Who would be willing to pay more for even bigger and better guests?

[EternallyEnchanting_]

I'm lucky in the respect that I still live with my parents so don't have rent/mortgage/bills to worry about which leaves me with a fair amount of disposable income.

 

If the guest is someone I would kill to meet then I would definitely pay more to get an autograph/picture etc. I suppose it all comes down to personal circumstance in the long run. *shrugs*

[Lestat]

I would certain pay more for the right guest with obvious limits, fortuntately SM have had a good price structure so I wouldn't expect prices to get silly.

[sungift500]

yeah i mean a bigger guest and i would pay.

im gunna say what i personally think about this topic

1. if you don't have money then don't come or see that guest

2. we all know when we attend these events we have to part with money

3. if the guest is big then surely its worth it to know u was there when that auto got signed so it is official

4. do u not have a fun day?

5. so many of your friends would be jealous

6. things change and so do prices people demand more money etc get over it

 

rant over hahaha

 

just to let u know i have only read the 1st comment on this topic so if anyone was against it then please be aware i wasnt aiming this at anyone x

[maxbaldwin]

First off, I would pay the extra for the right person.

 

I do think the approach the guest, get a £ figure, and then pre-sell the autographs (say at 7pm on thursday, for example) is a very good idea.

 

It will let the guest know how many autos they are signing, that they arent going to be mobbed, and it will be easier on the fans who wont have to queue up from 2am the previous day!!!

 

Youve got to make it really attractive for bigger guests, because, to be honest, I can see BIGGER peeps seeing "selling autographs" as being a real cheap, sleazy move. I bet its not the done thing!!! If it was for charity, and the press were there and all that game, different story.

 

Also, youve got to consider security. Would you mind being searched before entering a, I presume, closed off section? Would you feel intimidated by having 2 huge geezers standing either side of you, in front of say JD or HF?

 

I would not mind in the slightest, personally.

 

It cant hurt to ask.

[MikeDonovan]

Yeah, I'd pay more for some A list types...especially if it meant the cons would filter out some of those pesky kids

 

I am quite offended [at] being called a pesky kid. I like 'grown up' stuff as well as younger Buffy type stuff.

 

Bunny, I think you have to take this in context. Nicky has suffered from a recent epidemic of kids knocking on his door and running off, and last weekend (when it was particularly cold) a group of kids poured water all over the steps of his house at 2AM. When Nicky woke up the next morning and walked out to pick up his newspaper, the icy stairs caused him a highly embarassing fall that was witnessed by all of his neighbours.

 

It took several minutes of shaking his fist and muttering under his breath before Nicky was ready to go back inside.

[nickichicken]

Under the right circumstances, I certainly would.

 

I think it'd come down to each individual guest to be honest, based on what they mean to me personally.

 

It's very rarely just the 'autograph' that makes it worth the money for me - which is probably why I've got a Shatner photo shoot - but yes, if it means we get the opportunity to meet those we never thought we would .. I think it's necessary.

 

David have to say i agree with you actually, I've also just bought a William shatner photoshoot - ive been a huge trekkie fan over the years and just decided that i would rather have a photo of us together so i can say in the future, 'look at this, i met a total legend that day!' rather than an auto on a photo that will probably just go in a drawer..... but i agree with everyone, if its the right name, i dont mind paying the money - you just have to work out whats right for you.

[darryl]

it really boils down to the haves and have nots...

 

those that have the money to pay whatever the cost may be and those that don't and will have to miss the opportunity of missing certain guests...

 

i have bills coming out of the wazzu at the moment (very unpleasent i might add!) and was only able to make 1 event last year...

 

so, for me, i'm a 'have not' at the moment...

[touchthesky]

Whoopi Goldberg wants to do conventions....I'd pay money for her.

 

Apparently she doesn't fly though. Dang.

[nicky]

Apparently she doesn't fly though. Dang.

 

Maybe SM could knock her out just like they did in The A-Team when they tried to get B.A. on a plane.

[touchthesky]

It's a plan!

 

Either that or they could drive her bus ONTO the plane..she'd be none the wiser.

[BeatrixKiddo88]

She does fly a bit now, she managed to get over a lot of her fear recently.

 

 

Did no one watch her when she was on Wossy? lol

 

 

But yes she is someone I would pay bigger money for. Guinan!!!

Edited March 4, 2010 by BeatrixKiddo88

[snot182]

here is my thing...

 

i want to meet Shatner, there is a couple of things i need his auto on but... two lots of £35 is £70, if he was still £25 i may have got 3 autos and he would have made some more money out of me.

 

I think they may shoot themselves in the foot a bit with people getting less things signed due to the higher price tag

[BeatrixKiddo88]

But the £10 more will compensate for a lot of that.

 

If you say got 2 instead of 3, they are only missing out on a fiver from you.

