jldraw

I actually have what I believe to be a very rare Melissa George signed H&A fancard back from when she was on the show. First off I'm not sure how many are aware of this but apparently Melissa George didn't sign all that much during her time on the show and instead chose to send fans who wrote to her a form letter with a biography and a brief Q&A explaining that she just didn't have the time to personally reply to fans. So to begin with having her autograph on a H&A fancard is somewhat rare to begin with as far as I'm aware. But what makes the card I have even rarer is not only did she sign it as "Melissa" but also signed it as "Angel" as well something which probably has a snowballs chance in hell of ever surfacing on a Melissa George autograph again. The only thing is I have never got i authenticated so what I could have is a big fat forgery. One day I'm going to send it into PSA/DNA and have it analyzed but my guess is that it is real as it came from a rather large collection of fan cards some of which have personal messages written on the backsides. If I ever do send it into third party verification I'll let you know how it all turns out.

By and large it seems (and this is speaking in the most general terms) that the over forty set is generally better at answering fanmail than the younger set. To be quite honest I haven't been keeping up much with the show at all over the past couple of years so I can't tell you who currently is good at responding and who isn't. But in generally speaking you'd be far more likely to get a reply from Lynne, Ray or Shane than you would most of the kids. Edit: As a brief aside, you should be aware that some actors just don't sign on principal. A few years back I won an auction for a cast signed H&A poster that was commissioned by Esther Anderson on behalf of the charity auctioning the poster. Now you would think with Esther Anderson being the one who was collecting the signatures that it would've been a complete cast signed poster but this was not the case. I'm not griping because 95% of the signatures were there but there were some notable signatures missing which says at least to me that some cast members at that time just didn't sign autographs period. Now while some cast members featured on the poster (Jessica Tovey, Charlotte Best) were no longer with the show at the time the signatures were collected, there are several others who were still on the show and just didn't sign. I'm not going to name names as again this was for charity and I don't want to make it seem like certain cast members were unwilling to donate their name to a worthy cause but it's something for anyone writing to the H&A cast to be aware of.

Count me in too - I miss Holly/Amanda as well.

Ada took about 18 months. Don't get me wrong I'm glad you got a response but eighteen months is friggin' insane. Unless your letter got lost in the post or something

If anyone cares to take a look, Josh Quong Tart's new fancard is on eBay. I say "new" because it's not a mere stylistic adjustment like some of the other "new fancards" but a new photo showing Josh with a full beard and shorter hairstyle.

Awhile back someone was asking about a signed Jessica Tovey fancard. There is unpersonalized autographed one on eBay right now. By looking at the fancard, I believe that the autograph is authentic in that it is actually a genuine autographed piece by Jessica Tovey. What I can't say for sure obviously is if the fancard itself is a reprint or not. Also I just purchased an unpersonalized autographed Lisa Gormley fancard off eBay. Hope to god it's authentic. Either way I'll keep the forum updated as to how the transaction turns out.

Yeah they are pretty absurd but another way of looking at it is that it is amazing that actors that are virtually unknown in the world's largest media marketplace are still garnering such high figures for their fancards and autographs. As far as my collection goes, I'm pretty selective about what I'm looking for when it comes to Aussie soaps. I have little to no interest in personalized fancards so I usually stick with the unsigned fancards or the unpersonalized fancards. Here is what I have: Isla Fisher x2 (Unpersonalized signed fancard and unsigned fancard) Isabel Lucas (Unsigned fancard) Dieter Brummer (Unsigned fancard) Shane Ammann (Unsigned fancard) Lyn Collingwood (Unpersonalized signed fancard) Jessica Tovey x2 (Unpersonalized signed fancard and unsigned fancard) Tammin Sursok x2 (Unpersonalized signed fancard and unsigned fancard) Esther Anderson (Unpersonalized signed fancard) Melissa George x2 (Unpersonalized signed fancard and unsigned fancard) 2008-2009 Cast Signed Poster (minus Josh Quong Tart) Pippa Black (Unpersonalized signed fancard) The Melissa George signed fancard is probably my favorite out of all of them due to the fact that she signed it as both "Melissa" and "Angel". I doubt she'll be signing her autograph in that manner ever again.

Yeah that is basically it right there. If anyone wants to have an idea of who generally replies and who doesn't consult this list. In all my time, I haven't seen many replies from either Tessa or David so I'm not sure if that is actually a unique situation with them not writing back to you. Jay was gone from the show for awhile so it's possible that your letter just never reached it's destination. No idea what happened with Sonia Todd though, I'd try writing her again as I've seen a few replies from her. Also to my knowledge both Laurie Foell (Angie/Josie) and Holly Brisley (Amanda) still respond to fanmail even though they are no longer with the show. No idea if anyone else does the same but it is pretty classy of them to do so.

