Modern player signature prices: Time to check out?
 

I was recently chatting with a few collectors about the insanely high cost of modern players, e.g., Trout $700, Jeter $800+, Rivera $300+, Griffey $400+, etc etc.

Seasoned collectors are checking out. And, how does the hobby attract new participants at prices like this?

I used to collect the HOF postcard plaks from every new class, and I've given up. Not that I technically could not afford it, but it's a matter of principle. I'll be damned before I pay $400 for a Ken Griffey signed postcard plak. I can't even imagine what a Jeter plak is going to go for. "On sale" at Steiner for $500?

The thing is, these are NOT investments. You'll never get your money back out. God willing, these guys will be around signing for many decades. Dealers are sitting on a ton of stock, and the market is being diluted daily by a steady and mass influx of fakes.

One could argue you do it for the enjoyment, not the investment. Maybe it's me, but I just can't "enjoy" being subjected to predatory pricing to keep a frivolous thing like a collection going.

I believe it's time to cut bait and run.

Am I alone?

I’m with you Steve +1 not fun anymore. Money and greed destroyed it.

Perhaps I'm getting to the point in life where priorities change.

I could have:
* A night in a nice resort for the family; and
* Meals for the day; and
* Walking around cash for entertainment.

OR

* A Ken Griffey signed postcard that will sit in a binder and I'll look at it once or twice a year.

It's not like I have to pick one over the other, but I can't shake that kind of thinking when I look at the pricing of contemporary players.

It would be one thing if it was my absolute favorite player and it was an item I would display and enjoy for years, but honestly it's not. More often than not, it's just mindlessly following a habit out of some compulsion. :(

I've been thinking the exact same thing. When I was a kid (mid-late 90's) I could get auto 8x10's for the game's best at $40-$50 a pop. I remember picking up a Bonds autographed ball for $25 and a Griffey photo for $40. Can't imagine shelling out 10 times that for a Harper or Trout.

Agree again Steve. I’d much rather spend $400 on a day or two out with my family enjoying the weather at a national park or museum then spending it on a 2 second stoke of a pen on cardboard.

I certainly agree that the price is insane. One thing I have to wonder about regarding the influx of players who made over $100,000,000 in their careers is if they actually will sign a lot as they get older. We as collectors are used to players who, as they age, need to do shows for the extra income, or even just to pay the bills. That will no longer be the case for most players going forward. If they don't want to sign, they don't have to. As such, I wonder if some of the current or future Hall Of Famers may end up actually being fairly tough simply because they can't be bothered to sign, or at least, to sign much.

Just a thought I have had.

Totally agree with all of the above. Your priorities change, especially if you're like me and have retired. This doesn't help though if you have modern projects that you have to get signed. For me, I have a HOF book that I get signed, and if I went to the HOF show in July, it would cost me $1700 in autographs just to get caught up. That doesn't include needing those same players on single singed balls...there's another $1700. For the balls though, I try to find some of those same players doing private signings through card shops. A lot of times the price is a bit better.

Steve: I couldn’t agree more. It amazes me when I see the lines for players charging 200-300 per signature. Seems to me there may be a better place to spend your money ( like on your kids education). I know all will not agree with me but that’s my 2 cents worth.

I don’t have any objection to shelling out $400 for a signature, but if I’m going to do that, it needs to be rare and legible. If it looks like a drunk four year old signed it, I’ll pass.

My friend Steve and I have talked about this numerous times.

In one way I am fortunate that I do not collect anything contemporary (except Jeter and I don't need any new purchases).

But if you're a Trout, Judge, etc. collector of autographs, you're either going to pay TOP dollar, or (for the most part), purchase a forgery on Ebay.

The forgery business has never been more profitable than right now, especially on Ebay.

There are hundreds of kitchen-table forgers selling on Ebay and Ebay loves it!!!

There are also the dozens of "Florida" sellers with their "Forensic" COAs that Ebay welcomes with open arms every time a new "Florida" account is opened.

Then you have the so-called Forensic authenticators like Stephen Rocchi (GFA), Chris "I Never Saw An Autograph I Didn't Like" Morales, etc. who have literally certed, in my opinion, probably tens upon tens of thousands of forgeries primarily of Mantle, DiMaggio, Mays, Williams, Koufax, etc.

