1 00:00:00,520 --> 00:00:03,840 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff from house Stuff Works dot com, where 2 00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:15,640 Speaker 1: smart happens him Marshall Brain with today's question how much 3 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:19,840 Speaker 1: is an autograph worth? And this question comes up because 4 00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:22,800 Speaker 1: there was a recent case where a person who had 5 00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:27,800 Speaker 1: received a personal letter from President Obama had sold that 6 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:31,720 Speaker 1: letter to an autograph dealer and was able to sell 7 00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:34,800 Speaker 1: it for seven thousand dollars. So the story is she 8 00:00:34,840 --> 00:00:38,800 Speaker 1: had written to Obama, just a letter like people right 9 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:40,519 Speaker 1: to the White House all the time, but this one 10 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:43,760 Speaker 1: caught a staffer's attention and Obama had read it and 11 00:00:43,800 --> 00:00:46,320 Speaker 1: he had written back to her with a nice little 12 00:00:46,360 --> 00:00:49,839 Speaker 1: note on White House stationary and his signature. And it 13 00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:53,159 Speaker 1: turns out that this kind of thing is not common. 14 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:56,600 Speaker 1: That is a very rare occurrence. So it's not often 15 00:00:56,680 --> 00:01:00,320 Speaker 1: that a person has a personal note from the president 16 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:03,200 Speaker 1: with his signature on it from the White House. And 17 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:07,000 Speaker 1: so she got into some financial straits and needed some cash, 18 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:09,959 Speaker 1: so she went to a dealer and she sold this 19 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:13,240 Speaker 1: note to the dealer for seven thousand dollars. And presumably 20 00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:15,400 Speaker 1: he'll go out onto the open market and he'll sell 21 00:01:15,440 --> 00:01:18,160 Speaker 1: it for more than seven thousand dollars. So we could 22 00:01:18,160 --> 00:01:23,480 Speaker 1: say that the handwritten signature of a sitting president with 23 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:26,800 Speaker 1: a nice note on White House stationary is worth something 24 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:30,640 Speaker 1: more than seven thousand dollars. So that brings up the 25 00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:34,639 Speaker 1: obvious question how much are the signatures of other living 26 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:38,360 Speaker 1: people worth in comparison to that? And to get an 27 00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:41,080 Speaker 1: answer to that question, we can go over to a 28 00:01:41,080 --> 00:01:45,119 Speaker 1: website called Mademan dot com and it had an article 29 00:01:45,240 --> 00:01:49,200 Speaker 1: called the ten most valuable autographs of living people. And 30 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:53,000 Speaker 1: if you look through that list, it lists Neil Armstrong 31 00:01:53,600 --> 00:01:57,360 Speaker 1: as the person with the most valuable signature at So 32 00:01:57,400 --> 00:01:59,720 Speaker 1: that means that Obama is setting a new record here. 33 00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:03,320 Speaker 1: But below that is people like Steve Jobs at five 34 00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:07,200 Speaker 1: thousand dollars, Tiger Woods at eight hundred dollars, Bob Dylan 35 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:13,600 Speaker 1: at dollars, Paul McCartney, J K Rowling, Elizabeth Taylor, you know, 36 00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:16,560 Speaker 1: people like you've heard of. And this this tells you 37 00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:19,320 Speaker 1: something about the value of autographs is that the person 38 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:24,120 Speaker 1: usually has to be somebody who's widely known and uh, 39 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:27,520 Speaker 1: you know, additionally needs to be someone who isn't spreading 40 00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:31,840 Speaker 1: their signature around everywhere. So for example, J. K. Rowling 41 00:02:32,240 --> 00:02:35,640 Speaker 1: doesn't really sign things anymore. You won't see her at 42 00:02:35,639 --> 00:02:38,880 Speaker 1: a book signing just giving her signature away a thousand 43 00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:42,600 Speaker 1: times a day, and that makes the signature more valuable. 44 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:45,880 Speaker 1: But if you think about it, two thousand ish dollars 45 00:02:45,919 --> 00:02:48,920 Speaker 1: for Rowling signature isn't really that much money in the 46 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:51,040 Speaker 1: grand scheme of things. If you want to go for 47 00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:53,480 Speaker 1: really big amounts of money, you have to look at 48 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:56,840 Speaker 1: autographs of famous dead people. And at the top of 49 00:02:56,880 --> 00:03:01,160 Speaker 1: that list goes William Shakespeare, because there's only six known 50 00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:05,600 Speaker 1: copies of his signature anywhere in the world, and he's 51 00:03:05,639 --> 00:03:08,560 Speaker 1: an incredibly famous person. Just about everybody on the planet 52 00:03:08,600 --> 00:03:11,320 Speaker 1: has heard of Shakespeare, and you know, you could probably 53 00:03:11,320 --> 00:03:13,760 Speaker 1: find a wealthy English major who would pay a lot 54 00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:16,800 Speaker 1: for one of those signatures. Next on the list is 55 00:03:16,960 --> 00:03:20,880 Speaker 1: former President Lincoln. Stuff that he's signed is pushing up 56 00:03:20,919 --> 00:03:24,480 Speaker 1: toward a million dollars a pop. So how could you 57 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:27,480 Speaker 1: use this knowledge to your advantage. Here's what you would 58 00:03:27,480 --> 00:03:29,520 Speaker 1: need to do. First of all, you would need to 59 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:32,800 Speaker 1: not give out your signature, so get in the habit 60 00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:35,160 Speaker 1: of not doing that, so there's a very small number 61 00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:38,520 Speaker 1: of your signatures out in the world. Then sign a 62 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:41,200 Speaker 1: couple of things, put them in a safe and leave 63 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:45,080 Speaker 1: them for your great grandchildren to find at some point 64 00:03:45,160 --> 00:03:50,160 Speaker 1: in their lives, then become incredibly famous for some reason, 65 00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:53,120 Speaker 1: and then die. And then what's going to happen is 66 00:03:53,160 --> 00:03:55,760 Speaker 1: over the years, because you were incredibly famous and you 67 00:03:55,760 --> 00:03:58,520 Speaker 1: didn't sign very many things, those couple of signatures you 68 00:03:58,640 --> 00:04:00,600 Speaker 1: left for your great grand show ldren are going to 69 00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:05,080 Speaker 1: be incredibly valuable. Be sure to check out our new 70 00:04:05,200 --> 00:04:08,520 Speaker 1: video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join How Staff Work 71 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:12,120 Speaker 1: staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities 72 00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:16,320 Speaker 1: of tomorrow. The How Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. 73 00:04:16,440 --> 00:04:18,359 Speaker 1: Download it today on iTunes.