Cpt. Caveman's TTM Autographs : Cpt. Caveman's TTM Autographs #136

Welcome back for another weekly TTM success post. Is social media killing the autograph collecting hobby? I've been seeing this question pop up alot lately. It seems like today everyone has an autograph collecting group on facebook were people post and share recent TTM autograph returns or in person successes. Is this over sharing of information hurting our beloved hobby? When I first joined a few groups the numbers of collectors posting successes was minimal. It was also a great way to share with and learn from like minded collectors. Now there's numerous groups with thousands of members and in a way this is a good thing. Its a great way to meet other collectors throughout the world but unfortunately it also comes at a cost. With more eyes seeing successes more people are writing celebs to request autographs and inadvertently overwhelming them causing some to stop signing. The real problem comes with people just writing anyone and everyone even if there not actual fans just to pad a collection with more autographs. A more serious problem is that people are just sending to many items to get signed and sending multiple times just to turn around and sell the autographs on one of these groups. I'm not talking about sending 2 or 3 items but 8 to 10 items to get signed just to make a profit off someone's kindness and willingness to sign for what they think are actual fans. Now I know I'm guilty of sharing on Facebook but I limit my posts to my personal Facebook that only my friends see, my blog page and one other group but I also don't openly share address's and when I do it's an agency address. I will share other address's when I'm asked by real collectors or fans by private messages or email. Sometimes I don't even share a success due to the fear of over use causing real fans who put in the time and effort to get an autograph to fail in their attempts. Social media is just making it way to easy for people who don't want to put in the work others have done and giving easier access to the ones who abuse our hobby. So there's some pluses to sharing on Facebook autograph groups but do the negatives outweigh the positives? Now on to this weeks TTM successes. Monday brought two great returns. First after just over three months we received our picture back signed by Terence Stamp who also sent a signed advertisement for his new book. To finish off the day a super super cool via venue return from Ed O'Neill who signed our DVD cover for my dad after just around a year and a half. Wednesday brought a success from the host of Bar Rescue Jon Taffer after just under a month. Saturday brought one last return for this week when we received our index and autograph card back signed by author Piers Anthony. That's all for this week. Have a great graphing weekend and I'll be back next week with more TTM autographs and address's.