In all hobbies there are collectors who prefer autographs, grades and/or both. Pokemon is very young, and majority of the prominent individuals are living and signing. Where in sports, plenty of athletes rarely sign and/or have passed away, eliminating the opportunity to get an item signed in person.
A similar parallel for MTG would be Christopher Rush. Since he passed, all the signatures that remain are literally all that remain.
Also, in sports typically the PSA 10 example earns a higher premium than a signed item. The signature is usually more common, perhaps excluding century old players. Therefore if you want to get a charizard signed, its best not to sign an already graded copy. Personally I prefer the actual card to be signed, as marker on a case can easily smudge and makes it more difficult to preserve.
I think this point should be reiterated. If it’s written on in sharpie, a tiny bit of 95% ethanol will melt that signature away like it was never there.
Well he wins for the exposure of getting it posted on PSA. He also has a massive following. I don’t see how him getting it signed via the case can do anything other than increase it’s price. The niche community into that sort of thing is likely smaller, but now they all know where to find the card if they want it, and anyone else that wants it without the siggie can just buy some damn rubbing alchohol or re-slab. :]
The signature is easily taken off with a solvent. Thankfully, the autograph is only slabbed. I’m just grateful he did not have an actual Gem Mint Charizard signed. That would have been insane.
Definitely a foolish idea. I think it is equally foolish to assume any detriment to value though. With how easily reversible it is all it can do is either have no effect on value, or only a slight positive as peacock and others mentioned. If I grabbed a hold of this and wanted to sell I would not wipe away the signature until I had a specific customer request to do so with guaranteed follow through. To some it could be the reason they choose this over another 10 and to others I could just wipe it and supply them with a clean cased 10.
An issue I see with autographs is that if the item is significantly much more valuable than the autograph, the autograph actually removes value of the item in question, due to value disparity, and the collectors need for a pristine item.
The whole point of an autograph is usually to make something not really significant into something significant. When the item is already extremely significant, the autograph just becomes a hindrance to the item.
I feel like we’re trying to find a reason not to like an autograph here more than anything else. The nice part about getting the autograph on the case is that it’s not permanent – if you don’t like the autograph, you prob. value the card at whatever 1st ed. PSA 10 charizards go for minus the few dollars it takes to reholder the card. If you like the autograph then he’s a lucky guy and he’ll probably snag a premium from you because you’re willing to pay for the signature.
It’s a win-win situation for the Leonhart in this case if he were to sell it. Worst case scenario someone pays market price. Best case scenario someone who fangirls over Mitsuhiro Arita pays extra for it.
I just loathe the idea of grading an autograph or even an autographed card at all. Encapsulate as authentic maybe. When it is on the card I see the card as inked. On the case I really think is a great idea though.
Back to grading autos though… how tf do you grade someones signature? Are they actually grading how well the signer repeated their previous examples and literally how “pretty” it is? Or are they grading the “condition” of the sig so to speak as in if you graded on that was signed 20 years ago and faded it would be deteriorated so drop grades, but as long as it is fully intact and not showing age then it gets a 10?
The auto market is based around the idea or value of history. A Mickey Mantle signed item is a piece of history. That is the value. Pokemon is inherently too young to have a parallel. Auto’s are basically newborn.
The best analogy I can think of for the perception of autos in Pokemon today: They are similar to when everything was available in mint condition. Some of the same comments were made about grading 10 years ago. It will be interesting to see how autos establish themselves with time.
@smpratte so it looks like it is a combination. Both quality of the actual signature with respect to how “pretty” the signer made it as well as whether or not it has “weathered”/worn over time. So a fresh one will not always be a 10. Good thing I’ll never be famous, my peak performance in signing would probably be a 7/8 at best and then authentication would be thrown completely out the window as I have no reproducibility. I wonder how common that is for people who sign. I can’t be the only one who can’t reproduce it and had god awful handwriting to start.
I can respect the history aspect of it and understand why autos are popular and valuable to people they just never have been to me except for the random few I have from meeting the people and having them signed myself. If I were ever around and it wasn’t an unreasonable wait I wouldn’t mind having some things signed by certain folks, but I wouldn’t ever pay a premium for one to keep.
I don’t mean to totally knock Pokemon artist autos. It’s just the value I dispute. Hundreds for an Arita auto? Cmon man. There’s thousands and thousands out there and many more thousands to come.
I have a 20 year old Kagemaru Himeno auto on her TMB badge which is super rare. I’ve only seen three of her autos in 20 years and she’s the second most prolific Pokemon artist of all time. Her auto may be worth more than we could even guess.
Again, we’re not talking Churchill or Babe Ruth when discussing Arita autos.
It’s pretty shocking. But people will pay it. I wouldn’t pay a premium for his auto since it’s so “easy” to aquire. I love the personal touch it adds to a card though. My autograph collection is ALMOST as meaningful to me than my Rays… haha
haha