Robot Claw

In 1930 a signature machine called an ‘autopen’ was invented. This device can reproduce signatures automatically, and while intentionally designed for government (so an official could quickly ‘sign’ many copies of the same document) in time it became used by celebrities. Famously Queen Elizabeth started using autopens exclusively from 1959 which makes any of her signatures since then reproductions.

Autopens are often used to ‘sign’ collectible items – such as books – and very rarely is their use disclosed. It’s possible that some of the books or cards I’ve shown already have autopen signatures on them, so there’s an element of faith involved in buying a signed item. To avoid this, autograph collectors tend to prefer personalized or inscribed items since they show the signature is authentic.

Today I will show our autographs of actors, many of which are personalized and most of which were obtained from the signer in-person. There’s some famous autographs here today!

Lots of Doctor Who to start: Here’s two separate signed photos from Peter Davison (the 5th Doctor), both personalized. I got the one on the left myself at NYCC, and Adam got us the one on the right.

And here’s the 8th Doctor, Colin Baker. He was friendly and gracious when we met him also at NYCC, and I recall he was just sitting there mostly ignored by the crowd. This was years before the Who revival and I imagine he was nearly unknown to the average American convention-goer.

Here’s the 8th Doctor, Paul McGann. Adam got this for us as well, and it’s my favourite Who autograph. I hope the rumours of him getting his own series on Disney+ are true!

Even more Who, and once again thanks to Adam for all of them. I can only imagine how many Who autographs he has in his own collection!

This last Who item is a bit different; it’s the autograph of Nicholas Briggs, who has worn many hats in the history of the series but I’m calling him an actor today since he’s done most of the Dalek voices since the revival. I got this myself from him when he was at NYCC.

Moving on from Dr Who, the above is the autograph of none other than Warwick Davis! He’s been a lot of characters in a lot of shows (not to mention played himself in several), but he’s perhaps best known for playing Wicket the Ewok in The Empire Strikes Back. He’s a very well-known actor, and this is another contender for the most famous autograph we own.

And keeping with Star Wars, we’ll end today with the autograph of none other than George Lucas’s son Jett. I got this in 2017 one from a $60 (yes sixty dollar) pack of Star Wars cards. Every pack had an autograph but only a few of the signers were famous people. As you can see, mine wasn’t 🙂

As an addendum, let me once again recall the day I met Q (to get an autograph), which was still a surreal experience even all these years later.

Only one more day of autographs to go. What will the category be? Will there be anyone very famous? Wait and see…

While documents featuring the signatures of famous politicians have sold for millions, the value is more in the document itself than in the autograph. Take George Washington for example: a document he signed sold for $9.8 million in recent years but his autograph alone can be had for only thousands.

In terms of true value, it seems the holy grail is William Shakespeare. Only eleven of his signatures are known to exist, and five of those are in museums and will likely never be publicly sold. The last time one of the other six sold it surpassed $5 million and experts speculate that the next time one goes for sale it may set a record and exceed $10 million.

These numbers are stratospheric and, but perhaps even more mind-boggling is that the autographs of some living people aren’t too far off. Since 2000, ten sports cards have sold at auction for over $2.5 million, and five of those were autographed. In 2021 a card autographed by an NBA player named Steph Curry sold for $5.9 million! Imagine being the guy that pulled that out of one of the ($500!) packs.

Todays entry showcases sports autographs as well, specifically wrestlers! For a few years Kristin bought a special trading card set that guaranteed several autographs in each box. The list of signers was long, but it was always exciting to open a pack and find an autograph. Here’s all of them:

That’s a lot! Too many to put in this post, so I’ll show detail of some of the more famous ones and leave you to squint at the above pic to appreciate the signature of such sports entertainers as Liv Morgan, Randy Orton or Sid Vicious. (Also we have so many that some are double-stacked in the curio, but the guys you can’t see are rookies that didn’t become famous!)

Kurt Angle was a favourite of both of us for many years, and it was great when he returned to the WWE after years in other promotions.

Roman Reigns is probably the biggest star the WWE has right now, and while I found him irritating at first he grew on me and I can’t deny he has earned the respect of the fans.

Ric Flair is probably the most famous wrestler autograph we have, and possibly the most famous autograph we have of any person. He’s a household name that has been wrestling for over 50 years!

If you’d like a clear pic of any of the other cards let me know and I’ll send you one. But for now I’ll end todays post with this last, very unusual autograph:

I bought this at Albany Comic Con from Fred Ottman. He wrestled under several names during his long career and was perhaps most successful as ‘Tugboat’ but most remembered for the ill-fated and unintentionally hilarious live-on-TV introduction of his ludicrous ‘Shockmaster’ character (yes that’s a bedazzled Stormtrooper helmet). If you haven’t seen it you can watch it here. When you do, don’t miss Ric Flair’s insane tan!

Lastly, this is perhaps the category that we could have populated the most had we been inclined. For many years we attended New York Comic Con, and almost every year there were several wrestlers signing autographs, and it seems every few months there’s one doing signings at our local mall. In addition signed cards can be purchased for surprisingly low amounts (just a few dollars in some cases), and I imagine there are wrestling fans out there with hundreds of autographs. I think that’s wonderful!