Autographs

[Payney]

Hiya everyone

 

 

 

I ve been reading some of your posts about autographs and noticed that alot of you discussed the amount as being ten pounds and more dependant on the guests thats are signing...............

Im kinda wondering if anyone can tell me how much it will definatly be, as i have seen Peter mayhew before and only been charged £ 2.50 for and autograph on personal items...... is this not going to be the case here and if so how come its so expensive????????

 

Anyone help me with this ????????

 

How much did the autographs costs at the last shows ???????

 

Thanks all

 

payney

[IErisedMalfoy]

Usually each autograph you get costs £10 or £15 depending on the guest. It is alot but not when you think that you are actually meeting the person and you're not paying an entrance fee. And when you look around the stalls at what some of them are worth you realise you are getting a good deal.

 

A lot of people usually ask about prices so if it's the same as last time you pay per autograph: either on a personal item or you get a 10x8" (?) photo included in the price.

Edited April 3, 2004 by IErisedMalfoy

[Admiral_Bear]

I fully expect Gates McFadden to be £20, as this was the cost at the last UK convention she did in London last year.

 

I expect the other Trek guests to probably be £20 aswell, with the exeception of maybe Denise Crosby.

 

All the major LOTR guests will probably be £20.

 

U can reasonably expect a rise of £5 per year for the same guest. So if you met someone last year and they cost £15, this year they'll be charging £20.

 

The concept of paying less for a signature on a personal item seems to have been thrown out the window, and no longer appears to be used by ANY guest anywhere.

 

Sadly, as £20 is fast becoming the norm, I'm gonna have to start severly cutting back on the number of guests I see, and the amount of stuff I get signed.

 

Soon, autograph prices will be out the reach of all but the richest fans.

 

Respect

 

Admiral Bear

[Payney]

Yeah it does seem that the prices are getting a little high........

 

Its a shame because i think it will stop some people from going to as many of the conventions......

 

Oh well what can we do

 

 

( get better paid jobs )

[Colonel Jack O'Neill]

This is what Showmasters have said about Autograph prices...

 

Generally we always try and keep autograph prices to a minimum but the price will be directly related to the costs of bringing the guest to the show.

At the moment, the average price for an autograph is £15, with the odd few being £10 and the odd few being £20.

We believe this represents good value in comparison to other similar events.

 

Personally I go to these events expecting every guest to be £15 but also taking about £50 extra incase some are £20, that way I always have enough to meet all the guests I set out for.

Edited April 3, 2004 by Colonel Jack O'Neill

[wyrdsister]

£ 15 has been the norm, with £20 for the "bigger" guests.

It seems expensive, but I'm conforted by the fact that there is no entrance fee.

 

I'll be planning for a £15 quid per guest, with extra just in case, like Colonel Jack O'Neill, it's worked for me in the past. :)

[kinky]

Hmmm.

 

Is it just me, or wouldn't it actually be better to pay an entrance fee and have cheaper autographs???????

 

 

From what a lot of people have posted it looks like most people want the autographs of five or six of the stars.

well, at £15 - £20 per autograph you'd be looking at spending £75 - £120.

 

 

Personally, I think if £25 admission was charged and then £10 per autograph it would be a lot more satisfying as you'd get a hell of a lot more for your money.

 

 

Its a far nicer feeling when you've met someone famous and spent time with them having spent very little money, than having to pay £20 and think 'if each person who saw me today paid £20 I'd be pretty damn nice to them too!'

 

[Wyn]

I think it;s a shame some guests are so expensive as it means i can;t afford to meet them i.e. Thomas Robins who's a great bloke but was in LOTR for what 2 mins was the same price as Billy Boyd!!

 

So i couldn't afford to meet him which was a shame

 

I'd like most guests to be £10 some £15 and a select few £20 but hey if people will pay it **shrugs**

 

I haven' had any bad experiences meeting guests but if i did it would be like that's £20 down the drain 4 hours work for me

Edited April 4, 2004 by Wyn

[kinky]

...or how about £20 per person you want to see, but up to 3 autographs for that £20??? heheheh.

