CBC-Sports

Players innocent in uproar over autograph fees

October 24, 2008 01:16 PM | Posted by   Kelly Hrudey  

I felt badly for a couple of Edmonton Oilers recently because too much blame had been directed towards them for an event that occurred off the ice.

Like most athletes, Sam Gagner and Andrew Cogliano were paid to attend and sign autographs at a memorabilia show in Edmonton.

This practice has been on going for years and will continue for years to come.

Members of the public and media got it into their heads that Gagner and Cogliano treated their fans badly by charging for autographs. This isn’t the case.

Hidden fees

Here’s a little background as to how these shows typically work. In most cases, there is an entrance fee, then once inside, the patrons are usually required to pay another fee for autographs, photos and other similar requests.

The environments are tightly controlled, most autograph seekers knowing that each item has a cost; therefore, in most cases these people happen to be professional memorabilia collectors and dealers.

In this case however, a number of ardent fans were in attendance as well.

Here’s where the confusion started, to no fault of the players.

After dishing out for their entrance fee, the fans were surprised to find out that another fee was attached to an autograph.

Since this is normal at most card shows, the fans not familiar with a memorabilia show should have been made aware of this because it caused unnecessary confusion and finger pointing.

Professional dealers make the rounds

I heard that this type of behaviour by the players probably doesn’t fly in a city like Edmonton because of the type of fans there. Well, if it’s made available to players in every other city around the league, surely these opportunities to make some money away from the rink should exist in Edmonton as well.

These events around the league are mostly attended by professional dealers. They are aware of the situation and they profit handsomely from the items that they get signed. These shows are different in that, once the dealers get what they need signed they immediately try to sell those items.

Most of the dealers are the same ones that show up at the team hotels and the arenas with binders full of cards. Yes, I said binders, as in plural, because they carry thousands of cards (or pictures) hoping to get them autographed.

It’s not a question of signing either, I can assure you virtually all players sign autographs for fans, free of charge every single day of their lives.

Both players felt badly afterward but they did nothing wrong.

Free enterprise at work, that’s all.

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