Hobby Greed: an extemporaneous essay

This may be a tad disjointed: it's mostly going to be a stream-of-consciousness dumping of my thoughts in between choosing photos while I'm at work. It's also somewhat related to my In-Person Graphing Etiquette Essay from August.

I'm a member of several Facebook autograph and card collecting groups. I'm even an admin of two of them. I only started one of them on my own, the other was a long-running one that I was made an admin of when the founder wanted to step back almost two years ago. And he likes the way I run things.

In another group besides the ones I run, a member posted bragging about mailing 9 cards to Ron Gant, and getting them all back signed. In another post, he shows off his personal record, mailing 10 cards to Doug Jones, and getting them all back plus Jones' typical religious tract card.

I have one question...

WHY?

In the group I run (Baseball TTM Autographs), we had the members vote on how many to show per success-posting. We agreed that members should limit it to four items per request-- and if you send more than four, posts showing more than four were subject to deletion. This way it doesn't encourage others to mail off ridiculous numbers with a misguided reasoning of "The player can decide to sign what they want" or "Well I told him to keep some."  When it comes to the former, sure, they can, but by not controlling the number yourself you're leaving in on them to be a disappointment. For the latter, trust me, they already have them if they want them. I worked with a former NHL player who probably has a good 50 of every card ever made of him.

I just don't see why anyone would need to send ten cards at a time. When I asked why the hell he would do that, the response was little more than "Because I can, now mind your own business," even going so far as to espouse a complete misunderstanding of libertarian philosophy, claiming I have no right to question his mailing.

Oh yeah, according to one of the people defending this guy, people have left the groups I run because they don't like my attitude about these things.

*single tear rolls down face*

I certainly do have a right, and as a hobbyist, dare I even say a responsibility to question it.

In the past few years, we've seen Rick Reuschel go from signing everything to signing nothing-- mostly because there are people out there who would send him 8 cards, then another 8 mere weeks later. Reuschel was a solid pitcher: three-time All-Star, two time Gold Glove winner, two Top-3 Cy Young finishes, 200 wins, 2000 strikeouts, even a .168 average with 4 homers which isn't too bad for a pitcher-- not a Hall of Famer but solid with longevity at least. Does anyone really need six, eight, ten of him at a time?

Wade Boggs has seen the same behavior-- He was gladly signing for $5 per card, and then people started pushing it to sometimes as crazy as 6 cards for $5-- total, not each. This is a Hall of Famer and pop culture icon we're talking about. He stopped signing for a while, then returned at $10, then $5, and once again people started pushing his generosity and he's stopped once again.

Even Brooks Robinson-- possibly the greatest third baseman of all time and a more than reasonable signer for $5-10-- has enclosed notes at times saying "No more, please" when people can't follow the rules.

We're seeing teams crack down on fan mail, some refusing it entirely (Braves at Spring Training, several NHL teams, the Seattle Sounders and Seahawks, and probably more that I'm forgetting). In-person, the Las Vegas Golden Knights have made autographs a kids-only endeavor. Sure, there's a profit motive behind it as more teams partner with organizations like Fanatics, and more players work with Steiner and their ilk. But a significant amount comes from players and teams just getting tired of dealing with it.

Have some self-control folks! This is a hobby. It's not a competition. No one is going to declare you the winner because you have more. If anything your greed is going to influence players to stop signing entirely. Newer collectors and even current collectors won't be able to get the players they want for their projects because of you.

If you have several projects you're working on, I can understand it to a degree, but space it out a bit. If you pay a player's requested per-item fee, then that's fine too as it becomes an agreed-upon business transaction at that point. If you've spoken to the player, asked his permission, and they grant it, cool.

But when you're basically cold-calling and asking for a player to do you a favor with no compensation, please, show some discretion!

I've gone over my four-item limit before, I think we all have at times. But I don't do it often: my average number mailed per request is three (3.19 items per request across 1578 requests, to be exact). When I do, it's only to players who have shown a consistent history of signing 4, or 5, or 6. And the only time I have EVER exceeded six is to a few indoor soccer players-- many of whom have written back thanking me for bringing back great memories and just being ecstatic that someone remembers their career.

In-person, I'll occasionally go further. With TTM'ing, the only investment is five minutes of letter-writing and a dollar in postage to the USPS. In-person, my justification for typically carrying more items is that I am taking more time out of my day, traveling to a venue, and in most cases contributing financially via purchasing a ticket to the game, plus food, licensed memorabilia, and by showing my support by cheering for the player and watching him perform his craft live. The player receives a direct benefit, as do I. Via mail, they receive far less of a benefit.

I've been a card collector since I was six years old. I can recall specific cards I got in the first pack I bought-- a rack pack of 1991 Donruss Series 1 baseball. Dave Stieb and Bob Welch Diamond Kings. Cory Snyder. Mark McGwire Highlights and All-Star. Alvaro Espinoza. John Marzano. Sandy Alomar Jr. All-Star. The Alomar card even went on to be my first ever TTM autograph, about a year later-- which I still have.

I got into autograph collecting on a serious basis because just collecting cards was getting to be a bore. There was no challenge. You can collect any set just by throwing enough money at it. That's a lot harder to do with autograph collecting.

I have over 125,000 cards in my collection. I'd love to get as many signed as I can. But even I know I have to draw a line. I don't need 50 from Juan Gonzalez. I don't need 100 from Matt Williams. I have something like 60 from Sergei Gonchar-- but they were all in-person, all acquired over a number of years, and if a fan of his really wanted one I would gladly give it to them free of charge.

It's a hobby. We're all in it together, so be good to each other-- that goes for other collectors, the athletes, everyone involved.