Just wondering if anyone here collects Steiner or Upper Deck signed memorabilia?

[thekingofclout]

Now that the series is over and football is in full steam, I've been seeing a lot of both companies marketing their "Memorabilia" for sale. STEEP prices as well.

At Steiner's home page, the very first thing you come to is;

Edgar Renteria Autographed MLB Baseball - $110

And the up to date description...

Edgar Renteria, shortstop for the SF Giants, has been an integral part of the Giants 2010 postseason run, and proved that by winning the 2010 WS MVP award. Edgar Renteria has hand signed this official MLB baseball in blue. A Steiner Sports Certificate of Authenticity is included.

They must have been lighting candles for Renteria to win the MVP (as he did) cause you gotta figure Lincecum is gonna sell no matter what and they were probably sitting on a boat-load of Edgars for a few years now.

Also, a quick search on ebay produced 12,608 hits while searching "Steiner Sports" under "title and descriptions"

The words "Upper Deck UDA" yielded 5,010 hits in "Autographed-Original" of which 465 were for sports cards.

That really seems like a whole lot of stuff in the secondary market and/or Small Ebay Retail Businesses.

I understand that after the Operation Bullpen crap in the 1990's that something had to be done to ensure the collecting public won't continue to flush their money down the toilet.

But it just seems to me that the two companies have inadvertently(?) instilled bloated values into their products.

Once I checked completed auctions... WOW the only UDA stuff selling for $300 or more is JORDAN (now that Tiger took a crap) and even his Airness only sold a handful of items.

Now after checking completed auctions for Steiner going from highest price first... only TWO out of the first 100 pieces sold. An Ali signed piece for $2500 and a Jeter Bat for $1500+

So... what's your take?

[RichardSimon]

In my mind there is real memorabilia and manufactured memorabilia.
Steiner and Upper Deck deal in manfactured memorabilia and in the case of Upper Deck, sometimes it can be called destroyed manufactured memorabilia. I do not buy, sell or collect manufactured memorabilia.

[mr2686]

oh yes, these companies have bloated the item values big time by locking up some of the athletes to contracts and charging what they want. Mid 200's for Aaron and Mays? C'mon, even people with plenty of disposable income are looking at that twice...not because they can't afford it, but because they are tired of being raped. As for manufactured memorabilia, well, if they are destroying items to put on cards etc, then I'm against it. I do, however, like well put together items, like multiple signatures matted and put together to make a team display...but that's more for display purposes rather than value, at least for me.

[RichardSimon]

Mike- what you describe, a matted piece with individual autographs, to me that is not what I meant by manufactured memorabilia.
My own apartmet walls are full of matted and framed vintage autograph items.
Manufactured memorabilia is assembly line autographs in the hundreds or even thousands at a time, cards that people try to sell for ridiculous prices because Upper Deck cut up an autograph, and cut it badly and attached it to a limited edition card, limited edition lithos,prints,etc. that are limited to the number that they think people will buy, only 1000 available because we think the public will only buy 997.

[perezfan]

The only time I buy items from either company is in the secondary market. I would never pay their inflated prices.

If something like that hits ebay or another auction (and there's an ability to pay actual market value) I sometimes go after it. It has little to do with being Steiner or UDA though... it's more about being an autograph or game-used item I want, that just happens to be authenticated by them.

[timzcardz]

Just wondering if anyone here collects Steiner or Upper Deck signed memorabilia?

I can honestly say that I do not have anything signed by Brandon Steiner.


I do have the autographs of several players though that are certified by, and bought directly from Steiner.

And yes, their regular prices are high, and I am sure that they sell plenty at those prices, but if you are patient, and on their email list, you can pay a fraction of the regular website price.

Recent items that I've picked up have been for as low as 40% of their regular price, which I found to be very reasonable.

[jacksons]

Jimmy -

I find it quite depressing at times, perusing steinersports.com, reflecting on those times as a kid when I paid nominal sums at card shows for autographs. Now, we have this:

Large Speaker from the original Yankee Stadium: $750

Wille Mays signed 8 x 10 Photo: $250

Johan Santana autographed baseball: $220 (!)

Mariano Rivera autographed baseball: $420 (!!)

AJ Burnett (on sale) autographed baseball: $200 (!!!)