilia are objects considered of value because of their connection to the cinema. These include costumes, props, advertising posters, and scripts, among other things. Fans have always coveted memorabilia, but in recent years, what was once a hobby has mushroomed into big business, with millions of dollars changing hands in auctions held by such top firms as Christie's and Sotheby's. In addition, many popular films have their collectible items sold via independent, online movie memorabilia stores, web auctions, and at film studio charity events.
Baseball Hobby News was a United States-based news-oriented magazine about the field of baseball memorabilia collecting. Founded in 1979 by the husband-and-wife team of Frank and Vivian Barning, who served as editor and publisher, respectively, the magazine was published on a monthly basis until 1993. The first issue appeared in March 1979. Vivian Barning has been a card collector as a child, and came back to the hobby with her husband in 1975. For most of its run, it appeared in a newspaper-style format, although it later converted to a tabloid size with a color cover.
The National Sports Collectors Convention is the largest, annual trade show held in the United States devoted to sports memorabilia. Also known as The National, the convention has been held annually since 1980 when a small handful of sports card collectors convened at a hotel located adjacent to the Los Angeles International Airport. The show changes location each year to allow people from all areas of the country to participate. The show also changes the autograph signers each year.
The Pen & Quill is an American publication about collectible autographs and manuscripts. It was created by the Universal Autograph Collectors Club - UACC[1], and emphasizes historical figures, events, autographs and manuscripts. The worldwide members of the UACC include key historical institutions, major auction houses, manuscript dealers and collectors. This membership represents the largest private holding of historical autographs and manuscripts in the United States. The bimonthly journal currently serving this membership is The Pen & Quill.
Beckett Media is a media company that specializes in coverage of sports card and sports memorabilia markets. The company was founded in 1984 by James Beckett as Beckett Publications.
Praful Thakkar - Hobby is for Health and Happiness. Praful Thakkar is a double Limca Book Record Holder in 2009 for Autographs & Canteen Tokens and indeed is a collector of autographs, stamps, First Day Covers (FDCs), coins, medals, tokens, badges, badge plates etc. and many more collectibles of India since last more than 50 years. He has written several books on these subjects of Hobbies.
Futera is a trading card publisher founded in 1989. It is a privately owned company, its main markets being Asia, Europe, Australasia, US, with commercial and operational bases located in SE Asia, print and distribution facilities in UK/Europe and Asia-wide, and its headquarters in Dubai.
Collectors Universe Inc. is an American company formed in 1986, now based in Santa Ana, California, which provides third-party authentication and grading services to collectors, retail buyers and sellers of collectibles. Its authentication services focus on coins, trading cards, sports memorabilia, and autographs. The company reached the combined total of 75 million certified collectibles in 2019. Collectors Universe is also a publisher in fields relating to collecting.
Singles are individual trading or game cards sold by hobby stores, online stores, or by individual collectors. These individual cards are usually of higher value than contemporary cards which are often sold as "bulk" or as a personal collection. Ordinary collectible cards serve little function beyond memorabilia, but CCGs are also used in game tournaments. Generally, collectible card games (CCG) fetch initial higher prices than trading cards because of the dual nature of being both a game and a collectable. Prices will fluctuate for CCGs as cards become legal or illegal to play in certain game formats.
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