San Francisco (CA) – William Shatner, known to millions of Star Trek fans as Captain Kirk, is making some serious cash from virtual video autographs through his new business liveautographs.com.  Shatner, along with other celebrities like Danica Patrick, Carmen Electra and even Buzz Aldrin, star on the website featuring expensive fan memorabilia authenticated with a short video message.  While it may seem hokey to some, the demand is hot and Shatner recently sold more than 200 autographs in a single sitting.

Created last year, liveautographs.com allows customers to buy fan merchandise like shirts, posters and hats for $149 and up.  The stuff is then signed by a celebrity of their choice and barcoded.   In addition to the signature, buyers can send a message of up to 200 characters to the celebrity when buying the gift.  The actors are videotaped, with several cameras, reading or responding to the message.  Liveautographs promises to store the video forever and the buyer can simply supply an HTML link to anyone who is doubtful about the memorabilia’s authenticity.

To the average Joe, this may seem over the top for an autographed shirt or baseball cap, but according to Liveautographs.com more than 50% of autographed merchandise is counterfeit – a big deal when you’re talking about a two billion a year market.  Shatner is betting that a video of celebrities signing the item should be worth much more than a simple Certificate of Authenticity provided by other autographed merchandise vendors.

In a recent Reuter’s article, Shatner talks about the wacky messages fans have tried to get him to say.  One customer asked if Shatner would rather be a starship captain or an actor to which he said, “I can't even understand your question, but I want you to understand -- I'm an actor."  While Shatner did play the role of Captain Kirk of the starship Enterprise in the television series and several movies, he’s quite vocal in his disdain of ‘Trekkies’, rabid fans of the show.

While the messages for the celebrities cannot contain the name of a business (according to Liveautographs.com’s frequently asked questions page), one journalist seems to have gotten around the restriction.  Michael Arrington of TechCrunch.com purchased a signed photo from the site way back in May and just received his video reply – “I love TechCrunch.”  I suppose a three month turn around isn’t too bad.

TechCrunch not a company!

Aug 18, 2008 23:39     

Maybe neither Shatner nor anybody else at liveautographs.com KNEW what TechCrunch is. I mean several months back a friend of mine asked me if I knew "Da Crunch", and I didn't until he told me, that it's a website. Sorry, but not everybody is a tech nerd, who knows every website out there.
StudyMaster report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Techcruchn is just on of the stupid dotcoms

Aug 19, 2008 10:13     

Looks like they all don´t know techcrunch is just waiting to be purchased by some silly guy. But hey it´s not 2000!
wrong report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

it is a "company" of ...

Aug 19, 2008 10:14     

techcrunch is a company waiting to be purchased. But hey it´s not 2000 ...
wrong report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Um... GEEK-ALERT

Aug 20, 2008 19:38     

Three posts about TechCrunch??? Who gives a freaking damn?!?!?!?!? Kirk... you rule! Too bad you can't sling-shot around the sun and go back in time to free yourself from the bloated alien body in which you are now trapped.
RockHop report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0