Baseball Autographs

There are quite a few sites and a few magazines that give you lists of players who sign autographs. These "lists" can be a great way to add autographs to your collection but they are also making it harder to get players to autograph something for you.

Think about it! Bill Smith posts a new list that he has recently received autographs through the mail from these ten baseball players. Ten thousand people see this list and eight thousand of them hurry to send for autographs from these ten players.

Maybe the first ten or twenty will get an autograph returned to them but when the players are overwhelmed with so many requests, they decide "that's it"! No more autographs through the mail!

Now there are ten more players who refuse to return your SASE and who can blame them?

My advice? Search out your own autographs and when you get them back, keep it to yourself!

Sounds selfish but at least that player who did you the favor of returning his autograph is not suddenly deluged with request and turned off on giving his autograph out any more.

I've complained about never hearing from players who I've sent my cards and SASE but at the same time, I can understand that if they get 8000 requests in one week, they are going to have a tough time answering them all.

I can also understand that it's going to piss someone off if they send you an autograph today, then see their name on a list of "easy to get" autographs tomorrow.

That's why you won't see a list of "autograph signers" here. I might picture a great autograph that I've received, but I won't make a list. Besides, there are too many lists out there already.

And yes, you'll still hear me gripping about sending out a card and never getting an answer back! But I'll keep doing it and hoping that I'm not sending to a player who is on somebodies "sure thing" list.

I don't know if any of you guys will ever stop by this site but in case you do, I have a "sob story" for you that I hope will get some of you to send an autographed picture, baseball card or signed ball.

A couple of years back I had a little health problem. It was bad enough to get me thinking that I didn't have anything to leave my five grand-kids so I started building each one a small "treasure chest". I figure that I can keep adding little things so that when I'm gone, they'll each get something to remember me by.

One of the things that I'm trying to get for these "treasure chests" is an autographed picture, card or ball from each team. It doesn't need to be from the top players. I just need five from each team.

You guys can sure help me cut down on the time and expense of trying to get these if you'll volunteer them. I'll be happy to send the cost of postage and my address. It's starting to cost a lot for me to send out cards to get signed and never hearing back from anyone.

I don't know if the players just don't want to sign or if they never get my mail.

Contact Me! I'll send my address and SASE, card or whatever postage that you need.

This may not be considered a very good way to go about getting autographs but at 65 and with my health and wealth problems, I could never travel around trying to make signings and such. Sending through the mail hasn't worked well for me yet, so I'm trying to appeal to that "soft" side that almost everyone has.

I also know that I will never make it to the point of getting five autographs from each team, but I plan on giving it one heck of a try.

To any and all of you players who respond to this plea, a great big thanks in advance!

There are several places that have autograph signings on a fairly regular basis. Very seldom are they free, so if you don't mind paying for your autographs rather than trying to talk the player into doing one for you, here are a few places to check out.

Signings Hotline!
As of this listing, the list of signing dates and places was free. SigningsHotline.com does offer a membership for even greater access to information on signings and such.

Autograph-Sports.com
You can purchase presale items directly from our website or send in your own item for the player to sign. They ask that you make all purchases at least a week in advance of a signing. They will ship out your items back to as soon as the signing has been completed.

While the most sought after autographs change almost daily, it's nice to know who everyone else is collecting.

You can keep track of the hot autographs right here: Top 50 Baseball Autographs!

It should be noted that the higher your favorite is on this list, the harder it might be to obtain the autograph. This might be due to the player being extra busy or just because he figures that his autograph is to valuable too give away.

You might have better luck in getting the autograph during "off-season" just because the players are not as busy.

As far as the autograph being too valuable, I would suggest that it is us fans that create the value for the autograph. While the skill of the player creates a demand for him, if the fans do not get behind him, his autographs value will never be that great.

There are many great players who's autographs are only worth $5 or $10 bucks, while the autographs of some "not-so-great" players are very popular and sell for much more.

I'm not going to tell you that getting autographs through the mail is easy! It happens but not as often as I'd like.

Usually I'll send a SASE and a baseball card to the player who's autograph I want, along with a note letting him know that I am a fan and follow his career enough that I can say something about his last game.

While I've had people say that they get 50% up to 100% of their letters answered with an autograph, I would say that my experience has been about one for every ten that I send. I imagine those who work for a sports magazine get better results.

Sorry for the disapointing news but that has been my average so far. Maybe more will show up in the mail as I'm sure MLB players have a lot more on their minds then returning my cards. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Below is a link where you can get team addresses for mailing your favorites. Always start the address with "Atten: Players Name", and enclose a SASE. You're asking for a favor so don't expect them to supply the envelope and postage.

You might get better results sending your requests directly to the players home address but these addresses are not easy to get.

Team Addresses!

Good luck! Stop back and share your results with us!

I recently mailed my Derek Jeter Signature card to Derek asking that he sign it and return it to me.

I know! It might just be the last time that I see that card, but I've heard that Jeter is one of the best when it comes to autographs and figured that it was worth a try.

I included a stamped, self-addressed envelope so I'll be patiently waiting.

It's been about three weeks so far. Stay tuned! If I get it back, I'll be sure to let you know.

Check out my Darek Jeter site: Darek Jeter!

Picture by:OneTwo1 of the English Wikipedia
Derek Jeter at the New York Yankees vs. Colorado Rockies game on June 16, 2007.

Yes! Believe it or not, you can get free sports cards. It seems that just about all of your favorite card manufacturers will send out free "No Purchase Needed" cards.

You have to send in your name and address on a 3" x 5" card and not everyone gets a free card but it's worth a try.

Check it out here: NPN Cards For Free!

10/06/09 Received my first NPN card from Topps today! Don't know if it has any value as I'm not familiar with the player, but it is a Signature card.

Speedy Claxton of the Atlantic Hawks. #341/869

Was real happy to get it because now I know first-hand that the card companies do send out NPN cards.

If you've made it this far, I'd appreciate it if you would check out Dene's Place to see if there's anything that you might like for yourself or as a gift. It helps me pay the bills!

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out my other lenses when you have time.

Much of the information used here has been researched from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.