December 3 month review

Welcome to the 3 month review for December, this is where I'm going to round up the results of the letters and see what's what.

Total letters sent: 25
Replies received: 14 - 56%
No Reply: 11 - 44%
RTS/Denials: 2 - 8%
Pre Prints: 3 - 12%
Authentics: 8 - 32%

So, of the 25 letters I sent, I got just over half back, of those I did get back only 8 were actually signed by the person I'd written to. A very shocking 11 people haven't replied in 3 months, although one I was told takes about 6 months to reply, but I'll come back to that. Let's talk about the ones I did get.

Within one month:
5, Stephen Fry, Victoria Wood, Thelma Barlow, Robbie Coltrane, Rik Mayall

3 genuine, 2 pre prints

Within two months:

5, Chris Barrie, Julie Walters, Ian McKellen, Charlie Cox, Brian Blessed

All genuine

Within three months:

2, Timothy Spall (genuine), Ian Holm (pre print)

(one denial, one RTS)

The people who haven't replied at all and possible reasons as to why:

Tom Felton: - filming Potter but he's able to update his twitter 6 times a day while he's at it
Dawn French: - Has been busy with comic relief I suppose
Warwick Davis: - Was told he takes about six months anyway
Tom Baker: - Um... no excuse? He's not doing any VA work currently
Paul McGann: - He's got a couple of films going on but that hasn't stopped anyone else
Sylvestor McCoy: - Touring with Little shop of horrors, which I'm actually going to see so I'm going to try and collar him outside
Anne Reid: - Bugger all, no excuse
Celia Imrie: - Not much really
Eric Sykes: - Very old I suppose (didn't stop Ian Mckellen)
Ben Barnes: - Bugger all, no more busy than Charlie Cox who sent a personalised pic
Sir Patrick Moore: - Umm... None again

Of these people, I've only thought 3 of them would be busy enough to delay sending fanmail, the rest I'm just very disapointed in.


I'm about to send off the March batch now so hopefully I'll get a few more replies.

Colin Firth, Ian Holm, Timothy Spall

Colin Firth:

A fast return from the February batch, though I'm 90% sure that it's a secretarial. Its a nice headshot personalised for me but strangely its signed in felt tip. If it's genuine then its a very fast return but the likelihood is that its some poor person sat in an office.

Result: Success

Ian Holm:

A bit of a strange one, he sent me two headshots with pre printed signatures and one he'd signed my name in blue biro. Considering this took nearly 3 months to arrive you'd think he would have signed he's name as well as mine but I've been told he's actually insane so it makes sense.

Result: Success (sort of)

Timothy Spall:

This just made it inside the 3 month mark, a bit shocking considering its a plain B&W headshot, not even personalised. It's a nice picture but I don't think it was worth the 3 month wait for it. Oh well I'm sure he's very busy running round with Tim Burton and the like, I don't think it would be worth writing to him again as I've only seen bad results from him.

Result: Success

Lulu, Charlie Cox & Lewis Hamilton

1. Lulu - I sent an email to the official fan club, today I received a signed picture of lulu that looks real. The problem is however that all fanmail must be sent through the fanclub so I highly suspect that all signatures received through this address are merely secretarials. Still it's a nice pic that will look great with the rest of my now budding collection.

Result: Acceptable (due to secretarial suspicion)


2. Charlie Cox - Back in December I sent the handsome young man a letter telling him how much I enjoyed Stardust. Today I got a a gorgeous 8x6 picture of him in Stardust that was personalised to me. It was more than I was expecting to be honest. I was completely disgusted however to see that someone was selling pictures like these on ebay for £40.

Result: Success

3. Lewis Hamilton - Although I said I would not be selling any obtained autographs because personally I find that practise disgusting, I believe that if you ask a celebrity for an autograph for a charity auction and are honest about your purposes then if the celebrity sends you the autograph, it's fine. I mentioned before that I had tried to obtain an autograph from Kate Moss for a charity auction, well as well as some others I had written to Lewis Hamilton as well. Today I got a letter saying that due to the high volume of of post he gets, he cannot sign everything and I was denied an autograph. It's a great shame.

Result: Disappointment

A Brit actor, Gordon Ramsay & Kate Moss

A Bit part actor: I have not stated his name as he is a small bit-part actor from a TV show I really like. He manages his own website & was kind enough to not only personally reply to the email I sent him but send me a signed pic in the post.

Result: Success
Gordon Ramsay:

I sent an email & just five days later I got an A4 sized picture. The quality is stunning, it's completely beautiful, I can't honestly say whether or not its definitely his signature or his secretary's, but I'm counting it as real. This one is not for me, it's going to be auctioned to raise money for my community centre.

The scan doesn't do it justice.

Result: Success






Kate moss:

Well on the plus side I sent an email so it cost nothing, also it arrived in five days. However this one was supposed to be auctioned off to raise money for the community centre as well but I'm not even going to bother showing it to them. What I got in the post was an extremely low quality post card. The printed sig couldn't pass for real at all. Kate Moss should be ashamed at sending out such low quality picture.

I don't think I'll bother to frame this one, I'll just stick it in the back of the cupboard somewhere. The scan makes it looks a million times better than it really it.

Result: Acceptable (barely)