I remember when the free autograph started to slowly die. It was somewhere around 1989, when the memorabilia business really exploded for the first time.
Top players were now bring paid $10 to $15 for a signature.
For collectors with a strong entrepreneurial spirit, hanging outside of hotels and at batting practice could prove quite lucrative.
But as players started being compensated to sign, they also noticed the racket. Adult “graphers” would pay off cute kids to make it easier to score signatures from the stars.
Less than 10 years later, what athletes long suspected was proven to be true, as many items they signed for free could be seen, for the first time, being resold in front of their eyes on eBay.
And with it, the entire in-person autograph business forever changed.
“You really want to do something for a kid who’s never seen you play before and wants to get your autograph,” then-Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Elvis Grbac told the Honolulu Star Bulletin in 2001. “But sometimes you don’t know if you are giving it to that child or if the child is working for somebody.”
Wemby gave a kid his game-worn jersey and a month later it was consigned for auction.
— cllct (@cllctMedia) January 16, 2025
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Combined with the paid autograph work, which got more and more lucrative for athletes and celebs, the free on-site autograph became virtually extinct.
I mention this all in light of the Victor Wembanyama jersey controversy this week.
If you haven’t heard, on Dec. 27 after a game against the Nets in Brooklyn, Wembanyama graciously swapped his game-used jersey with a tiny boy, who had a mini Wemby jersey of his own. An adult accompanied the child, who displayed a sign that asked, “Victor Wembanyama, will you swap your jersey with mine?”
Even the Spurs account on X called it the “best jersey swap ever.”
So, you could imagine the surprise when Goldin Auctions announced that exact jersey was up for sale in its Goldin 100 auction.
What some fans might not know is, although the Spurs originally own the jersey, the only reason why Wemby can give the jersey away is because he buys it from the team.
— Wemby (@wemby) January 15, 2025
The quick turnaround in which this jersey came to the market creates the same skepticism of young kids getting autographs in the ballpark. Is anything real anymore? Is everyone a capitalist?
If there’s not a legitimate reason to get quick cash for this child or his family, this incident could have a lasting effect on the hobby. Good luck to feature kids hoping to get a game-used jersey from a star.
There are already huge obstacles in the way.
Sotheby’s has a league-wide NBA deal that brings jerseys to auction — Wemby’s game-used debut jersey was sold by Sotheby’s for $762,000. Then there’s Fanatics, which has his exclusive autograph and memorabilia card deal rights.
With those two contractually required to get a piece, the pie narrows for someone hoping to land free memorabilia.
So, what happened Dec. 28 was a needle in a haystack.
Still, with the jersey being quickly flipped in such a public way, the sentiment on social media ranged from cynicism to outrage to disgust.
Wembanyama himself, didn’t seem hurt by it, tweeting a sarcastic crying emoji to his followers on X.
Other athletes and companies are surely watching, and if courtside kids are being used as pawns for a get-rich scheme, the only future jersey swaps we'll ever see will be player-to-player.
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct.com and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectibles market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.