FirstClassAutographs

Why did I build such a large, diverse collection of rare and hard to get signatures?

Lets start at the beginning. I came to Etsy after successful runs on other selling platforms to bring my collection to a whole new market. As many others were, I was a music fanatic when I was a kid. Growing up on AC DC, Metallica, Guns and Roses, & 70s and 80's rock. Then I saw my first concert in 1983, Billy Idol, and I was hooked on live music ever since and have seen hundreds of concerts in my life. Music for me what is was for many, an escape from reality and an outlet for teenage angst, and parties! It was really an expression of how you felt and a voice when you didn't have one, and confirmation that someone else understood how you feel..

As many I became a collector before I became a seller. My walls are filled with the music artists and movies I grew up with and a important part of my childhood. In my early days I was building a collection that made me think of the things that helped form the person I became as an adult.

I ended up getting so passionate and deep into this business it only made sense to start obtaining other great and rare items to share with other collectors. I have studied signature authentication extensively with a registered authenticator in Florida and spent 1000's of hours doing so over the last 15 years. I have developed close relationships with other major collectors from Disney that have been deep in the business for decades, and another who is a 40+ year second generation collector with thousands of items going back to the 1800's. This allowed me to build a large collection of 2000+ signatures ranging from music, movies and TV, historical, science, religion, comedy, sports, authors, inventors, cultural Icons, organized crime, and many other genres from the last 150+ years..

I feel signatures are more than just names on paper, they invoke feelings. They bring back memories from our past and things that move us today, and a part of history, and people that changed history!