By the way, the "Florida" sellers a few months ago are now certing Jeter forgeries accompanied with their Forensic COAs.

The majority of the below Sold Auctions are the Florida forgeries.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/Photos/2726...&LH_Complete=1

About two years ago, I bit the bullet and paid for two Jeter signatures through Steiner on 96 and 98 Yankee team 16x20s.

Thankfully I got most of the signatures on the 96 and 98 Yankee photos for free or when prices were much lower.

But after having to shell out for two Jeter signatures, that was the moment I swore off assembling multi-signed items going forward. The value of the whole is much less than the sum of the individual signatures!

Prices are ridiculous and many of the players have no pride in their signature.
So I have no interest in collecting their scribble.

You are not alone.

F#@k their greed. I'm lucky enough to have grown up at a time (1960s) and a place (the Bronx) where I could get player's signatures free outside the Stadium. In those days, players--for the most part--understood signing for fans was part of the job. I even got Mantle that way. And, hey, some of them even liked kids.

All you have to do is look at some of the great stuff you can get from Richard Simon E.g. that costs way under what the modern Bloodsucking bastards want for an autograph, to get something way more satisfying and be able to read it too.

I am a longtime autograph collector that is slowly getting rid of his collection. Got within 150 of getting the whole 1974 topps set done. Decided it wasn’t worth $300 per auto for Hank Aaron to get the first 6 cards of that set signed. I tried one of the Topps Heritage minors sets a few years ago and you cannot read any of their signatures. So I sold that. I teach high school and penmanship is getting worse and worse. I got Joc Pederson while he was in the minors and I got 2 letters, J P. It is getting bad. I have a topps 40 years of baseball book that has over 700 autographs in it. I though maybe I should go to the tristar show in San Francisco a few weeks ago and get the few Hall of Famers I needed. They were going to cost me nearly $100 each and with the others I wanted it was closing in on $800. I decided to skip the trip into SF and save my money. Tom Orr with Atommic Sports does some great private signings in the St Louis area, but it still adds up. Ugh.

I think most collectors who have more than a couple decades into this hobby, and maybe even some who came as recent as the 90s boom, have seen how the card and autograph industries have turned into something completely different than what came before. I got into the autograph side of it a lot later than many, but still saw prices rise more and more out of control.

I was trying to assemble as many of the Topps all rookie team cards as I could find signed. Even with some pretty solid players, it was not too tough to find most each year. I had nearly all of them through the early 2000s, aside from a few toughies and modern absurdities ($). The likes of Jeter & Ichiro started a trend that would only get worse. Now, I rarely even see any of the newer ones signed at all as it seems other sets like Heritage and Ginter are the rage and with an onslaught of high end players getting trophies each year, I gave up.

I wouldn't mind just getting the first 40 years worth, but even that has proven near impossible. Aside from Munson, which I do not have, I still need Jeter, Ichiro and a few others that never seem to show up ever.

Hoever, read through a few threads on Blowout, especially the showoff type threads and you'll quickly see that there are plenty of folks who have no issues dropping 4 & 5 figures on shiny new stuff. I have never been in a better position to spend more money on cards then ever, but I just don't get the same thrill anymore and certainly don't see it being worth it when there is so much more to spend your money on that leads to greater enjoyment.

Here is another example that just sickens me. I try to get a signature of every new Dodger player or Dodger card. More and more I miss out because of speculators. Maybe I can come back behind in 25 years and pick up some of these guys for $1-2 like I have done with late 90s/early 00s duds!

Forgive my ignorance, but is every single Dodger prospect now a gold mine right out of the gate? Who is this guy?

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw...&LH_Complete=1

Collect early 1970s Topps autos instead!

Get Fingers and Jenkins for less than $20.

Get Kaline, Palmer, B. Robby and B. Williams for $20-$30.

Get Hunter, Killebrew, McCovey, Rose and Santo for $50.

Get Aaron and Mays for less than $200.

Who are these Jeter and Trout guys anyway? :)

This is why I will stick to my 1934 Goudey set. I have much less of a problem dropping several hundred or thousand on a card that is 90yo with a sig that might be just as old rather than a new player.
I have seen over and over items from Steiner sell for a fraction of their original cost on ebay. I would rather wait it out and get something at a much lower price.

My guess is that the top guys of today don't really want to spend their time doing this.

