Big Business: Memories for Sale

What’s a memory worth these days?

A signed jersey from the 40-homer, 40-stolen base, 1988 record-setting year of Oakland A’s outfielder Jose Canseco goes for $2,500. A recent Mickey Mantle autograph can be had for about $30 and an original Mantle baseball card can go for as much as $5,000.

A Willie Mays signature could go for $15, but Ron Gordon, an Albuquerque, N.M., autograph broker, said he owns a handwritten love letter by Mays that he estimates is worth $100.

Former greats like Mantle and Joe DiMaggio can make up to $30,000 plus expenses for a couple of hours of autograph signing. That’s a far cry from the time when most autographs went to wide-eyed kids who could catch a player before he got on the bus and get an autograph for free.

“We grow up in a sports crazy society,” said sports attorney Leigh Steinberg. “Memorabilia beckons back to our past. Otherwise hard-driving, tough businessmen who make fortunes turn misty-eyed at an autograph.”

Apparently, it’s the kids who are the tough bargainers.

“You’ve got to pay for this,” Matthew Green, 12, of Mount Laurel, N.J. said. “It’s more interesting this way. Now everyone can’t have an autograph.”

Former pitching great Warren Spahn, 66, was signing an autograph and chagrined to hear a boy remark, “You’re getting old and you’re going to die soon and it’s going to be valuable.”

“Nowadays, the card business is dominated by young kids, literally,” said Joseph Weiss, a serious 32-year-old Los Angeles collector. “Some of them are teens who got their start with their dad’s old collections.”

Some fans who wait hours in long lines and pay for a coveted signature think the moneymaking is a little distasteful, and so do some players.

Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly, who agreed to some shows early in his career, is reluctant to do them now.

“He doesn’t like it when dealers make money,” Weiss said. “When you come up to him with something to sign he’ll say ‘This bat is probably stolen.”’

“The shows aren’t really that well-organized, and Donnie doesn’t want to disregard some of the kids who wait in line a long time,” said Mattingly’s agent, Ray Schulte.

“A lot of collectors out there have known that what they have was obtained in not so straight ways,” Weiss said.

Card show promoter Gloria Rothstein said a player can autograph about 400 items in an hour. Players usually sign for three or four hours a show. She added that writer’s cramp and bathroom breaks sometimes make a crowd impatient.

“You try signing your name 1,000 times,” she said. “And when a player stands up to go to the men’s room, everyone starts shouting that he’s going to leave.”

While some see glamour in the adulation, others are put off.

“A lot depends on the way in which they are approached,” Steinberg said. “Athletes tend to resent the ‘rock fan’ approach, especially those fans who physically pull on them, are abrasive. Most will deal gracefully and be enthusiastic for those who are polite.

“The fans are the ultimate employer,” he added. “A player knows that he should do something to help cement that bond.”

Steinberg added that fans also should be considerate when an athlete is out in public, not interrupt him for an autograph if he’s trying to have a quiet meal.

Margo Adams, former companion of Boston Red Sox third baseman Wade Boggs, claims that Boggs and other players pick up what they called “rathole” money from card shows. She said it was money for which there is no accounting, and that they conceal the cash from their wives.

Adams, in an interview published in Penthouse magazine, said Boggs came back from one show with $12,000 cash and they spent $10,000 on a birthday gift for her -- a gold Rolex wristwatch.

“Wade told me that 90 percent of the items sent to the park are signed by the batboys, not by the players.” Adams said, adding that there were exceptions. “For example,” she said, “Bruce Hurst signed all his stuff.”

She added that the only way collectors can be sure of getting an authentic signature is at card shows.

Boggs’ attorney, Alan Nero, said his client has claimed all card show money on his income tax statements.

As for batboys signing autographs, Nero said, “I’ve never heard that and I don’t believe it for a second.”

“Major beneficiaries are not the athletes but the leagues, dealers and merchandisers,” Steinberg said. “We think athletes are very well paid. Most will do it out of the goodness of their heart. We arrange a lot of that (autograph sessions) for charity.”

A new twist to the baseball card game may be “talking” cards for which a collector gets not only an autograph and a card but a short recording of a player interview.

Although baseball memorabilia seems to be the hot item, pro basketball and football souvenirs have their following. Recently, former Washington Redskins wide receiver Alvin Garrett sold his 1983 Super Bowl ring. Donald Altieri, owner of six restaurants in Connecticut, bought the ring for an undisclosed amount.

Garrett, who had advertised the ring for sale in The Washington Post, was asking for $50,000 and commented, “I didn’t come close to the amount I wanted.”

Weiss has jerseys of three prominent members of the Los Angeles Lakers -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and James Worthy, and needs two more to have a starting lineup.

There are signs that the collecting business may have gone a bit far with a recent report circulating that up to 10 collectors claim to have the bat used by Pete Rose to hit the major league record 4,192nd base hit. Rose has declined comment on the bat’s whereabouts.

It may be that memorabilia garnered free of charge will, in the end, have the highest value, at least memory wise.

Weiss, whose collection includes 35 jerseys and 50 bats, said one of his favorite memories was when Tony Gwynn walked up to him before a show in Anaheim, Calif., clad in sweats and asked “Whose bat you got there?”

“Gwynn said, ‘Save your money,”’ Weiss recalled, and then the San Diego Padres outfielder autographed the bat free.

These days you can buy the autograph of Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda for an average $4. “It used to be unheard of for a player to actually sell his autograph,” Weiss said. “That was looked down upon. But that was the old days.”

“Players realize that it keeps fan support alive. And that’s important to keep the game healthy,” Steinberg said.

Weiss said he finally got smart to the business after “a supposed reputable person bought my (card) collection in 1975 for literally 50 bucks and it was worth well in excess of $20,000. He knew exactly what he was getting.”

Weiss said he’d love to showcase his collection, perhaps in his own restaurant, so that his memories will come alive for a new generation.

He added that one thing he’s missing is something personal from Morganna, baseball’s well-endowed “Kissing Bandit” -- her bra.