[Indiana]

I definitely think there should be discounts after buying one photo - like maybe buy one photo, one personal item for free, (2 x photos bought = two extra items free) or maybe £5 per extra item.

 

I have a few bits I'd like Robert and Ken to sign (not many) but I simply cannot afford it with the other guests I want to see too.

 

I'm sure others would agree with me so how about it guys? As a reward for your loyal attendees and forum folk?

 

Obi-Wan

Edited April 4, 2004 by obi-wan

[kinky]

Great idea Obi!

 

Would be really cool if they did something like that.

Would soften the pain of handing over £20 for one autograph

 

Kaz

[Jen]

The concept of paying less for a signature on a personal item seems to have been thrown out the window, and no longer appears to be used by ANY guest anywhere.

That's not true, last November i went to an event where all guests would sign an 8X10 for £15 and it was only £5 on your own item.

[Elainec]

I expect the other Trek guests to probably be £20 aswell, with the exeception of maybe Denise Crosby.

 

All the major LOTR guests will probably be £20.

 

U can reasonably expect a rise of £5 per year for the same guest. So if you met someone last year and they cost £15, this year they'll be charging £20.

 

The concept of paying less for a signature on a personal item seems to have been thrown out the window, and no longer appears to be used by ANY guest anywhere.

 

Sadly, as £20 is fast becoming the norm, I'm gonna have to start severly cutting back on the number of guests I see, and the amount of stuff I get signed.

 

Soon, autograph prices will be out the reach of all but the richest fans.

 

Respect

 

Admiral Bear

I met Robert Picardo last year and he charged £15, so I'm hoping that it is the same at C5. At LFCC only one of the LOTR's actors was charging £20 and that was John RD, both Andy S and Billy B were charging £15. It was a nice surprise to have Bruce Hopkins only charge £10, which means he got two autographs out of me.

 

I personally feel that if the actors charged slightly less, they would still get more money as more people would be able to afford an autograph they couldn't buy originally, or possibly even pay for two, when your budget was for one.

 

An idea could be that they charge £15 for a signed photo and £10 or even £5 for a personal item. Either that, or if you buy more than one autograph off them the price is lower for the 2/3/4 signature, ie £15 for the first and then £10 for everything beyond that regardless of if it's a personal item.

 

I know that they must get fed up of flashes going off in their faces, but another one would be that if they either said no photos, which reduces the price, or you pay £5 for photos.

 

At C2 you had to pay full price if you wanted your photo taking with the actors, thankfully that has been changed, but I would still be prepared to pay a small price to have a photo if it meant a reduction in the cost of the autographs.

 

I also personally think that for an actor who hasn't worked on many things since their original tv show/films came out to charge £20 is a con. Why should we pay that much for someone that we no longer see on our screens, we are being penalised for being a fan?!

 

Don't get me wrong, I love these sort of events, it just becomes very costly if you want more than one thing signing by an actor or if you even want autographs from several actors. SM it's great that there is no charge to get in, however, it doesn't really reduce the cost much when you are being charged so much for the autographs. Isn't there a way that SM can put a cap on the charge of items? As someone else said, for an actor to charge £15 for being in a huge blockbuster of a film for 5 minutes is ridiculous, no matter how nice they turn out to be.

 

Elaine

[theoden_of_rohan]

Yeah it is all quite expensive, but being as obsessed as I am, I still pay the price!!!!!

 

And it is worth it when you see your collection in front of you!!!!

 

Of course it would be great if they only cost a fiver each LOL, but thats not gonna' happen so...I just do it!!!!

[surfy_sah]

I fully expect Gates McFadden to be £20, as this was the cost at the last UK convention she did in London last year.

 

I expect the other Trek guests to probably be £20 aswell, with the exeception of maybe Denise Crosby.

 

All the major LOTR guests will probably be £20.

