Spread the word that’s how he feels about it, I feel that people would respect his wishes if they’re real fans.
I’d love an opportunity just to say that his art is amazing face to face.
I have a different take on all this.
Athlete’s, authors, celebrities, etc. have signings all the time and eventually 90% end up on the secondary market. It’s disingenuous to complain about what happens to your wares after giving them up…especially after you’ve been compensated. If there was some kind of a moral issue then don’t sit there as the line grows.
It reminds me of the goofballs with the art cards who were sniveling about what buyers might do with them after they “sold” them their cards.
I understand it could be a generational thing to cry about things but it seems the outcomes never change. Offer them the money and they’ll complain as the money goes into their pocket and the pens come out. It’s all talk.
Or do I have it wrong?
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@garyis2000 that is true. Also a lot of people cannot go to signings. The second hand market is their only option. Majority of my memorabilia was obtained on the second hand market. A couple of my pokemon signed items as well.
Arita is simply speaking his mind, and it shouldn’t be interpreted as law. His signatures, and any other prominent figure in the hobby should be available for those who want to purchase, or who cannot attend a signing. Keep in mind, the cost of travel: buy a ticket, hotel, signing fee, and any other costs for food, etc. are probably going to be more than simply buying an authenticated item outright. Not to mention the time you save by simply clicking a listing.
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I am not knocking the second hand market at all, see every card in my collection! God knows I didn’t win them! But I can also see Arita’s point and I would have to agree to an extent. I am sure as an artist he would like to see his autographed and personalized items stay with an be appreciated by those he makes them for, not immediately sold for profit. I can only speak for myself though. I would feel pretty wrong asking a guy to go out of his way to make a custom sketch, and tell him I am a fan, just to turn around and make a good sum off of it. Now should something happen to me or my future children sell them, that’s another story.
Thats not the exact point Gary…
Athlete’s, authors, celebrities, have a simple common point: they all are not under Pokemon Company.
From what Ive been told from Arita, PC is something like a dictatorship, they dont give a s*** about illustrators. If a signature service would be made in a correct way, the artist should do it for FREE or give the gains to the Company, because they have the copyright.
If they see this second hand market is prolific they may endanger Arita.
Arita, like other japanese illustrators, is afraid about the Company will stop his travels around the world or maybe they could fire him because of that, because he is doing something against their rules. Not something easy to understand for us in the West, like he said. I still have not some point clear…
This is Japan. Not WOTC, not like with MTG artists, not like with a baseball memorabilia’signature.
So the question is legit
Who is the real TeamRocket? 
I moved the discussion to its own thread.
In relation to the topic, the second hand market in Japan is generally viewed as “unbecoming”. I know there is more guilt placed on how business or interactions are conducted. With that said, I highly doubt Pokemon would fire Arita because people choose to sell their signed items.
Agreed.
Also, TPC aren’t complete idiots. They already know about the autograph market. They could tap into it if they wanted by marketing the autos themselves and restrict their artists outside signings. But they haven’t done that so it should be open season.
Arita was used to sign for free in the past. I think he knows what he says
Right or wrong, you have to respect his wishes.
No kiddin.
When Pokemon peeps make their way to Australia? Then I’ll say sure. Say the word and I’ll be happy.
But so far, none of Nintendo’s prominent Pokemon figureheads have really come here. And unless I wanna spend some 4 grand going to Japan or 5 grand to America and back? Ha.
Good luck to me.
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Sure, in fact we decided prices with him, and he was aware of the fact that was probably “against the PC rules”
What were the prices?
I paid 5 euros per card, and this price was later raised to 15 euros each.
Greetz,
Quuador
I remember seeing a video recently on instagram, Where somebody just had a crate of cards, and was handing them non stop to Arita for signing.
I’m aware that was for multiple people, but something just seemed wrong about it.
Just milking the cow… as much as they can, with no remorse. To pretty much solely benefit one’s self?
Or
is this a good thing?
Will it help bring many into the market so that prices drop? as it’s no longer as rare?
and it’s ethically helping those who will never have the opportunity to get the signatures receive them cheaper?
Charging for signatures, may eventually lead to a cheaper going rate; if many surface… i don’t know…
i don’t really care to be honest. Seems like this whole re-sale of autographs has been around for way too long, it’s just life, and how it goes. Well done to Gabriele, or whoever got the mass signing’s done. Kudos to him for doing it before others, and he gets the splurge and sell however he wishes, and i guess he has helped others in the process.
In that video he was signing around 5 people cards by mail orders. + my peesonal 15 cards.
He wouldnt sign those cards during the Comicon to avoid waiting more time the people in queue.
To sign after dinner was an Arita’s idea.
A week after the event, a real low amount of cards has been put on the market… I am pretty happy about that. I hope could happen the same after the Ocala comicon
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Thank-you for more information.
I don’t know the story well, just trying to help raise questions about what people may think about the signing.
I’m a very open person.
How this works in most established markets is businesses pay a ton for signings. I know a guy who paid half a million for an exclusive signing with a top athlete.
Signed memorabilia is very young in Pokemon, there isn’t an established structure. This sounds like the actual problem. The price increased from 5 to 15 per signature in this event alone.
All of this is a business. Pretending it isn’t is naive. We wouldn’t be here today if that wasn’t true. Pokemon needs distributors, distributors need retail businesses, businesses need consumers/collectors. Arita wasn’t traveling the world doing signings in 2004-05 when Pokemon was declining, why, no economic incentive.
With that said, flippers, scumbags, term them as you may, they are ultimately what everyone is targeting. There is an onus on the signers or company to set the rules. Sure, this is a very “western” approach, but the entire signed market is western.
As a collector of both trading cards and memorabilia, I want businesses to do signings with athletes I will never meet. Same should be true for Pokemon. Signatures are very young in Pokemon. Signings need a bit more structure to benefit all parties.
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Me too Andrew… to be more clear possible, the other 2 organizers spent several thousands € for bring him to Milan.
So thats why we promoted a lot of services, like the signature by mail or a various selection of size sketches (price range from 10 to 200€).
We needed to have at least our money back, I think it was a wise decision. As said we didnt expect this kind of success, and we couldnt raise prices again (to avoid quarrels during the event). We really tried to do the best we could, all with Arita’s approval.
At the end he was happy just like us all 
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I think you guys did a good job to put this together for the italian people.
I know many collectors there, and it is a popular time for pokemon 
So ultimately it will be helping the community by opening events like this.
Will be surprising to see how the signatures will go in 10-20 years time haha? who knows
The other 2 organizers had a solid MTG background with artists management, and with large Comicons, so this helped us a lot. MTG community is a lot ahead instead of our community in this kind of things. As Scott said with better words than mine, Pokemon signed cards phenomenon is too young to have some kind of “rules”.
“Rules” for collectors, rules for resellers, rules for the artists themselves. So I had to learn how to start, from Marco and Andrea… how to manage that in the best way…
with the HUGE difference that MTG has western artists only…
and this was/is/will be the real main point. On how to manage, in the best way possible, events with oriental artists who have different “rules” / ideas than us.
With Arita was kinda easy… he is such a great and helpful man.
I dont want you to think we took advantage from him. He simply didnt want to stop, he just wanted to make everyone happy.
And thats why he hates resellers as well. But everyone is free to do everything he wants of course. I will personally never sell a signed card 
And thanks for the nice words you spent
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