 

But as they dont know what everyone was going to get before the announcment, they wont know what they are missing out on.

 

In this case, ignorance is indeed bliss.

[nicky]

I think they may shoot themselves in the foot a bit with people getting less things signed due to the higher price tag

 

But it means the queue will move faster cos you wont be getting so many things signed. I think sometimes the high price tag is also designed (accidently) to discourage people from getting multiple sigs which can slow down the queues.

[BeatrixKiddo88]

Which means more people can get to see him, balancing out the money.

 

300 people getting 2 autographs each would be the same as 600 people getting 1 each.

[JayBenoit]

I'm not made of money but i'd make sacrifices and pay whatever it takes depending on the guest.

 

I'd pay anything upto £250-£300 an autograph for the right person.

 

I also think paying in advance for really big guests is a great idea.

 

I remember attending Collectormania 3 or 4 and Rutger Hager from Bladerunner was there signing for charity which i'm surprised isn't something thats been repeated.

 

Take someone like Ewan McGregor, who does a lot of charity work. If he could be approached and offered the chance to give up a day of his time (I know he's very busy) to charge £150 an autograph with the proceeds going to Unicef I would buy 3 safe in the knowledge I was supporting a charity and getting a very rare opportunity to obtain an auto I would probably never have another to obtain. And Ewan would be safe in the knowledge that he was making alot of money for charity. 500 people at one autograph each would be £75,000!

 

Showmasters get a shedload of publicity and more people attending to spend money on other guests etc.

 

What do you guys think?

[keithporter23]

I'm not made of money but i'd make sacrifices and pay whatever it takes depending on the guest.

 

I'd pay anything upto £250-£300 an autograph for the right person.

 

I also think paying in advance for really big guests is a great idea.

 

I remember attending Collectormania 3 or 4 and Rutger Hager from Bladerunner was there signing for charity which i'm surprised isn't something thats been repeated.

 

Take someone like Ewan McGregor, who does a lot of charity work. If he could be approached and offered the chance to give up a day of his time (I know he's very busy) to charge £150 an autograph with the proceeds going to Unicef I would buy 3 safe in the knowledge I was supporting a charity and getting a very rare opportunity to obtain an auto I would probably never have another to obtain. And Ewan would be safe in the knowledge that he was making alot of money for charity. 500 people at one autograph each would be £75,000!

 

Showmasters get a shedload of publicity and more people attending to spend money on other guests etc.

 

What do you guys think?

 

I agree 110%!!

 

I've never understood why this hasn't happened more often - a big A list star signs for charity and charges more per autograph. SM benefits with more patrons attending, the charity benefits financially, the star gets some fantastic publicity (as does SM), and we get to meet bigger guests!!

 

Its a win win situation.

[MikeDonovan]

I'm not made of money but i'd make sacrifices and pay whatever it takes depending on the guest.

 

I'd pay anything upto £250-£300 an autograph for the right person.

 

I also think paying in advance for really big guests is a great idea.

 

I remember attending Collectormania 3 or 4 and Rutger Hager from Bladerunner was there signing for charity which i'm surprised isn't something thats been repeated.

 

Take someone like Ewan McGregor, who does a lot of charity work. If he could be approached and offered the chance to give up a day of his time (I know he's very busy) to charge £150 an autograph with the proceeds going to Unicef I would buy 3 safe in the knowledge I was supporting a charity and getting a very rare opportunity to obtain an auto I would probably never have another to obtain. And Ewan would be safe in the knowledge that he was making alot of money for charity. 500 people at one autograph each would be £75,000!

 

Showmasters get a shedload of publicity and more people attending to spend money on other guests etc.

 

What do you guys think?

 

My personal view is that this is an incredibly sensible suggestion. Imagine if HF was doing Autos at £250 a pop, for charity. The punters would come, HF would make an enormous amount for charity, and a huge amount of people would come to LFACC on the back of the signing and spend lots of lovely money. Everyone would be a winner. Would be interested to hear Jason's view on this.

[touchthesky]

I'll pat £7,000,000 for Taylor Lautner.

 

 

K?

[BACYLON]

I'm not made of money but i'd make sacrifices and pay whatever it takes depending on the guest.

 

I'd pay anything upto £250-£300 an autograph for the right person.

 

I also think paying in advance for really big guests is a great idea.

 

I remember attending Collectormania 3 or 4 and Rutger Hager from Bladerunner was there signing for charity which i'm surprised isn't something thats been repeated.

 

Take someone like Ewan McGregor, who does a lot of charity work. If he could be approached and offered the chance to give up a day of his time (I know he's very busy) to charge £150 an autograph with the proceeds going to Unicef I would buy 3 safe in the knowledge I was supporting a charity and getting a very rare opportunity to obtain an auto I would probably never have another to obtain. And Ewan would be safe in the knowledge that he was making alot of money for charity. 500 people at one autograph each would be £75,000!