Hi Just to let everyone know.. The seller with the B/W collection of cards on Ebay has many times taken cards of Ebay, even though there has been bids made. He often changes his Ebay user name. Don't be surprised if he do it again. Has anyone had any replies from Luke Jacobz or Josh Quong Tart?? To my knowledge Josh Quong Tart doesn't sign. I have a Luke Jacobz signature on a poster signed by the entire cast (minus JQT). However, the autographs on that poster were commissioned by Esther Anderson so I don't know if he signs regularly or not? As far as that seller on eBay goes, I'm unfamiliar with his handle and I have personally never seen him sell fancards on eBay before.

Now these aren't mine nor should this message be take as a solicitation to buy, but since people are consistently asking about fancards and how to obtain them, there is an auction right now on eBay for a basically complete set of B&W fancards from the "The Glory Years" of 1993-1996. In my opinion, these earlier cards are extremely hard to fake due to how they were originally printed as well as due to the fact that most of them are quite rare by now and therefore are likely all authentic fancards. Although they all appear to be unsigned it is still rare to find all of these in one place. Pretty good way to start off your collection...

Late reporting this but Georgie Parker's fancard is also on eBay now if you want to take a look. The seller bundled it with two fancards issued while she was on All Saints.

First off my condolences. Granted these are people with busy schedules but at times it becomes painfully obvious who can find the time to write to their fans and who cannot. The general rule when it comes to writing to the H&A cast is that the older cast members seem to be much better about responding to their fan mail than the younger cast. Lynne, Lyn, Ray and Esther all respond pretty quickly to fancard inquiries and all seem to be relatively appreciative of their fans. Of the more recent cast both Lisa Gormley and Sonia Todd seem to keep up with their fanmail pretty well from what I've seen as well. However when you are writing to the younger cast, there really are no guarantees that they will write back. Sometimes they do and quite frankly sometimes they don't. For the record the one person that I've never seen anyone correspond with successfully is Josh Quong Tart. I don't know if he doesn't sign as a rule or whatnot but have never personally known of anyone to get a reply from him. On the flipside of that is Laurie Foell who portrayed Angie/Josie on the show years back. She actually still responds to fanmail and from everything I've read seems like one of the most genuinely gracious people around. So I guess the lesson in all this is it takes all kinds. Personally, the only autographs I've ever gotten from Lasance and Tovey are as follows: I have Todd Lasance's signature on a cast signed poster signed by the entire H&A cast at the time (minus JQT) and I have an non-personalized autograph from Jessica Tovey on a fancard I picked up off eBay. Being that neither are on the show anymore, I figure their autographs wouldn't be the easiest to get at this point. Best of luck to you though

River Boys cards are up on eBay if anyone wants to see what they look like.

This has all been beaten pretty much to death but I wanted to say a few things about Charlie/Angelo/Ruby: I'll make no bones about it, when Charlie debuted along with Ruby in 2008 they quickly became two of my favorite characters on the show. Even though I'm a guy their dynamic reminded me of my own relationship with my mother as she had me when she was quite young and we did a lot of growing up together. But as I've said before, ever since Charlie and Ruby went through the whole storyline when it was revealed that Charlie was Ruby's mother, they seemed to have sucked all the fun and energy out of Charlie. It's like it's not even the same character anymore and it seems over the past year with Charlie and Ruby it's been one big drama after another. I've taken a hard line with Ruby and deservedly so. The character has developed a parasitic quality to it where it basically serves only to agitate the rest of the cast. There has been almost nothing appealing to have come from "Camp Ruby" over the past year. She has used people, done whatever it takes to get her own way and has displayed a very egocentric attitude all the while still being painted as a protagonist. The writers had a chance to do something magnificent late last year when Charlie and Ruby finally began to address issues in their relationship but instead that storyline only last for three episodes and Ruby was then put in the middle of another dramatic romance which is the last thing that needed to happen given what had happened to the character in 2010. As for Charlie. She's just not fun anymore. I understand this is a soap and there needs to be a fair amount of drama but the character of Charlie used to have this youthful exuberance which has somehow become lost over the past two years. Instead we've gotten a steady diet of police officer Charlie, stubborn & pigheaded Charlie and depressing Charlie. Not a whole lot of fun to watch in my opinion. I don't have all that much to say about Angelo as I think it's all been said already. The bottom line with him is from a creative standpoint, I don't believe the character was ever all that well written or defined and I believe this hurt him somewhat when they decided to make the character into a regular. I think it's something they continue to struggle with creatively to this day.

I love Esther but not a fan of the progression of her character. 2008 Charlie was awesome and probably in my all time top ten characters in the history of the show. Since they aged her up so that she could become Ruby's mother among other things, the life has really been drained out of her character and to no great end I might add.

