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Guest announcement General Tom Stafford


Dave Phillips
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Hi Ted

We are still working on the extra completion fees to get them down from last time.

Hopefully i will know soon.

Dave Phillips

Hi Dave ,

The amount of the completion fee will literally decide whether I attend the show or not. I have a book with 15 Apollo autographs on it which has taken me many years to collect. Last time I was asked to pay an ADDITIONAL £100 - on top of the £170 - just because Gene Cernan's signature happened to be one of those on the book. I have attended every Autographica so far but I feel that is unfair that I am being penalised for having my collection. Also, I don't really regard having Tom Stafford's signature added to the other 15 to be a completion. It will be difficult for anyone with multi-signed items to add this signature without completing one of Stafford's crews.

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Sometimes spaces guests do have extra fees, e.g. when you want to have the mission added to the signature or if their signature is the last one to complete a "group photo" which has been signed others who've been on their same mission.

 

Yahweh or Count Fooku can probably explain this way better than me.

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what is all this extra charges for completion of soemthing mean?

 

You want a signed picture of General Stafford on his own - you pay the fee announced.

 

You want a signed picture of General Stafford, posing with other astronauts from his Gemini/Apollo/ASTP missions, and who therefore could also sign the picture in the future - in theory increasing its value if you wanted to sell it - you pay extra, a 'completion' fee.

 

There can be loads of add-ons with astronauts, some even charge you extra PER WORD if you wanted an inscription. Some charge extra, some don't.

 

Some people, like me, collect signed astronaut photo's because its something I'm interested in, I love meeting them and I'm proud to hang the pictures around my house.

 

Other people have no interest in the subject and collect these signed photos simply to sell them on at a profit. This seems to have been realised over the last few years, and prices have gone up accordingly with the astronauts (or probably their agents) getting very canny at squeezing out extra cash. I don't like it, but there it is.

 

I'm afraid the days of innocent autograph collecting are over, its rather a buisiness these days :dance:

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Thats pretty much it, most astronauts will have a base fee which includes a signature, personalisation and one mission inscription (e.g. 'To XXXX Tom Stafford Apollo 10'.

 

On top of that a lot of them will make an additional charge per word if you want something else added on, for example at the last show Tom Stafford was charging an extra £5 per mission inscription. I wanted his signature plus all four of his missions added so it cost me the base fee for 'Tom Stafford Gemini 6' then an extra £15 for Gemini 9, Apollo 10 and ASTP to be added.

 

The same usually applied for quotes and sometimes for times/dates etc. For example there would probably be a surcharge if you wanted Jim Lovell to add "Houston we've had a problem" to a picture.

 

There will usually be crew completion costs as well, so for example if you had a mission specific picture, like an Apollo 10 crew photo, signed by John Young and Gene Cernan already then you wanted Tom Staffotrd to add his signature then there would be an additional cost. The exception to this seems to be if you have a generic multi signed item, like an earthrise picture or a book then the completion fees don't always apply.

 

There can be variations on this which I'm not sure how they would be resolved. For example I have an Apollo 8 earthrise photo signed by Frank Borman which I may add Jim Lovell to if he does another show. Whilst that technically completes the Gemini 7 crew, the item relates to Apollo 8 so I'm not sure how an item like that would be viewed.

 

There are some astronauts who just have a flat base fee and will put anything you want on the photo for the same price, people like Jim McDivitt, Al Worden, Charlie Duke and Fred Haise have been recent examples. Others like Buzz Aldrin will make you pay for every possible extra.

 

I think overall this can be looked at two ways, on one hand it can look like money grabbing but on the other hand, the astronauts as a group seem to be very concious of what adding certain things to photos will do to the overall value of an item so they charge accordingly.

 

Either way forewarned is forearmed as they say! For each individual astronaut the safest thing to do is check exactly what you are paying for and why you are paying it before handing over any money!

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I think completion fee is just that.. If it's a mission print (group shot of the 3 guys) and he's the first.. no extra.. second on the print, no extra (unless its Buzz and the other guy is Armstrong, I guess).. Third guy.. completion fee..

 

That certainly should be the case but I am aware of an occasion (don't think it was at Autographica) where someone had a similar picture to mine, ie signed by Borman and wanted to add Lovell, but they were told it counted as a crew completion for Gemini 7 even though the picture was clearly related to Apollo 8.

 

Like I said I think it's always worth establishing what you want in your own mind and checking exactly what you will need to pay for it before handing over any money or even worse having handed over money then find you are having to argue the toss with the astronaut themselves!

Edited by Count Fooku
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There will usually be crew completion costs as well, so for example if you had a mission specific picture, like an Apollo 10 crew photo, signed by John Young and Gene Cernan already then you wanted Tom Staffotrd to add his signature then there would be an additional cost. The exception to this seems to be if you have a generic multi signed item, like an earthrise picture or a book then the completion fees don't always apply. ..