I should hope Gates McFadden is not £20!! she hasn't really been in anything apart from Star Trek! (in comparison to some one like Joe Pantoliano attending c5 who could be £20 cause he's been in a LOT of shows/movies )

 

plus all the ST guests were £15 at c4 and (assuming they came from the States) if SM can bring them over for £15/sig I would think the same should apply to this year's ST guests!

 

you say major LotR guests, what "major" LotR guests?! if Billy Boyd and Andy Serkis can be £15 then surely Craig Parker can be too when BB and AS have bigger parts?! you could say Brad Dourif has been also in a LOT of shows/movies and might be £20 but that would be for everything else he has been in and not just LotR! xx

[surfy_sah]

Hmmm.

 

Is it just me, or wouldn't it actually be better to pay an entrance fee and have cheaper autographs???????

 

 

From what a lot of people have posted it looks like most people want the autographs of five or six of the stars.

well, at £15 - £20 per autograph you'd be looking at spending £75 - £120.

 

 

Personally, I think if £25 admission was charged and then £10 per autograph it would be a lot more satisfying as you'd get a hell of a lot more for your money.

 

 

Its a far nicer feeling when you've met someone famous and spent time with them having spent very little money, than having to pay £20 and think 'if each person who saw me today paid £20 I'd be pretty damn nice to them too!'

 

they can't charge an entrance fee for COLLECTORMANIA because being it's in a shopping centre, it's a public place and they aren't allowed to!

 

and yeah spent bout £200 on autos at c4 - good few MONTHS pay - but some of the autos were for other people so had some of it back - was prob bout £130 for me personally - with Hobbits being £20 each .

 

don't forger also - not just the dude I'm quoting - everyone!!

that it's not just SM trying to make mone out of fans (although tis a buisness so they muct make a profit - but also the pric the guest wants to charge and also the cost of getting thr guest to the event and teir accomodation etc as Colonel Jack said earlier xx

[theoden_of_rohan]

you say major LotR guests, what "major" LotR guests?! if Billy Boyd and Andy Serkis can be £15 then surely Craig Parker can be too when BB and AS have bigger parts?! you could say Brad Dourif has been also in a LOT of shows/movies and might be £20 but that would be for everything else he has been in and not just LotR! xx[/color]

Remember that there is still a LOTR guest announcement to be made!

 

[surfy_sah]

I think it;s a shame some guests are so expensive as it means i can;t afford to meet them i.e. Thomas Robins who's a great bloke but was in LOTR for what 2 mins was the same price as Billy Boyd!!

 

So i couldn't afford to meet him which was a shame...

yeah could not believe he was £20!!!

 

he was quite cute and would have met Andy again and got signed pic of both of them if he'd been say £10!

 

thought it was a bit much as he was in the TRILOGY for bout 2mins plus again with the even if they flew him from the States, Billy and Andy were still £15 and we know they flew Billy in!!

 

I didn't meet him either, not for that price, soz Thomas xx

[surfy_sah]

you say major LotR guests, what "major" LotR guests?! if Billy Boyd and Andy Serkis can be £15 then surely Craig Parker can be too when BB and AS have bigger parts?! you could say Brad Dourif has been also in a LOT of shows/movies and might be £20 but that would be for everything else he has been in and not just LotR! xx[/color]

Remember that there is still a LOTR guest announcement to be made!

 

I know some one would do that I was going by who has been announced now, that's why I used Brad and Craig as example and as I've said in other posts, they've had half of the Fellowship and the others they haven't had are very unlikely such as Viggo, Ian, Christopher etc and when you take all they people out of the equation that don't do signings and cons (it's been said that the female stars don't) then I personally don't think that leaves anyone who is worth £20 but I might be wrong, we'll have to wait and see who they announce I guess xx

[surfy_sah]

soz for all the sepparte replies, I forget what I'm saying if I read the whole topic (all the posts then try and just write what I think in one post...

 

 

as for stars charging less for own items/multiple items - it does happen but to my experience only at Collector's Fairs such as the ones I attend in Cardiff where I have met a few of the SW cast e.g. Warick Davies, Kenny Baker, Mike Edmonds, Jeremy Bullock... anyways I paid £1/£2 to get in (it was more the time they had several guests) and they signed a photo they had for either £10/£15 (again they charge slightly more when there were several guests) and then signed my own item for FREE!!!

