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.)