Yeah for some reason H&A is real good about breaking apart families. I don't understand it. The show used to be about groupings and now are more about individuals. Everyone seems to basically paddle their own canoe for better or worse. Don't get me started on April moving in with Irene either. Didn't we go through all that last year with Ruby?

Hey Charlie & Ruby have a sisters thread so April & Bianca should have one too. I really love their dynamic together and how well they compliment each other. They almost have a "Gilmore Girls" thing going with April being the level headed sister and Bianca being the free spirit. I'm actually starting to like them more than I ever liked Charlie & Ruby especially given how burden-laden the writers have made Ruby and Charlie over the last year or so. In closing anyone want to do an over/under? I'm saying 56 weeks, 2 days and 5 hours until Bianca somehow becomes April's mother. Anyone else want in on this?

On the spur of the moment, I decided tonight to watch some 2008 episodes and I must admit I was surprised at how young Charlie and Angelo looked back then. Granted this was only three years ago but does anyone else think that production has tried to age these characters up by changing their hairstyles and other features? Angelo used to have a somewhat floppy haircut which has now been traded in for a buzzcut. Charlie on the other hand used to have reddish-brown hair which now has been swapped for very dark brown hair. I don't know if it's because they tried to age Charlie up a bit but it just struck me as to how youthful these two characters looked only three short years ago compared to how they look today.

In regards to both Robbie and Dexter. In my opinion here was only one actor in recent memory who was able to pull off that nerdy, sarcastic-type character with any amount of success and that was Adam Brody on "The OC" and even he got annoying after awhile.

Bingo! I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed. The basic rule of thumb (that I've found to be true anyhow) is the older fancards meaning the B&W ones or the ones from the early 00s that appear on eBay are for the most part legitimate. The ones issued after that are a real hit or miss proposition. I still say the worse thing that Seven Network ever did was make a bunch of these fancards available for download off their website. It made the forgeries so much more prevalent and widespread. The easiest way I've found to spot a legitimate fancard from a fake is that the ink toner used on the fakes are by and large much darker than the legitimate cards. I wish I had a scanner to show you some examples but I have both a fake and a legitimate Jessica Tovey fancard (her first) in my collection. On the fraudulent card you can barely make out her facial features while on the original they are as clear as day. I would also be wary of any cards that claim to be hand-signed that date from the past five years or so. Many of these have been auctioned many times over on eBay and they are 100% fraudulent. The proof is that nobody signs their name the exact same way every time nor do they affix their signature in the exact same location. A number of the alleged hand-signed cards on eBay bear signatures identical to ones I already have in my collection and unfortunately I doubt that I have the originals either. Another basic rule of thumb is beware of sellers selling in bulk. Unless a seller has an endless supply of fancards, it's unlikely that they are able to constantly turnover bulk collection after bulk collection of legitimate fan cards. It's far more likely that they are selling bulk collections of copies.

I wouldn't be surprised if she's not the only one with a "new fancard". It seems from your description that they are taking some of the older fancards and trying to pull them in line as far the design goes on the newer fancards.

If you are talking eBay, I would avoid the large grouping of cards personally. I've seen that same set auctioned many times over and unless the seller has an unlimited access/supply of fancards there is a very good chance they could be dupes produced using a scanner and high quality printer setup.

Laurie is probably my all time favorite too. I would love to be able to write to her but lack a mailing address as I assume H&A no longer forwards her mail as she's been off screens for a long time now. I know a lot of actors sign for fans but I've always gotten the impression from Laurie (and also from Esther Anderson for that matter) that the really appreciate their fans and don't take the letters and cards they receive from them lightly. It's a real admirable quality.

yeah, I have been collecting autographs for about 6 years, so I know it can take a long time. I just thought because everyone else it getting a reply they might have replied mine too, to get it out of the way. it took 4 weeks to get a reply from Rebecca Breeds, 2 months from Todd Lasance and 3 months from Luke Mitchell. You are actually pretty lucky to get anything back from Breeds. Although not nearly as elusive as Josh Quong Tart (who I personally don't believe signs at all), Tessa James and Charlotte Best (who sign/signed very infrequently) a Rebecca Breeds autograph is still hard to find. Point in case, around six months ago I came into possession of cast signed poster, the only two signatures missing were Rebecca Breeds and Josh Quong Tart.

Interesting to hear Samara's thoughts on OOTB. I agree with her grandparents that in some aspects the show was better than what H&A was broadcasting at that time. I thought the fact that they assembled this relatively unknown cast was one of the things that was cool about it. I probably wouldn't have liked it as much if it was just a collection of actors who had for one reason or another been jettisoned from H&A or Neighbours.