A colleague of mine stumbled upon this blog post written by Phillies prospect Michael Schwimer. He currently pitches for the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs. Schwimer writes about reasons he may not sign autographs.
The four reasons he gives are valid reasons.
Do I agree with everything he says? No.
Schwimer says he will not sign items in perfect condition because of the fear they may end up on eBay or something of the sort. He talks about ‘sharks’ the people who seek autographs to turn a profit on eBay or in similar ways.
What's funny is that there isn't much of his stuff on eBay (auctions
I pose this question. Why shouldn’t people be allowed to go online to do this? Maybe they are providing a service for someone who can’t get to a ballpark where the minor league player competes. To me, that attitude is much like our government. If they aren’t seeing a piece of the money, they don’t want anyone else to reap the benefits.
I know many players are like this and if I get an autograph will ask to get items personalized just to show that I am not going to sell. But why do I want an item signed by a player that isn’t going to be in the place I want it so I can display it with the rest of my memorabilia.
