But don’t you think that this crazyness is due to the scarcity of the autographs on the market and could be avoided just letting these artists sign more and profit more “freely” from that?
MTG is a game where there are some old school cards that still holds an huge value, my previous example was about Rob Alexander who created the “Underground Sea” that is a Magic staple… but I’ve never heard people chasing him at his home, it’s easier to hear someone chasing an artist who designed 3 common Pokemon cards that a 20+ years artist.
Forgive the generalizations, but most Japanese artists view an autograph as a personal gift to a fan. This is why most artists who have signed (other than Arita) charge vastly below market value for their signatures. They don’t see their autographs as commodities, they see them as an opportunity to meet with fans and share love of Pokemon. They want this experience to be open to everyone, so they charge a low price.
Most artists are unhappy if not personally offended to see items they have autographed put up for sale. The closest comparison I can think of is if you spent time making a Christmas or birthday gift for a friend or family member, and then saw it up on eBay. With the rising prices of autos and the proliferation of unscrupulous actors, many artists feel like those looking for autos aren’t trying to get sentimental items but are instead trying to take advantage of them for financial gain. This is, by and large, correct.
An obvious solution to the auto issue (to those of us in the West) is for artists to charge more and sign more. This works for our capitalist minds, but misses out of the fact that artists oftentimes don’t want to engage in this space to begin with. Some events have done an excellent job separating the artists from questionable actors, but the well has been poisoned overall. Pokemon Japan, which controls the artists, has taken the view that there can’t be auto issues if there are no auto events, and has limited most artist signings and instituted strict rules if artists do sign.
afaik mtg autos are also worth far far less than pokemon autos (maybe rush is the exception not sure) if its just on a random card and not an already expensive one like the power 9 so there wont be much financial incentive on the mtg side
MTG autos are generally very cheap. The major exceptions are when the artist has died (e.g., Christopher Rush, Quinton Hoover), when folks have largely given up signing at in-person events and refuse mail-in signatures (e.g., Richard Garfield), artist proofs (though these are more expensive due to their rarity and not the signature per se), and signed rare (e.g., Alpha signed cards) or meta-defining cards (e.g., Juzam Djinn, Tabernacle, etc.).
Most MTG artists are happy to sign cards by mail or in person at various events. This wide availability has made most autos worth very little. But then again, most MTG cards are worth very little.
At previous event(s), one that I know of for sure…he’s signed TCG items for event organisers in private, after refusing all normies to sign TCG items (I won’t say where or who, but it’s 100% happened as I’ve seen the cards, dated on that day, think Crystal zards/ponchos etc).
It’s why I sold my Crystal Charizard signed by him.
Rules for some, rules for others.
Arita signs a lot but at least what you see is what you get.
