Just call your broker and say you want your shares in certificate form. Some brokers charge a nominal fee and some don't charge anything at all. Depends on your broker. You will get your certs in a few weeks and the shares will be removed from your broker. If you want to sell, you do the whole thing in reverse. Sign your certs, take them back to your broker and they get deposited in your account. The reason most people don't like to do this is being caught without being able to trade during a run-up. If you are holding long term though and have a lot of shares, it only makes sense to protect your self from shorting.