Monday, June 1, 2009

Gary Carter's eBay Autograph Policy

Gary Carter is tired of signing his autograph for free and he's not going to take it any more! Carter, currently the manager for the Long Island Ducks, has a new policy for signing MLB licensed products likes balls, bats, jerseys, photos: He's not signing it unless you donate $25 to the Gary Carter Foundation.

According to the memo posted on the Long Island Ducks' site, The Foundation believes that "MLB-badged" items being sold for profit and they are sick of it!

However, Carter will still sign any Long Island Duck merchandise for free... as long as you pay to get in to the park.

Thanks http://www.cantstopthebleeding.com/

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I sense that you don't like Carter's policy.

He's willing to sign Atlantic League items for free, and I heard from a collector this weekend that Carter even has his own Long Island Ducks baseball cards to give out to people who don't have something else that he'd be willing to sign for free.

What's wrong with him asking for a charity donation to sign MLB items?

James said...

I like Carter a ton, but I just don't like the athlete attitude of "people making money on my signature." Who do the athletes think paid their salary when they were playing? The fans.

I don't do it, but if the fans now want to make $20 for selling an autograph they get at the game for a $10 ticket, then more power to them.

Their $10 profit doesn't compare to millions of dollars the athletes made. Just my 2 cents.

Anonymous said...

I collect autographs, so obviously I want ballplayers to sign them. But I don't feel entitled to an autograph just because I showed up at the game.

No matter how many tickets we buy to baseball games, we are not paying players to sign autographs -- we're paying them to play. They owe us a 100% effort on the field -- nothing more.

Autographs are a bonus -- and I'd rather Carter just sign Ducks stuff and offer the option of donating to his charity for MLB stuff than see him blow everybody off entirely.

James said...

Paul - You are right. The players don't have to do it. I just don't like all the rules they make because the player (Carter in this situation) doesn't like the fact that a small % of people may try to make money on it... small change by Carter's standards.

Carter and LI officials can police this themselves by only signing for kids or limiting the time he's out there.

Personally, I'm a huge Gary Carter fan and I'd rather have a Ducks baseball with his autograph than the same thing people buy at Steiner. I just don't like the policy here.

Good discussion. Thanks for coming back.