 

 

 

I am interested to clarify the situation with regard to signing a book and completion fees. It never occured to me that that would be seen as a completion of missions but I notice that phil252001UK mentions that he was charged when getting his book signed last year.

 

I was actually going to purchase a book on the Apollo missions this weekend to take along to Autographica but if there is a conpletion charges issue I may have to rethink it!

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There will usually be crew completion costs as well, so for example if you had a mission specific picture, like an Apollo 10 crew photo, signed by John Young and Gene Cernan already then you wanted Tom Staffotrd to add his signature then there would be an additional cost. The exception to this seems to be if you have a generic multi signed item, like an earthrise picture or a book then the completion fees don't always apply. ..

 

 

 

I am interested to clarify the situation with regard to signing a book and completion fees. It never occured to me that that would be seen as a completion of missions but I notice that phil252001UK mentions that he was charged when getting his book signed last year.

 

I was actually going to purchase a book on the Apollo missions this weekend to take along to Autographica but if there is a conpletion charges issue I may have to rethink it!

Sorry, just one small correction. I was asked to pay £170 + £100 at Stafford's last Autographica, but I literally couldn't afford to so went away very unhappy.

Phil

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  • Showmasters Admin

 

 

There will usually be crew completion costs as well, so for example if you had a mission specific picture, like an Apollo 10 crew photo, signed by John Young and Gene Cernan already then you wanted Tom Staffotrd to add his signature then there would be an additional cost. The exception to this seems to be if you have a generic multi signed item, like an earthrise picture or a book then the completion fees don't always apply. ..

 

 

 

I am interested to clarify the situation with regard to signing a book and completion fees. It never occured to me that that would be seen as a completion of missions but I notice that phil252001UK mentions that he was charged when getting his book signed last year.

 

I was actually going to purchase a book on the Apollo missions this weekend to take along to Autographica but if there is a conpletion charges issue I may have to rethink it!

The completion fees only applies if that Astronaut is completing it (i.e. you already have 2 from Apollo 10 and Tom is the 3rd and is completeing it). So if the book is blank, there will be no issues of completion fees this weekend. "Maybe" in the future when you have more it may become an issue.

 

I have a multi-signed moon scape (one of Al Wordens) signed by about 12 Astronauts and so far I've not had the issue of completing a mission. Maybe just my bad luck :P

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I am interested to clarify the situation with regard to signing a book and completion fees. It never occured to me that that would be seen as a completion of missions but I notice that phil252001UK mentions that he was charged when getting his book signed last year.

 

I was actually going to purchase a book on the Apollo missions this weekend to take along to Autographica but if there is a conpletion charges issue I may have to rethink it!

The completion fees only applies if that Astronaut is completing it (i.e. you already have 2 from Apollo 10 and Tom is the 3rd and is completeing it). So if the book is blank, there will be no issues of completion fees this weekend. "Maybe" in the future when you have more it may become an issue.

 

I have a multi-signed moon scape (one of Al Wordens) signed by about 12 Astronauts and so far I've not had the issue of completing a mission. Maybe just my bad luck :blink:

 

Hi TooTall

Thanks for the reply. I was aware I wouldnt have any completion fee this time around but was (somewhat over optimistically perhaps!) thinking of the "future". For example on a chapter about a particular Apollo mission if I get one person to sign it and then I am lucky enough to meet the other surviving member(s) of the crew to sign the same chapter but perhaps not the same page or picture- does that mean as each chapter of the book (about each mission ) is "completed" there will be a fee - i.e potentially 8 fees?

 

It is still very tempting to try to do this- it would be a fabulous thing to have even uncompleted without every possible signature. Im jealous of your 12 signatures!!

 

Elaine

 

PS thanks for schedule

 

 

*Edited to fix the Quote bit for you

Edited by Rhianydd
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I think if you take a balance of probabilities approach you will probably be alright. I think the only Apollo crew where all three crew members are alive and have attended signing shows previously are the Apollo 9 crew. I don' think that Dave Scott or Jim McDivitt have charged completion fees at their last appearances at Autographica.

 

Of the other crews where all three members are alive (8,10,11 and 16) at least one crew member would be highly unlikely to attend a signing show.

 

The only other way you could be caught out is where both members of a Gemini crew then formed part of an Apollo crew; Lovell & Borman and Stafford & Cernan. Of those I think Borman is pretty unlikely to do an Autographica (never say never of course!) so it probably which probably only leaves a potential risk for Apollo 10 if Gene Cernan attends a future event.

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I have a copy of 'Voices From The Moon' signed by Gerry Griffin & Fred Haise & I was considering adding Mitchell,Worden & Stafford at Autographica.

 

Surely Stafford won't charge a completion fee for this considering it's signed by two completely unrelated space guests?

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