Memorabilia, Penmanship, and Tom Brady

[Moriarty]

https://www.aol.com/tom-brady-accused-r ... 56707.html

At first I thought they were just being giant, entitled babies.

Then I got to the end...

[Otis Day]

You know, I really don't feel bad for those people. Why in the world would you pay that much $$ to see anyone talk and get "free" autographs?

Not a fan of autographs anyway. And if that is how he writes his name, whatcha gonna do?

[wab]

Yeah, I don't feel bad for them at all. Autographs are silly (IMO) and 99% of famous people hate doing them.

Grown people paying outlandish money and standing in line for hours so that another grown person can write on something for them...is lunacy.

[HisRoyalSweetness]

I've got plenty of signed photos from the London games where there used to be opportunities to meet a couple of former players from each of the teams, but the photos were supplied for them and given out for free. The queues usually weren't that long and you chatted away with other fans while waiting your turn. You then got to exchange a few words with the player, a member of staff would take a photo on your phone and you'd get a signed photo.

The best one was Hanford Dixon of the Browns. The game was at Twickenham and the signing area was under the stadium while other pre-match activities were outside so a lot of people didn't seem to now about it. In addition Hanford's stint was early and few people bothered to get to the stadium until later. As a result there were only a handful of folks and I ended up having a quite a long chat with him whilst he signed everything in sight - the aforementioned supplied photo, a couple of trading cards from sets I'd collected as a kid and even a foam bone hat a Browns fan had pulled out a sack full of them and given to me as we got off the train.

I was in my Payton jersey and Hanford regaled me with a story about Walter tearing up his first professional cheque (much to Hanford's horror), picking up the phone and telling Art Modell "You know that cheque you gave Hanford? It's not enough." Amazingly it resulted in him getting more money!

When the Bears last came over it was for the first ever NFL game at Tottenham and they'd announced that to mark the opening of the NFL shop at the stadium Charles Tillman and Jim Plunkett were putting in an appearance on the Saturday. So I travelled up with my Peanut throwback jersey and got that signed with a nice photo of the two of us with the jersey. Whilst there we found out Ha Ha Clinton Dix and Akiem Hicks were coming too. I'd bought a few Bears items in the shop so got a football signed and a photo with the two of them.

At the end of the day it's all just about having a memento from a day out and a reminder of the game. I wouldn't dream of paying thousands just to meet someone or get something signed.

[Shadow]

Autographs are for kids meeting their heroes.
Grown ups seeking autographs to increase the value of their collectables is just greedy.