Ohtani CARDS are Mostly UNDERVALUED

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Such a disgusting autograph. With his star power, I wish he'd put a little bit into his own brand by at least adding some recognizable style to it.

Jeter's autograph is not up my alley, either, but you can at least spot it from a mile away. Even Trout's "autograph" is recognizable to so many (can't even be bothered to lift the Sharpie up between a whopping two-lettered autograph). Everyone is so concerned about their "brand". Definitely an overused, nausea-inducing term, but a stylistic, if not even legible autograph should be a part of that. That thing shown above is just a scrawl that an angry toddler could convincingly emulate without even meaning to.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

Such a disgusting autograph. With his star power, I wish he'd put a little bit into his own brand by at least adding some recognizable style to it.

Jeter's autograph is not up my alley, either, but you can at least spot it from a mile away. Even Trout's "autograph" is recognizable to so many (can't even be bothered to lift the Sharpie up between a whopping two-lettered autograph). Everyone is so concerned about their "brand". Definitely an overused, nausea-inducing term, but a stylistic, if not even legible autograph should be a part of that. That thing shown above is just a scrawl that an angry toddler could convincingly emulate without even meaning to.

90 percent or more of modern players sign like this.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

90 percent or more of modern players sign like this.

Doesn't make it right. And precisely why I quit collecting current players' autographs nearly 30 years ago.

[Peter_Spaeth]

...

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

The past was definitely beautiful in more ways than one...

[Yoda]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

Such a disgusting autograph. With his star power, I wish he'd put a little bit into his own brand by at least adding some recognizable style to it.

Jeter's autograph is not up my alley, either, but you can at least spot it from a mile away. Even Trout's "autograph" is recognizable to so many (can't even be bothered to lift the Sharpie up between a whopping two-lettered autograph). Everyone is so concerned about their "brand". Definitely an overused, nausea-inducing term, but a stylistic, if not even legible autograph should be a part of that. That thing shown above is just a scrawl that an angry toddler could convincingly emulate without even meaning to.

I couldn't agree more. The hen scratching that so many stars call their autograph demonstrates their pumped up egos. Compare the Otani sample to, say, Charlie Gehringer.

[BioCRN]

Originally Posted by Yoda

I couldn't agree more. The hen scratching that so many stars call their autograph demonstrates their pumped up egos. Compare the Otani sample to, say, Charlie Gehringer.

It would be one thing if they lived in an era where they're at the park signing and occasionally at shows/events, but when you're signing 1000s of cards on contract many times a year we're no longer in an era where your autograph can expected be a work of art.

Andre Dawson's autograph might look a lot different if at age 20 he signed a few thousand cards a year for many different card companies.

In a way, the card and memorabilia industry ruined autographs.

Not baseball, but here's John Cena signing some autographs..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j8F3_rKCU8

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by BioCRN

It would be one thing if they lived in an era where they're at the park signing and occasionally at shows/events, but when you're signing 1000s of cards on contract many times a year we're no longer in an era where your autograph can expected be a work of art.

Andre Dawson's autograph might look a lot different if at age 20 he signed a few thousand cards a year for many different card companies.

In a way, the card and memorabilia industry ruined autographs.

Not baseball, but here's John Cena signing some autographs..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j8F3_rKCU8

That's nuts. Puts things into perspective a bit.

[Fred]

Wasn't it not that long ago that Mike Trout limited cards were going vertical? What happened to those cards?

Shohei is Showtime. He's definitely an anomaly being a two way player and being effective in both disciplines. He hasn't been good enough to win a Cy Young award, but he's done pretty good on the mound.

He has almost 7 MLB seasons under his belt, of which only 4 are considered full seasons (including the current season).

What happens if Shohei hurts himself this year on in the next year or two and is laid up and no longer the same player he is today (let's hope that doesn't happen). What will the card prices be then.

Truly, how many people would pay that kind of money for a card? I'm guessing it's got to be a relatively low number. That's a lot of cash that you would only hope is someone's chump change and not part of their kids college fund or their retirement fund.

Personally, I'd rather spend my money on some nice 19th century material or other vintage cards.

[seanofjapan]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

Such a disgusting autograph. With his star power, I wish he'd put a little bit into his own brand by at least adding some recognizable style to it.

Jeter's autograph is not up my alley, either, but you can at least spot it from a mile away. Even Trout's "autograph" is recognizable to so many (can't even be bothered to lift the Sharpie up between a whopping two-lettered autograph). Everyone is so concerned about their "brand". Definitely an overused, nausea-inducing term, but a stylistic, if not even legible autograph should be a part of that. That thing shown above is just a scrawl that an angry toddler could convincingly emulate without even meaning to.

Agreed. In Ohtani’s case his autograph in Japanese is way more legible and he actually writes out each character. It was only when he started doing his autograph in English that it became a mess, probably because he was just copying the sloppy way everyone else was doing it.

Sadaharu Oh’s approach was way different, his autograph in English is easier to read than his Japanese one. Times have changed.

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by seanofjapan

Agreed. In Ohtani’s case his autograph in Japanese is way more legible and he actually writes out each character.

Wow, that brings up an interesting question from this gaijin (had to look that one up). Is there a loose 'script' way of writing Japanese characters? The way an autograph in English doesn't comply with what each letter 'should' look like? That sorta thing?

[seanofjapan]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

Wow, that brings up an interesting question from this gaijin (had to look that one up). Is there a loose 'script' way of writing Japanese characters? The way an autograph in English doesn't comply with what each letter 'should' look like? That sorta thing?

There is, but it doesn’t get used much in autographs.

Ichiro is a good example. His name is formally written in kanji characters as 一郎 and is a fairly common first name. But when his name is written in Japanese they always used the simplified katakana characters as イチロー.

But his signature in Japanese is just a huge mess of squiggly lines and I can’t tell which version he is trying to write.

[bk400]

Regarding autographs, I have a baseball that Ozzie Smith autographed for me in person, 40 years ago, while I was leaning over the railing at Shea Stadium during warm ups. His signature was exactly the same as the ones I'm seeing today on his recently graded, hand-signed cards. I'm going to suspend any natural cynicism and say that there are some guys who still do things the right way, and they may not be the guys who made the most money playing baseball.

[bk400]

Sounds like Mr. Ohtani was monitoring this forum and saw people talking smack about him...

[seanofjapan]

Originally Posted by bk400

Sounds like Mr. Ohtani was monitoring this forum and saw people talking smack about him...

Walk off grand slams that put you in the 40-40 club sure are a good way to silence critics.