Each signer should get a custom hole punch to tag the cards they sign.
Honestly if someone tells you they took off the personalization then there is no problem. Their card they can do what they want and they’ve disclosed everything. You can have a problem with them doing it, but you can just not buy it then. If people are lying about getting a non personalized one that is grimy. If it hurts artists feelings that their personalization is being removed they can honestly grow up or pursue a more destructive method to the card if they can’t handle it. Or they can sign a bunch more to devalue their own free market sig value.
I totally agree with you here. If a person would like to remove the personalization because they think it looks better or they simply enjoy the card more without it, it is thier card so they are fine to do what they like. These 2 sellers I’ve had a chat with both claimed in some supsicious way that they got it signed unpersonalized and they have no proof/documentation of it happening when all facts are there said by multiple sources that attended the event even that Fukuda only signed with a personalization. That is what bothers me a lot.
I didn’t get everything I wanted signed, so I’ve been buying additional signatures to augment my own collection. The wiping thing is huge. I’ve been offered more like that than personalized. lol.
But it really just comes down to: People didn’t want them personalized. They were forced to. So they corrected in the aftermath as they were able to suit the items to how they really wanted it.
The HUGE majority of these are still sitting in collections. Hardly any, relatively speaking, made it to the secondary market. I think that’s pretty cool, telling, and consistent with other indicators that suggest the collectors vastly outweigh resellers in Pokemon TCG. It is unfortunate how controlling and unreasonable TPC is about the signature market. Signatures are enjoyed in virtually every other collectible with a fraction of the bullshit to deal with. So I hope that it doesn’t come back on artists. But if it does, we should all be on the same page that that isn’t a flaw in the market and how people respect signatures. It’s a flaw in how TPC maintains an abusive relationship with its artists and its collecting base.
Whipping your artists for signing products that fans purchased is NOT normal. No one else does this.
That being said, I want to note that as others have mentioned, removing personalization to sell is considered very disrespectful in Japan and artists are very opposed to people making money off their signatures. We know this from the torpedoed Ludkins Fukuda/Saitou signing, Midori Harada, etc. I think that’s stupid, but it’s the way they feel. Removing personalization puts future signings at risk, we have to play by the artists’ rules if we want to get cards signed and personalization is one of those rules, whether we agree with it or not. By removing personalization and selling cards, you put signings at risk for everyone else.
If I had a card signed just for me with my name on it I would be extremely more happier than just owning a standard signature. These guys are nasty flippers, f**k them.
@apanrune I can tell you that’s not true because here’s what the seller’s cards looked like before they were wiped. There was no “private after hours signing,” but what that’s probably referring to is the demonstration panel that people bought tickets for and were able to watch Mr. Fukuda draw something, ask questions, and then have the opportunity to have more cards signed. I didn’t see any items signed without a personalization.
@funmonkey54 I think I’m at a halfway point between your perspective and the “we have to play ball” position haha. I definitely don’t like personalized cards, and while I know selling signed cards is deemed culturally disrespectful to the artists, I’m glad knowing the buyers are most likely genuine collectors who will treasure the item. I completely agree that TPC should allow freelancers to be freelancers and support their artists. With that said, if that’s how TPC operates, I’ll play ball and hope that opportunities in whatever form they come are able to continue.
Isn’t PSA also in the wrong here?
It’s clearly altered and no non-personalised signatures were done by fukuda so these should’ve been labeled ‘altered’, no?
Anyway there are multiple issues brought up in this thread like:
-reselling signatures is disrespectful in some cultures
-altering signatures is disrespectful in some cultures
-Some people prefer signatures without personalizations
-some people alter the signature just for themself
-don’t lie about signatures being altered
-TPC is pretty anal about artists signing pokemon stuff
