Upcharging to sign a rookie card

Cooptown

The post about the Bobby Orr signed rookie card reminded me of a post I saw on SCN today about Orlando Cepeda upcharging to sign his rookie card. I hope to God this isnt a new trend.

Cepeda Signing

digicat

Signed rookie cards go for nice coin. I guess some players decided that they want a cut too.

Dboneesq

Years ago players either did not charge or charged a small fee. When they saw that "collectors" were selling their signed items they raised their prices. I am sure their managers are now seeing that there is a significant premium for rookie cards, so UP goes the price for their auto on a Rookie Card.

To be honest, today is the first time I heard about a higher price for Rookie Cards. Maybe it is a trend that us autograph collectors are not going to like.

Toro

Jordan,Gretzky,Mays, Aaron.....I can almost deal with.....anyone else, I have issues....pretty soon there will be a price structure for the Team on the card, MVP years, Leap year and the type of pen used. I think it may be the promoters milking every dime they can. Someone posted a story of a Suh signing where the promoter tried to charge an extra fee for a personalization because it had a comma in it, therefore, making it two. Soon enough, it'll just take a group of collectors to make a personal deal with certain stars. I'm sure a handful of us can come up with the money to pay for a private signing.

MooseDog

I may be dead wrong about this, but don't the promoters set the prices for the various items?

SlugSports

Hey Moose, I could be wrong but I was always under the impression that the athletes just get paid a flat fee for doing the signing and the promotors set the prices that people have to pay for the autographs.

pmcollectour

Bobby Orr's company Great North Road consists of two people. Bobby Orr and Ron Blanchard. Ron does all the leg work, and Bobby
does all the signing.

It is there policy, for some reason unknown to us, that Bobby Orr will only sign 3 or 4 rookie cards per year. When I told Ron it was
a little high asking price, his reason was because Bobby won't sign too many of them.

Toro

I think Upper Deck had the same business strategy, less quantity and higher prices........there should be a balance. I'm no star but I'd rather sign and sell 100 autos for $20 each per month than 10 autos at $100 each in the same about of time.

wrestlingcardking

I think that once the Navarro has a signed rookie of the athlete or celebrity, then he whispers into his ear that he should charge more to sign a rookie and thus his collection will just be that much more amazing to replicate. Just a theory.

thenavarro

<< <i>I think that once the Navarro has a signed rookie of the athlete or celebrity, then he whispers into his ear that he should charge more to sign a rookie and thus his collection will just be that much more amazing to replicate. Just a theory. >>



LOL. I'm just glad they started this now and not four years ago. I've got most of the living guys I want so this won't have a big impact for me. It's kind of a double edged sword as far as I'm concerned. If it causes the values of signed rookies to rise, then I'm all for it However, if it prices signed rookies so far out of range that people don't desire to collect them, then in that case I'd rue the day,

Time will tell


Mike

mcadams

I'd suspect that people who specifically want a RC signed will pay $5 or $10 more without even thinking about it. For most auto collectors, I'd think they'd just switch and get a less expensive card to have signed- thats what I'd do.. But then again, I'm from the old school where it was forbidden to even consider putting a sharpie to RC...Autos are for the cheap cards only. RCs are sacred treasures. :>

NickM

Cepeda has done some of the MLB All-Star Fanfests, where you can get his signature for free. I expect he'll do more if his health permits.

Nick