How much would you pay to meet your favorite athlete, movie star or blog writer? 🙂
This has been a topic of discussion in the Kurjan home because there is a card and collectible show coming to our area. Don’s all-time favorite baseball player, Rickey Henderson, will be at the show and will be available for autographs and selfies.
A ticket for the show is $20 and since the lines will be long, they are offering a fast pass for $15. The charge for an autograph on a small, flat item it is $140 + tax, $170 for an oversized flat item, and $240 for a cap or jacket. A selfie with Rickey Henderson is $125.
For $335 we can both attend the show and Don can get one of his baseball cards signed and a selfie with Rickey.
A few years ago, we went to see Joe Thomas, one of our favorite Browns players, at Gander Mountain. It was a free event and in addition to talking to Joe for several minutes, he would sign one item. We had two items to sign, an adult jersey and a baby-size jersey and he gladly signed both. He was gracious, kind and fun.
We’ve also met other favorite Browns players – Bernie Kosar, Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner – at a free event at a local grocery store. What a fun day! These guys were signing autographs, taking pictures and telling all kinds of stories. Standing in line was fun because we could hear them laughing and talking about the good old days.
We had an opportunity to get a Jerry Rice autograph when we were in Vegas for the FFPC draft but decided we didn’t want to spend $450 for a signature. This price did not include a photo, but Don took a quick picture as we were walking by. There was a lot of security around, so we walked a little faster after that.
Back to Rickey Henderson. If a person has a chance to meet their favorite childhood athlete, someone they have always admired and looked up to, someone whose baseball cards take up pages and pages in a baseball card album, just maybe they should pay the price and meet them.
Although we aren’t big autograph collectors, we do have a few autographed items in our sports room. I won an autographed Carlos Carrasco jersey at a Cleveland Indians game. When Asdrubal Cabrera was rehabbing at the Indian’s farm team, I tried my best to get him to sign a bobble head for me, but couldn’t get his attention. We were super excited to get Colt McCoy’s autograph at Browns training camp one year. I had followed Colt’s career since he was in high school, and we thought he was going to take the Browns to the Super Bowl.
Don still remembers when he was a little kid and there was a baseball player at the Cleveland Stadium – an opposing All Star pitcher – standing out in the concourse. Don was a little shy and his parents encouraged him to go up to him and ask him to sign his program. When 10 year old Don asked him for an autograph, he said no. If any athletes are reading this, please sign the kid’s programs if they ask you nicely!