[travrosty]

its the age old question of signing more items for less money and making it up in volume, or holding out and signing less for more money and creating artificial scarcity. i can see it both ways, it's just a strategy they pick and they go with it.


bob feller signed anything that wasnt nailed down for a reasonable price, and on the other hand mike marshall wont sign hardly anything and when he does, he charges an arm and a leg, same for bill russell, celtic great, although he has signed more lately.


but once you start signing more, then you have to go that route, you cant go back and create scarcity anymore, the flood gates are open.

the guys like jeter who sign less for more have only one outlet like steiner, kind of like a legal monopoly, when there is only one pipeline to obtain his sig, they can charge more.

i represent corrie sanders, former wbo heavyweight champ who knocked out w. klitschko for the title. his signature is not normally in demand, but some people collect signatures of all the wbo champions, so they need him when they want to fill that hole in their list of wbo champions.

when they find out there are almost none out there, because sanders is from south africe, and i have some for sale, they will expect to buy one for 25 bucks or something like that. i charge a lot, well over 100, more than it would normally be worth, and some people tell me they would never buy it for that much. they swear and call me a nut, but then later they come back and buy it anyway, because they checked around and cant find his signature anywhere. but as long as there is only 1 avenue to get his signature, it can work like that. once there is more than one place to get it, then competition kicks in and the price comes down. i dont sell very many, but when i do, its at a nice price.

i give corrie all proceeds from the sale of his signature, i don't keep any, so the guy who took the beating in the ring gets the profits from his own signature. the way it should be in my book.