Anyone ever buy autograph pictures online?

My advise>? Don't. Some autograph's on pictures and items have been found to be fraudulent.

all of my autographed paraphernalia was done while I waited.

I would think the specialness of it would be diminished, even if the authenticity was not.

that's what I thought - I haven't - maybe what I will do is just get the cheap unsigned baseball card

Tough when these sports players are in CA and Minnesota.

I guess you could try to look it up on the Better Business Bureau website to see if the seller is a registered and legitimate store with a brick and mortar location (and thusly a slightly more trustworthy business) because they have a paper trail to leave behind to deter them from possibly selling counterfeit autographs.

http://www.bbb.org/

PSA/DNA and JSA (James Spence Authentic) are companies that offer certificates of authenticity for certain signed sports memorabilia. A few years ago I won an autographed baseball for my dad that came with a certificate from JSA.

More info here:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_get_a_certificate_of_authenticity_for_signed_baseball

My first buying experience on e-bay, many years ago, was autographed sports photos for my nephew. I bought many of them, some appeared authentic, with better validation, but most of them were questionable and some were definitely not authentic originals. After I had made these purchases, there was a very big brouhaha about phony items of that type being sold on e-bay and by the major sports memorabilia dealers in Las Vegas as well. On balance, I felt I had thrown out a great deal of money because I was uncertain about authenticity. This was quite some time ago, before they had things like numbered and tamper-evident holograms.

I also purchased a few autographed items from QVC, and those did appear to be authentic. I suspect that the major shopping channels make some effort to check out the reliability of their vendors, and the authenticity of their merchandise, so you might consider the vendors they use.
I just looked on the QVC Web site, and they currently only have a handful of items, but the items are from either Mounted Memories or Steiner Sports. I also just checked the Home Shopping Network, which has many more items, all of which seem to be from Steiner Sports.
If I were you, I'd check out those two vendors--the major shopping channels have too much to lose by dealing with less than reputable vendors. I'd feel more confident buying from one of these vendors.

Mounted Memories.
http://www.mountedmemories.com/

Steiner Sports
http://www.steinersports.com/

You could also check the Home Shopping Web site (HSN.com) to see if, by chance, they have what you are looking for.

Thanks for the info - under the circumstances I think I may forego this - maybe my daughters can send letters to their sports stars they like. Who knows - realizing that women sports may not get as much, they could get an autograph.

I did have a good find as both of these women my daughters like happen to have a book out about their experience in their respective sports.

You might want to check on e-bay to see if you can find autographed copies of the books.

I have bought autographed books as gifts for friends and family and those are much more likely to be authentic, and I have been very pleased with those purchases, and so were the recipients. Signed books are an entirely different market than the usual sports memorabilia business, and that makes a difference.