Modern player signature prices: Time to check out?

[packs]

Originally Posted by Sladge34

Mickey Mantle's 1963 Salary. In 1963, baseball player Mickey Mantle earned $100,000, at the time one of the top salaries in the league. This is equivalent to $810,934 in 2018 dollars, far less than today's top players who can make more than $30 million.

That was a top salary, imagine if you weren't a star. These guys sign as a retirement fund. Now a days, they don't need to do that.

I'm a huge Jeter fan... Can you blame him for having high price points? Obviously everywhere he goes, people know him. There's 325 million people in the u.s. alone. There's 7 billion people in the world. Startling numbers, and no, not everyone in the world wants a Jeter autograph. Let's just say 1-10 Americans want it, that's 3.25 million autographs he would have to sign... that's insane, imagine the time that would take. And that's just in America...

Now on to the 90's problem. I grew up going to card shows on a weekly basis. I was young, but still remember all the sleaziness that was going on. For example on here, the joe d hidden playboy autograph. Can you blame these guys for being dicks? How bout we turn it around and blame all the money sucking idiots who ruined it for the true collectors. Maybe instead of watching the guy open up the hidden playboy issue, someone should have punched him in the face and ripped up the playboy issue and gave it back to joe d, I'm sure he would have liked that... just saying

Every time I hear about players from the past talking about salaries I can't help but laugh. You can't plug in a number from 1963, read that it's ONLY $810,000 and think that Mantle was getting gypped in any way at all. In 1963 the average annual income was $5,800 accord to People's History. So at $100,000, Mantle made 20 times the average person. He lived a very comfortable life and there is absolutely no reason to think he didn't get his due.

Case in point: in 1963 the average cost for a brand new house was $12,650 (again, according to People's History). In 2018, that amount of money equates to just over $100,000. However, a new home in 2018 is said to average $286,000 according to Home Advisor.

Point being: you can't buy a new home in 2018 with the money a new home cost in 1963.

[Sladge34]

Packs, that's not really the point of my post... anyways mantle stopped playing baseball 30 years before he died... that's why he signed regularly later in life so he had an income... players making millions, can live comfortably AND invest millions on top of that... that's why prices are up, they don't need to sign for money. Yes the fans ultimately pay there salary, but tax payers pay for all state jobs, we don't see any of them going the extra mile to accommodate there job after there clocked off, what makes you think a player wants to do that in his free time? Times have changed, would you take an hour everyday of your life to do something you didn't want to do or have to do? Probably not, and you'd probably eventually get an attitude

[Sladge34]

If Jeter were $50 a pop, imagine how many things he would have to sign to to fill everyone's need.... every home yankee game would prob sell 10,000 balls, then the dealers, then the actual fans... I really don't blame him at all

[packs]

Originally Posted by Sladge34

Packs, that's not really the point of my post... anyways mantle stopped playing baseball 30 years before he died... that's why he signed regularly later in life so he had an income... players making millions, can live comfortably AND invest millions on top of that... that's why prices are up, they don't need to sign for money. Yes the fans ultimately pay there salary, but tax payers pay for all state jobs, we don't see any of them going the extra mile to accommodate there job after there clocked off, what makes you think a player wants to do that in his free time? Times have changed, would you take an hour everyday of your life to do something you didn't want to do or have to do? Probably not, and you'd probably eventually get an attitude

I don't believe that money is the only motivating factor for the show circuit. If it were, I would see no reason why a player like Frank Thomas would do so many shows. He made over 100 million in his career but he is pretty active on the show circuit. I think there is an innate want for players to remain relevant and seen. Otherwise the players wouldn't be so active in the signing circuit after retirement. Bob Feller may have said a show pays for his vacation, but I firmly believe he would have been there anyway even if it didn't.

[Mr. Zipper]

Originally Posted by packs

I think there is an innate want for players to remain relevant and seen. Otherwise the players wouldn't be so active in the signing circuit after retirement. Bob Feller may have said a show pays for his vacation, but I firmly believe he would have been there anyway even if it didn't.

Agreed. There are many very wealthy players / former players who sign for reasonably fan friendly fees. My sense is insanely high prices are more ego driven than “I need to charge $700 to make it worth my time.”

[stewbacca]

Are the insane prices the ballplayers or the show promoters that need to charge that much to afford the player appearance fees? I always thought players charged a flat appearance fee based on time and the promoter would set prices and number of autographs that can fit into that amount of time. I know Tom Orr will do private signings with Reggie Jackson and others like him for $55 and tristar will charge $99 per signature.

[mr2686]

Originally Posted by stewbacca

Are the insane prices the ballplayers or the show promoters that need to charge that much to afford the player appearance fees? I always thought players charged a flat appearance fee based on time and the promoter would set prices and number of autographs that can fit into that amount of time. I know Tom Orr will do private signings with Reggie Jackson and others like him for $55 and tristar will charge $99 per signature.

Yeah, that's how it's always been in the past. I'm guessing that player appearance fees have gone up, which means the promoters have jacked up the price of each auto to compensate. The promoters used to have reasonable fees and then make it up by having the players also sign a bunch of stuff in a private signing that the promoter could then sell. Not sure what's happening now, but it's trickling down hill to the fan/collector.

[packs]

Many of the current players sign a ton of autographs at spring training. Last time I went two years ago Bryce Harper, Stephen Strasburg, Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman, Yoenis Cespedes, and Don Mattingly were my big gets. The year before I was in Arizona and got Koufax too; all for free. If you can make the trip and don't mind hanging out in the sunshine for 2 hours, spring training is a pretty good place to be.