Feeling a Little Ranty

I am surprised any players sign TTM anymore. With eBay and other sites flooding the market with these autographs many players have turned skeptical. I can't say I blame them.

When a huge majority of their autograph requests come from well financed adults it must be hard to see the "collector" there. I collect for the fun of it. It is not my job and I don't hunt down the big score or try and exploit players, that's just me. But when I found that there are individual "collectors" that will charge to get your cards signed by players, I felt ill. They are charging when the player does not.

I know it's not that different from simply selling a card you had signed but it's the premeditated nature that gets me. The person is stating, "I don't really care about your autograph, but someone is paying me to get it." In turn there are many minor stars that charge for their autographs or just won't sign at all. More and more players save their sigs for private signings or appearances where they secure a fee directly, more power to them.

The only reason we seek the autograph is because the player has accomplished something, Joe Schmo with a sharpie has not.

This is not an indictment on those that seek to make a profit from cards, if possible, I like to do the same. I am, however, pleading for a little more "collecting" in baseball card or autograph collecting.

I hope ballplayers don't read this blog and charge, and I am pretty sure they won't, because I want to feel the thrill of a TTM success. I want to add to my collection without having to pay an arm and a leg, but it looks like that is the new landscape of my hobby.