 

Showmasters get a shedload of publicity and more people attending to spend money on other guests etc.

 

What do you guys think?

 

I agree 110%!!

 

I've never understood why this hasn't happened more often - a big A list star signs for charity and charges more per autograph. SM benefits with more patrons attending, the charity benefits financially, the star gets some fantastic publicity (as does SM), and we get to meet bigger guests!!

 

Its a win win situation.

 

Yes, an excellent idea and worth maybe SM's giving it a try.

 

I guess alot depends on the guest. Harrison ford for example, might rather just donate £500,000 to charity (maybe he does already) rather than travel to the UK and spend the day meeting us lot.

 

Would be good if a charity thing does happen and we'd all enjoy giving our money to a good cause.

[adriangill]

** Nods in general agreement

 

Yes there are many guests (A-list and/or rare) that I would be willing to pay more than the currently established prices for.

 

Harrison Ford, Mark Hammil, James Earl Jones, Frank Oz, Ian McDiarmid, John Williams, Ewan McGregor, David Boreanaz, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, Richard Dean Anderson, Samuel Jackson, Tom Selleck, Whoopi Goldberg, Kylie Minogue , the list is long so I will stop there!

 

The charity suggestion is very intriguing and surely worthy of investigation as a possible solution for some guests .

[sazzra]

The charity signing thing is a fab idea - I would personally like to even extend it and have it as 'An Evening with' where you pay more but get a talk and your auto in a nice, civilised environment. I'm finding as I get older that the whole VT-queue-shuffle-shuffle-queue-shuffle-shuffle is becoming less attractive - I haven't ever attended an Autographica (my comments on the cute quotient were extrapolated from the CM crowds) but that's the part that appeals to me the most.

[JayBenoit]

Cheers for the support guys. I strongly believe in this idea.

 

I think Harrison Ford is the holy grail for most of us (certainly for me) but I could never see it happening in this country unless he was over at the time and wanted to get involved. The cost of getting in major players from overseas makes it impossible, i'm realistic enough to know that.

 

But guys based in this country are a different story! And thats more along the lines of my original thinking. I'm sure we could all chip in to fund the cost of a posh car and driver/Helicopter and pilot for the day to pick someone up!

 

The big question is what do the likes of Ewan McGregor and Sir Ian McKellen view as an acceptable figure to give up a day of their valuable time for their chosen charity?

 

The list of 'potentials' in this country alone is huge. We have a vast array of incredibly talented actors and actresses that appeal to all of us ranging from someone like Daniel Radcliffe to Daniel Craig to Sean Connery. i.e. people that would never normally do a signing event but might be persuaded if it could raise enough money for a charity they are invested in.

 

I also realise that we couldn't really have the likes of Ewan McGregor signing in a shopping center(!) so we hire a room at a London hotel, the cost of the room is covered by us in the form of an entrance ticket (that would mean you don't pay you don't get in!) that entry fee could cover a talk/q&a session only and autograph tickets could be purchased in advance as well as on the night. i.e. You pay £30 to get in which means you get to see Ewan up close and attend a talk/q&a with him. We then have the rest of the afternoon/evening for the autograph session with pre-paid auto tickets and the chance for those with tickets to purchase more, or those that just paid the entry fee to get involved! Everybody wins! I get my Obi-Wan Kenobi stuff signed and Ewan makes a ton of money for his charity.

 

I attended a signing by Christopher Lee at a hotel in Heathrow a few years ago which started me along this line of thinking. The entrance fee was covered by the purchase of a cd of his, autographs (max of 3) were purchased in advance and the whole thing was well organised and laid back. Mainly because there was a reasonably sized crowd of us there paying for the chance to get our stuff signed from someone that rarely signs. We paid handsomely for the priviledge but it was a rare priviledge that may never be repeated.

 

As sazzra suggested I would love to have 'An Evening With..................... in aid of ....................' as a showmasters event a few times a year!

 

I am not someone that posts that much, (despite joining back in 2004!) but I attend the majority of Collectormania's and LFCC's and I have always been impressed with the events Showmasters have put on.

 

Would a senior forum member, or a member of the management team take the time to let me know their thoughts on this idea? I would certainly welcome the chance to discuss.

 

Thanks

J

[JayBenoit]

Sorry, I didn't mean to discount CM or LLFC as suitable venues. Personally I think this sort of thing would work better in a smaller, more intimate and structured environment but that is only my opinion. I didn't mean any offence as I think the venues for the events Showmasters use are excellent!

[Tolkienerd]

I met Ewan at a Waterstone's book signing a few years ago (for The Way Around book) and there were fewer people there than you would expect and that was also in the middle of Oxford Street, so I don't think that the Showmasters venues would pose much of a problem to him!