Probably a touchy subject...

[godwulf]

...with some people. I'm referring to the guys - and maybe some of them/you are reading this - who ask a (usually minor league) player (at ST, Fall League, whatever) to sign a whole page (or more) of cards, often the same card, when other folks are just trying to get a ball signed, or whatever.

I'm going to try very hard not to sound judgmental - really I am. I do understand that you/they are perfectly within your/their rights to ask a player to sign multiple whatevers, and then to do whatever it is you do with those twenty identical signed cards. Maybe you sell them on sportlots or eBay, maybe you compulsively hoard them - I don't know, and it isn't my business. I'd just like to hear from somebody who routinely does this, and get your perspective on the practice.

Is it a business for you, or "just" a hobby? If it's a business, is there really a market for that many signed pre-rookie cards of some semi-obscure prospect, or do you have big albums of signed, unsold cards sitting around?

During the Fall League, I see guys hauling their big albums from park to park, getting some cards signed before the games, and then sometimes not even staying to watch the games.

I said I wasn't going to be judgmental, but I feel as though I should have the right to say how I sometimes feel, in those situations - it isn't really the same thing, is it? When I'm waiting to get a ball signed - not to sell, just for my personal collection - and between me and the player are a half-dozen guys holding out big pages of identical cards, it does, to be honest, put my teeth somewhat on edge, as the saying goes. Not only am I afraid that - as sometimes happens - the player will get tired of signing at some point and walk away, but I have to feel some kind of empathy for the guy; I mean, most of them want to accomodate the fans as much as possible, but... The truth is, I sometimes feel embarassed, in those situations...like I want to say to the player, "Hey, not everybody here is looking to make a buck off of you, okay?"

Yeah, well, I probably didn't do too well with the "judgmental" thing, I guess. Sorry. Am I alone in feeling this way?

[gorphils]

Some of these people are trading the cards to others or getting them done for others but others are selling them its true. I have been known to get a page or the same cards done but they are strictly for people that I trade with or am doing a 50/50 with. (this is where a person sends you x number of cards and I get them signed...then I keep half and return the others to them)

[ahuff]

Jeff,

I completely agree with you. Trading them or not is not the issue. How would these same people feel if roles were reversed. Granted...some would be fine with it - others not. I spoke to Blake Beavan when he was in my area. I saw the same people day after day bringing books with 9 cards per page and asking him to sign them. Not only did they have 9 cards a page (of him) but they had multiple pages for him to sign. I see it much like you...if he signs all 27 cards you have that means 26 other people do not get an autograph that would have had that jackwad not done that. When I spoke to Blake he seemed very cordial and said it didn't bother him. I did notice his sig went from a full sig to primarily "B's". I do believe Blake is the exception and I always wonder if he still feels the same way after years of that garbage.

Guys like Ryne Sandberg are great at helping out fans, as they remember you and will not only sign just one or two items for you a day...but they remember your face and will only sign one/two for you during the entire homestand. I love guys like that.

The best story I have heard/seen was this: A local card dealer (or use to be) shows up at games with hundreds of cards of these players, gets them signed, and NEVER stays for even a pitch. The thing is this - he never actually gets them signed himself...he only has his daughter do it. She was getting them signed one day. She walks up with a stack of probably 50 cards of this one player and asks him to sign. He signs the first one, and then tells her if her dad wants the rest signed he has to come ask for himself. Still chuckle at that one!!!! :-)

[godwulf]

I think the craziest example I've ever seen was a few years ago, before an Arizona League game out at Papago Park. There's this father-son "team" that shows up for a lot of these events - the son is not a kid, but a guy in his twenties - and I watched while, between the two of them, they got Diamondbacks prospect Wagner Mateo to sign some outrageous number of cards, while I stood there waiting to get a ball signed.

A couple of years later, I'm at an independent league game, and I'm telling this story to a guy, and I'm a couple of sentences into it, and he says some number - like "Fifty-four". I said, "What's that?" and he says, "That's the number of cards we got him to sign." I hadn't recognized him, but this guy I'm telling the story to is one of the guys I'm telling it about. At least I dodged a bullet by not starting the story with, "Wait till you hear about these jerks!"

[Billy77]

I have been collecting autos since I was 10. I am now 46 and have emassed a huge collection of signed cards for baseball, football and hockey.

My practice has always been to ask players to sign as many at their discretion. I may have 10 cards on a page but they are 10 DIFFERENT cards.

What I do since the late seventies is if topps puts out a set of cards, I try to get every card signed by the respective player. So some of the sets may have one player on 7 different cards, thus prompting me to try and get all of them signed.

Since I have collected for so long some player do remember me and we also have become good friends. I have actually gone to many ALL Star games and championship games as well as Stanley Cups.

WHen they ask me or speak of collectors asking for multiple sigs on cards and reasons why, I just explain to them my side of the above story and they get it. They may not like it but the get it.

Billy

[godwulf]

Different cards - I don't really have a problem with that. I've asked guys - not active players, but former players who were managing or coaching - to sign five or six different cards. (Steve Karsay signed five cards for me earlier today, in fact, as did Tim Worrell last Tuesday.) Even then, it's not something I would do if I was surrounded by other fans, waiting for an autograph. I generally only ask for that many autos at a time if I'm the only one asking.

It's the album pages with eight or ten copies of the same card, presented to a player for whom a lot of other people are waiting, that I would think would give some players second thoughts about making themselves as accessible as they have been.

[Roady]

I agree that it is selfish on the collectors/sellers part it but the player can always sign just one and move on to the next person.
Do they ever do that? Just say they can't sign that many for one person?
I have never asked for an autograph at a game so I don't know.

[shaunharr]

I get mostly cards signed, at minor league games that is. With guys that I know have no problem signing multiple cards, I will ask them to sign howeve many I have. I don't ask guys to sign a lot if I know they won't either. Also, if I have many cards, I will ask a player if he could get a couple done, because I have them all ready for the entire series.
Yes, I have gotten 10-15 cards signed at once by players, but they had no problem with it, and a lot of the times, there aren't more than a few people around anyways.

[Roady]

I would hope that any grown man would make way for any child that wants an autograph. I have seen men getting in front of children before and that is not right. It is shameful actually.

[xpress34]

I would hope that any grown man would make way for any child that wants an autograph. I have seen men getting in front of children before and that is not right. It is shameful actually.

Roady - there is another side to this issue (and it's been brought up before) called 'entitlement'.

There are many times that I have been at the park early and waited (literally) for hours for the one player I am looking for an autograph from only to have parents show up with their children just minutes before and then demand that we should let the children get up front. I'm sorry, but lack of planning on their part does not constitute and emergency on mine.

I hear them telling their kids just to squeeze or force their way in and very rarely have I ever heard an 'excuse me' out of any of these kids. They knock your stuff over, step on your feet, etc. and neither them nor their parents have any type of manners to apologize for their actions.

Now, if you're talking about the jack @$$e@ that shove their way past kids (and everyone else), then I completely agree with you... the problem is, the kids I'm talking about above will grow up to become these type of adults because their parents are raising them to feel entitled to do or get whatever they want whenever they want it.

Just my .02.

Smitty