 

when I met Mike Edmonds (Logray) he charged £15 too cause he said people sell his auto online etc so that's maybe why some guests like to charge more cause some people sell autos on for a huge profit and don't give a toss bout the guest!

 

I think it would be cool if subsequent autos were a little cheaper but I don't see it happening. maybe we need to convince SM that it would make them more money?! there have been lots of threads like this in the past so maybe they do need a bit convincing... it's prob fair enough for them to argue that some "core" fans want to meet their stars and are prepared to pay...

 

wouldn't it be cwl though FOR EXAMPLE with the Star Trek guys if you bought their auto on an INDIVIDUAL photo for e.g. £15 and then you could get them to sign a CAST photo for slightly less e.g. £10. alot of people can't afford lots of autos - remember that poll a while back about your occupation?!? alot of us are STUDENTS!! wouldn't it be better to charge slightly less and get more money than not to and loose out on number of autos bought due to people not being able to afford it!?! I would love cast ST pics but I can't afford single and group or single it is....

 

what does everyone think?!?!

surfy sah xx

[kinky]

they can't charge an entrance fee for COLLECTORMANIA because being it's in a shopping centre, it's a public place and they aren't allowed to!

 

don't forger also - not just the dude I'm quoting - everyone!!

that it's not just SM trying to make mone out of fans (although tis a buisness so they muct make a profit - but also the pric the guest wants to charge and also the cost of getting thr guest to the event and teir accomodation etc as Colonel Jack said earlier xx

Yeah I know they can't charge an entrance fee this time coz its being held in a public shopping centre, but it could be an idea for future events.

 

I think that with the number of fans attending this event, even if each person only paid for one autograph each, there's not gonna be a shortage of cash to pay for the guests and their accomodation, plus a nice big profit to be made!

 

Anyway like i said, not much that can be done for this event now. but would be nice to think that people's opinions will be taken into consideration regarding prices for future events. :)

[kinky]

 

U can reasonably expect a rise of £5 per year for the same guest. So if you met someone last year and they cost £15, this year they'll be charging £20.

Woah, there's NO WAY in 2010 (6 years time) that i'm gonna pay £50 for an autograph.

Just ain't gonna happen!

[Admiral_Bear]

Collectormania is the only free entrance event I know off. And with the events where you have to pay to get in, the autographs are no cheaper than at Collectormania.

 

If autograph prices keep rising, sadly the only thing that we as fans can do about it is vote with our feet.

 

Respect

 

Admiral Bear

[kinky]

Seems to me like, say SM do announce a BIIIG star, say for arguements sake Viggo, then soooooo many people are gonna wanna see him and get his autograph.....

 

coz of this situation with the prices (if they're a poverty-striken student - like me, hehehe) they're only gonna be able to get a few autographs. Chances are that Viggo would be at the top of their list of who-to-see.

If this was the case then the queues for Viggo would be huge and its probable that not everyone would get to see him.

 

An outcome of this could be that people would simply come to the next event and get the autograph then, but another possibility (and an understandable one!) is that people would be so pissed off at the bad organisation of the event that it would dissuede them from attending any future events.

 

Kinda good news for anyone who wants fewer people at these events (i.e fans who want to see all the stars), but bad from the organiser's point of view as it means less profit ££££££.

[Payney]

In past posts someone said that the price of autographs is rising due to people selling them online for higher prices.......

 

dealers will always be dealers. what i mean by this is no matter what the price of the autograph a dealer will still sell it on for a higher mark-up. By raising the price of autogrpahs at these events it will not stop the dealers from attending and selling their items on. Instead it will mean that the general fans of the fantasy/film/comic genre will suffer having to pay higher prices.

 

Surely this will stop fans from coming to such events, but will it deter dealers ???????? i dont think it will, but it will make fewer people come to these events........fewer people means fewer guests and more people going online to buy from dealers and isnt this what we are trying to stop ?????