I have been a UACC member since 1999 and I am the 2009 UACC Collector of the Year. I value my membership with the Universal Autograph Collectors Club because this organization is a trusted and well respected authority in the hobby of collecting not just signatures but collecting history. I know that if I want a trusted source to buy, sell, or trade my autographs or memorabilia that I can go to sources I can trust within the registered dealer program of the UACC. They are there to help me with educated advice on where I can find and authenticate autographs or other pieces of memorabilia that I am looking for that fit my wants and needs. Also, I am thrilled to be part of a non-profit organization like this one who looks out for their members and supports the needs of their community. The UACC is not just an organization to me it is my home for collecting and my fellow members are my collecting family.

Membership definitely has its privileges. Since joining the UACC I've expanded my network of both professional level autograph experts as well as average Joe collectors and enthusiasts. By connecting autograph collectors throughout the world, this organization allows us all to pool our information and better educate one another. Since joining the UACC Registered Dealer Program I've watched as the reputation of the Registered Dealer Program has grown to be the most respected organization in the hobby. I've been told by customers that a Certificate Of Authenticity from a UACC Registered Dealer is more respected than any paid authentication firms' COA. To me that speaks volumes. I'm happy to have been a small part of this huge organization over the years and look forward to the growth and direction we are heading in for years to come.

I am a new member of the UACC, having joined in December of 2010. I think it is great being a part of a community of fellow collectors who not only have a passion for this hobby as I do, but also am able to tap in to the decades of experiance concerning this hobby, if I ever needed to do so. However, this is not the reason why I joined. It was a process, for me personally, to come to the conclusion that I wanted to become a member of the UACC. Why? Simple, I did not want to join solely for "self" reasons. Meening, I didn't want to join for the sole purpose of gaining all I can for myself without thought, desire, or want in giving back the same, ever! I had to ask myself, "What can I bring to the table for this community?" What I found was that I had a passion for learning the genres I am interested in collecting, and through my education I will be able to pass on these teachings, from those I am learning from now, to the future collectors so i may help grow the sucess of the UACC.

I began collecting autographs over 50 years ago. At the time, growing up in a small town, it was years before I ever met a fellow collector, there were no organizations for collectors, nor many dealers. When I met my wife and business partner Nancy Page, she asked me what I really wanted to do with my life and I unhesitatingly said"I'd like to be an autograph dealer." Prior to that I had been a bookseller, writer, and book buyer most of my working life and Nancy owned a small collectibles store so the two businesses fit together perfectly. One of the first things I did was join the UACC. This helped me immensely with informative articles giving me new knowledge and allowing me to put together a mailinglist from the UACC members and from advertising in the Pen & Quill. In the almost 30 years I have sold autographs there have been vast changes in the hobby. Autograph collecting became a "hot hobby" bringing in thousands of new collectors, several magazines, price guides and sadly a number of individuals who had no experiance and thought this would be a new field in which to get rich quick. The magazines have come and gone as have other collector organizations and hundreds of dealers who found that it took knowledge and experiance to sell autographs. Through all the changes in the hobby the UACC has held itself together and has worked hard to squarely face up to the problems of the hobby. Perhaps the most important feature is their Registered Dealer Program. The program first culled out some of the dealers with questionable reputation and set down ground rules for those of us in the program. Today the program has grown to such importance that both experianced and novice collectors know if a company is not in the program there are dangers in buying from them. In doing business with a UACC Registered Dealer you are dealing with a company that has been acknowledged by both their colleagues and hobbyists whohave purchased from them. On a personal level the UACC has given me some of the best friends I have ever met in my life and a wide circle of individuals with whom I can talk, not only about the hobby but about a myriad of other things. I am proud to be a UACC member and one of the great honors in my life was to be chosen the 1988 UACC Autograph Dealer of the Year. With the new format for the Pen & Quill, a new positive attitude, new aids for collectors and dealers, the club has reached a point where it would behoove those of you who are autograph collectors to join the UACC.