Sunday, March 25, 2012

Autography

Hey, I just got over 10,000 all-time page views.  How cool is that?  I'm thinking that probably about 7,000 of those were just from my mom alone, but nonetheless, to me, that's an impressive number.
What Does This Say?

Today I want to talk about autographs and signed memorabilia.  What's the point, people?  Seriously, let's take a look at what an autograph means to you and me.

For some reason, everyone asks famous people for their autograph.  We all know that an autographed item is unique for obvious reasons.  It adds value, in certain cases.  An autographed Babe Ruth baseball is worth a lot of money and is generally quite a prized possession. Other people get autographs to prove they met such and such a person.  But what does an autograph really mean in this day and age?  For me, and autograph is supposed to be proof that you met whoever it is you claim you met.  "Look, he signed this!  I met him!  I swear!"  But in this day and age, I believe a picture with a person is much better proof than any signature for proof that you met someone.  Everyone has a camera in their pocket now.  There's no excuse not to (unless the person refuses, I suppose.)

First off, most of the time, when someone signs something, they are signing a lot of different things for people at the same time (maybe) so they're signature is just a scribble.  There are people and agencies out there that verify signatures and authenticate things like this.  Okay, fine, but to you and me, that's someone's, anyone's, scribbled Sharpie on a picture or a sports-related item or a receipt or a t shirt or whatever it may be you had them sign.  That doesn't prove a whole hell of a lot to me.  "Hey look at me I got a picture with Rodger Clemens!" and I say "Wow that's really cool!"  But if you say "Hey look, Roger Clemons scribbled some crap on this ball!" I say, "oh wow, me too, look at this ::scribbles on ball::"

Now taking this a step further, just having an autographed item in you possession means nothing if you didn't actually meet the person and have them sign it.  I have an autographed copy of the album Ghosts by the band The Gay Blades, but that's the only way you could buy their cd off their website when I was buying it.  All their copies for sale on their website were signed.  It makes it special because it's a little bit more personalized, but it doesn't really mean anything if everyone's is signed, right?  If you have an item autographed by someone you actually met, it means something a bit more, because you met them and they signed it. That's the point of autographs in the first place.  So that's why I'm amazed at all these people selling signed stuff on eBay, and people buying it.  Clearly I'm in the minority on the "signed stuff means nothing" point of view.

But honestly, who cares about an autograph?  It's usually just a scribble, and it's not like this person hasn't already signed 4,000 other things, making it not worth a whole lot of money.  Now if someone never signs stuff, like, refuses to do it, and he signs something for someone and it's now a collectors item because of this fact, then sure, that's pretty cool.  But the fact that everyone signs everything all the time, no ones signature is worth anything anymore, unless it's really old.  So next time you're in the Apple Store at the mall and Robert Plant walks in, don't ask for his autograph, ask for a picture with him.  It'll mean a lot more.  At the very least, say hey to him and he'll shoot you a thumbs up.



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