If they set the price too high, they'll still attract some but their work load decreases. I can't really say that I blame them.

I was in a liquor store in Annapolis the other day and saw a bottle of wine signed by Cal Ripken that came in a box with a baseball also signed by him. On sale for over $500. Looking at the prices Steve quoted, I guess this was a bargain - as you walked out the door you could re-think your purchase, realize how stupid you were, and at least sit on a street corner and get drunk (but save the empty bottle to sell on ebay.)

Not exactly, I'm way ahead of you. At least a 3 years head start. It's a retarded hobby plagued by the most disgusting people in the universe. Complete scum bags PERIOD. Trout's a great guy but At 700 per snap it's neither fun nor funny.

Can't blame them?
Their work load?
Really?
Shit. They only work half the year to begin with.
Those rich, spoiled, ingrates have decided that they don't owe shit to the fans who ultimately pay their salaries. They're too fuckin' busy figuring out which room of their 30 room house they're in to sign some autographs for kids outside the ballpark?
Fuck 'em.

Damn, I just did some homework and discovered I'm further behind than I thought. Out of 77 living hall of famers (including this year's class), I need 38 on single singed baseballs and 37 to sign my HOF book (not necessarily all the same players). $$$$$ is all my eyeballs are seeing right now. Anyway, I have space in my current baseball cases for about 58 more balls, and I think I'm going to cap it at that. Not sure when I'll cap my book, but I can't imagine making more than one more trip to Cooperstown (and maybe one more National) so I'll have to make both of those count. My main focus is going to be either older teams or deceased HOF'ers that I can still "reasonably" get.

Just wait and buy them on eBay. I am sure you can find almost everyone of them for fairly cheap. Chris finds Jeters cheap all the time(Granted I don't know jack about Jeter's auto so I can't help you)

Mark, what are you up to on the 1934 Goudeys?

I'll have to check to remind myself, but I think its 84/96

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Mark, you make a very good point!!!

If you know the autographs of those you collect, you can find great deals on Ebay!!!!

I picked this ball up for 199... Someone paid $135 recently for a Jeter/Rivera/Mendoza ball... Deals are out there, but I agree with everyone above, prices are out of control for some of these guys.

I also posted on this website in December that tri star was selling Griffey's with hof 16 for $300...

Griffey

I think we can all agree that you can find occasional deals on most autographs. I have a box full of Jeter and Rivera signed items I’ve obtained for far below Steiners standard prices.

The point is that the typical retail prices for these players are out of control. If you wanted to add them to a specific item or multi signed item through a private or show signing, may God have mercy on you.

I haven't collected autographs seriously since the early 90s, I had no idea the prices charged by contemporary players had gotten so ridiculous. Though I guess given how ridiculous their salaries have also become its not surprising.

Its kind of sad. Back in the day when I was a kid/teenager my family used to make the trip down to Cooperstown for the induction ceremony each year (we lived just a couple hours drive away). I spent most of my time on those weekends going from card store to store paying $5-$10 to meet and get the autographs of all the hall of famers who were set up there, it was such an awesome time - with most players they didn't just sign but would also pose for photographs, answer questions, etc.

The last time I did that was 1992 (we moved away in 1993 and could no longer make the trip).

Not sure how it is now but I guess with the HOF increasingly being stocked with massively wealthy guys who don't need to do that sort of thing for the fans, and the "poorer" players from the pre free agency era getting older, the HOF weekend won't be as awesome as it used to be.

Ballplayers of today make too much money to sit at a card show for peanuts. I remember stories of Bob Feller paying for his vacations by signing at shows or stadiums along the route of his trip and he charged around $5. With the millions today’s stars make, how much will it take to get them to sign for an hour or two. I would have to think 10’s of thousands or more. They don’t need the money, so why do it. Pete Rose, he will probably be signing for $35 for the rest of his life in Vegas and other shows that will have him. I have always wondered why the older players don’t do more private signings for $5 to $10 bucks a pop. Or do local shows where they could chat with fans. I think they could make good money as well as reconnect with baseball fans.

Mickey Mantle's 1963 Salary. In 1963, baseball player Mickey Mantle earned $100,000, at the time one of the top salaries in the league. This is equivalent to $810,934 in 2018 dollars, far less than today's top players who can make more than $30 million.

