The Not-So Fine Art of Selling Autographs

Don’t look left, don’t look right, don’t look up. Just sign, sign, sign.

And dollar signs flash as baseball players autograph anything that won’t move until their fingers won’t move either.

It’s not for love of the game, but rather for love of money -- $5,000, $15,000, $20,000 or more for a couple hours of writer’s cramp, sitting at the end of a long line of signature seekers at some baseball card show.

It’s said that Pete Rose can sign 600 an hour. He’s the very best, but one collector’s guide warns that he’s “unpleasant and always in a big hurry.”

“They move them like a meat line,” card show promoter Bill Wolf said.

This is a baseball phenomenon, trading on people’s insatiable fascination with anything collectible in the sport. It is relatively new, and it’s something that a lot of people do but no one seems to like much.

Promoters seek out and pay the players to come to card shows. The players, in turn, bring in fans, who buy cards from the dealers and pay the promoters for autographs. The more popular the player, or the more autographs he can sign, the more he gets paid.

“The players aren’t the villains. Maybe there are no villains,” promoter Ric Bachrach said.

Yet, promoters, ballplayers and their agents say they deplore the price a youngster or his parents must pay for an autograph: $30 for Joe DiMaggio, $15 for Tom Seaver, $10 for Dave Winfield at some recent shows. And the way it’s done? Well, that’s disgusting.

“A lot of people stand in line for a long time, and what they really want is just a word with the guy they’ve dreamed about,” said Richie Bry, who has acted as agent for such players as Rickey Henderson and Darryl Strawberry. “And they don’t get a word. ... It’s distasteful.”

Even ballplayers who feel uneasy with the practice do it. It’s business, and the children and their parents had better understand that.

“For the autograph seekers, sometimes it’s the only way they can get them, so why not?” Bob Boone of the Kansas City Royals said. “I haven’t done a lot of them, but I’ve done some. If somebody offers you the money, why not?”

The business of collecting baseball memorobilia has become so serious, it has spawned a whole series of how-to books. For example, “How to Buy, Trade and Invest in Baseball Cards and Collectibles,” published by Simon and Schuster, promises to outline “smart strategies for starting, building and enjoying your collection.”

Among other things, it grades players on their performance at card shows. DiMaggio gets an “A” because he “has an aura all to himself.” Reggie Jackson is a “D,” an “abrasive, crude, arrogant man.”

Fred Lynn is with the Detroit Tigers now, nearing the end of a major-league sojourn that has seen him play for four teams. He’s signed his autograph countless times.

“If I go to a show now, I look at it as strictly business,” Lynn said. “I do it just in the off-season and have a good time. I try to be personable. I’m not a robot. Some show organizers want you to sign as fast as you can and not say anything or even look up. I can’t do that.

“I don’t do a lot of these things, but when I do, I want people to like me.”

Sometimes, it sounds like players are selling autographs out of spite. They’ve seen so many others make money on their signatures, why shouldn’t they?

“You’ve got kids going up to ballplayers and handing them five or six pieces of paper to sign, and you know it’s not because he’s collecting them,” New York-area promoter Dan LaPreta said. “Somebody’s trying to make a profit, so the ballplayer figures, why shouldn’t I make money on it too?

“Of course, that’s way different from the kid who wants to get one autograph, take it home, put it in his scrapbook and show it to his friends and say, ‘Hey, look, I got Don Mattingly’s autograph.’

“A lot of this is getting out of hand. There’s a lot of greed.”

Mattingly, of the New York Yankees, refuses to do card shows for a fee, but he’s not against autograph collecting. He’s a collector himself.

“It’s just become such a big money-maker now, it’s become ridiculous,” Mattingly said. “You see the same kids over and over in hotels at 2:30 in the morning, waiting for you.”

Mattingly is being joined by a growing number of players who refuse to sell autographs. When he first became popular, Mattingly did three long-line autograph shows.

“And that was it,” he said. “I won’t do them ever again, no matter what the money is. The kids get screwed. All they really want to do is talk to you, get to know you, and they really don’t get to do that at these shows. If you start talking to one kid after the other, you’ll never get through the whole line.”

Wolf, who promotes shows in New Jersey, said Mattingly recently was offered $100,000 for a single appearance. Mattingly confirmed the figure was close, but he turned it down. He also has turned down shows for $50,000.

Minnesota Twins outfielder Kirby Puckett can’t wait to get out of the deal he signed last year.

“At the first card show, I felt bad seeing those little kids paying to get my autograph,” Puckett said. “It didn’t hit me right. I felt it in the heart. I made a vow that once the contract is over, I’m done. I’ll still sign, but not for money.

“I wouldn’t do it for a million dollars.”

Certain players refuse to sign certain items.

DiMaggio won’t sign bats or balls anymore. Some say it’s because anything round becomes painful to sign over and over in long lines; others say it’s to keep the trading price of autographed bats and balls from falling too low.

Lynn said he quit signing baseball cards “years back when I realized what was happening. People had ulterior motives.”

Money again. And here’s why: The cards and collectibles book lists the value of a Don Drysdale autograph at $7, an autographed baseball card at $30. Lefty Gomez’s autograph is worth $6, an autographed Perez-Steele card is worth $70.

According to promoters, Hall of Famers such as DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle might get as much as $50,000 for a single appearance. The minimum is about $2,500 for the 24th man on the roster. Around $10,000 is average.

“Gregg Jefferies wanted $9,000,” said Tom Wehmeyer, who promotes shows for Elks Club charities in New Jersey and inquired about the New York Mets rookie for a recent show. “We can’t afford that.

“I can’t see anybody paying that kind of money for an autograph,” Wehmeyer said. “Look at this GreggJefferies. He’s charging $9 or $10 for an autograph, and now he’s hitting, what, .250? And you’re supposed to stand on line and pay $10 for this guy?”

Even some promoters who can afford it don’t like paying big prices for players. They feel the baseball card dealers, who pay for booths or tables at these shows, suffer when the players show up. After all, the main business of these shows is to sell cards, not signatures.

“The baseball cards are where you should really be spending your money because the dealers paid to get a table there,” LaPreta said. “I know one dealer that did a show at Howard Beach with Terry Leach and Mackey Sasser, and with the money he paid those two and the turnout he actually had, he lost a lot of money. Now, he’s out of the business.”

Still, the selling of autographs has gone big time, and many promoters are making money from the publicity that players generate.

“Kids are always here with their parents, so there is never any kid needing an autograph without the few bucks fee,” said Bachrach, president of Sports Marketing Services Ltd., which promotes shows in the Chicago area.

“The only complaints I’ve heard have been generated by the media.

“I have yet to see a ballplayer walk away from a kid and refuse to sign an autograph because the kid didn’t have the money.

“So far, people are happy. They keep coming.”