Is it legal to sell photocopies of autographs?

[Yeti]

Your idea is far from new. Even back in the early days of Ebay, people would do high quality computer prints of autographs, often even trying to pass them off as originals. And sometimes people just do the photos with questionable "autographs" on them they've probably made themselves.

Anyway, it's highly likely whatever image you have is indeed copyrighted, so making copies of it and selling them would indeed run you into trouble regardless of the autograph. The ones given away at things like conventions are usually bulk printed by celebrities themselves (or to people who have legally licensed permission to do so), which is why they're not an issue. They don't have to put things like watermarks or copyright symbols on images to preserve protections.

You might want to spend some time seeing what you'd be up against on Ebay these days, and what their limitations are. But even if they allow you to sell as you'd describe, you likely wouldn't get much if anything beyond what the paper, ink, and postage are costing you. And you still never know when a copyright holder is going to come down on your particular image.

The main thing you'd be able to do legally is sell the originals. Your kids need to get dollar signs out of their eyes thinking your home printer is now minting money for you.