That was a top salary, imagine if you weren't a star. These guys sign as a retirement fund. Now a days, they don't need to do that.

I'm a huge Jeter fan... Can you blame him for having high price points? Obviously everywhere he goes, people know him. There's 325 million people in the u.s. alone. There's 7 billion people in the world. Startling numbers, and no, not everyone in the world wants a Jeter autograph. Let's just say 1-10 Americans want it, that's 3.25 million autographs he would have to sign... that's insane, imagine the time that would take. And that's just in America...

Now on to the 90's problem. I grew up going to card shows on a weekly basis. I was young, but still remember all the sleaziness that was going on. For example on here, the joe d hidden playboy autograph. Can you blame these guys for being dicks? How bout we turn it around and blame all the money sucking idiots who ruined it for the true collectors. Maybe instead of watching the guy open up the hidden playboy issue, someone should have punched him in the face and ripped up the playboy issue and gave it back to joe d, I'm sure he would have liked that... just saying

Every time I hear about players from the past talking about salaries I can't help but laugh. You can't plug in a number from 1963, read that it's ONLY $810,000 and think that Mantle was getting gypped in any way at all. In 1963 the average annual income was $5,800 accord to People's History. So at $100,000, Mantle made 20 times the average person. He lived a very comfortable life and there is absolutely no reason to think he didn't get his due.

Case in point: in 1963 the average cost for a brand new house was $12,650 (again, according to People's History). In 2018, that amount of money equates to just over $100,000. However, a new home in 2018 is said to average $286,000 according to Home Advisor.

Point being: you can't buy a new home in 2018 with the money a new home cost in 1963.

Packs, that's not really the point of my post... anyways mantle stopped playing baseball 30 years before he died... that's why he signed regularly later in life so he had an income... players making millions, can live comfortably AND invest millions on top of that... that's why prices are up, they don't need to sign for money. Yes the fans ultimately pay there salary, but tax payers pay for all state jobs, we don't see any of them going the extra mile to accommodate there job after there clocked off, what makes you think a player wants to do that in his free time? Times have changed, would you take an hour everyday of your life to do something you didn't want to do or have to do? Probably not, and you'd probably eventually get an attitude

If Jeter were $50 a pop, imagine how many things he would have to sign to to fill everyone's need.... every home yankee game would prob sell 10,000 balls, then the dealers, then the actual fans... I really don't blame him at all

Right on Marc 100% percent

I agree totally Steve. Let me see; Teddy Ballgame, Joe D or Mickey vs Jeter or Griffey are you kidding me. 30+ year old deceased legends and your going to greedily gouge the market place with guys that will be signing for the next 30+ years. Ridiculous.

I don't believe that money is the only motivating factor for the show circuit. If it were, I would see no reason why a player like Frank Thomas would do so many shows. He made over 100 million in his career but he is pretty active on the show circuit. I think there is an innate want for players to remain relevant and seen. Otherwise the players wouldn't be so active in the signing circuit after retirement. Bob Feller may have said a show pays for his vacation, but I firmly believe he would have been there anyway even if it didn't.

Agreed. There are many very wealthy players / former players who sign for reasonably fan friendly fees. My sense is insanely high prices are more ego driven than “I need to charge $700 to make it worth my time.”

Are the insane prices the ballplayers or the show promoters that need to charge that much to afford the player appearance fees? I always thought players charged a flat appearance fee based on time and the promoter would set prices and number of autographs that can fit into that amount of time. I know Tom Orr will do private signings with Reggie Jackson and others like him for $55 and tristar will charge $99 per signature.

Yeah, that's how it's always been in the past. I'm guessing that player appearance fees have gone up, which means the promoters have jacked up the price of each auto to compensate. The promoters used to have reasonable fees and then make it up by having the players also sign a bunch of stuff in a private signing that the promoter could then sell. Not sure what's happening now, but it's trickling down hill to the fan/collector.

Many of the current players sign a ton of autographs at spring training. Last time I went two years ago Bryce Harper, Stephen Strasburg, Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman, Yoenis Cespedes, and Don Mattingly were my big gets. The year before I was in Arizona and got Koufax too; all for free. If you can make the trip and don't mind hanging out in the sunshine for 2 hours, spring training is a pretty good place to be.

just don't pay it ,,,

I wonder what he's going to charge for his sig now? LOL

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/yoenis-...004001799.html