Minnesota Twins eliminate annual Autograph Party

Just saw this online......

MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Minnesota Twins Community Fund announced today the creation of Hope Week in 2011. Hope Week will take place from June 12 to 18 and is an entire week dedicated to giving back to the community, as well as volunteer efforts led by Twins players.

Hope Week will begin with Justin Morneau's annual Casino Night public fundraiser for Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis on June 12. During each of the remaining days of the week, different Twins players will lead groups of teammates to participate in a number of preselected volunteer activities at various locations, agencies, and organizations. The activities will be a surprise to the recipients.

Also during the week, Joe and Lisa Nathan, along with the Minnesota Twins Wives Organization, will host their annual Hang with the Majors public event to raise funds for military families.

The week will culminate on Saturday, June 18 with an on-field event where deserving youth from Twins Territory will have a chance to meet the entire Twins team. This event will replace the team's annual Autograph Party.

"The move to Target Field's more intimate setting changed the Autograph Party event as such that we were forced to limit ticket sales and could not offer the free activities that we did on the Metrodome's spacious plaza," said Kevin Smith, Executive Director of Public Affairs. "The Autograph Party became simply an autograph session for a relatively limited number of fans and a growing number of memorabilia collectors, so fewer and fewer families and children were able to attend this event."
The launch of Hope Week will allow the Minnesota Twins to touch many more people in more meaningful ways. Hope Week will be a week long effort by the entire organization to reach into the community and make a difference in peoples' lives. The week of events will also operate as a call to action for Twins fans everywhere to volunteer in their communities.

And the autograph hounds smash another great event for the fans.

:x
No wait...let me think for a minute...


















:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

But life goes on.

So I suppose that memorabilia collectors aren't even considered fans, seems kind of dismissive of a fan base. Sounds like they are saying we won't you to spend all of your money at the ballpark, on our overpriced food and beverages, not on memorabilia and keepsakes. Instead they are going to have an exclusive week for kids who may or may not give a damn about baseball or the players. It will be a feel good event and an opportunity for a favored minority to get access. :twisted: :twisted:

My take is that with the new field, the autograph party was harder to set up and less space led to more people being unhappy about it, both from those that couldn't get a ticket and those that did get a ticket and couldn't get everything they wanted (I assume they raised prices last year with fewer people being allowed in? Not sure, so anyone can feel free to confirm). I also think it's a great way to promote TwinsFest and jack up prices there as that will be the only place now to get a bunch of player autographs in one swoop.

ebechols said:

So I suppose that memorabilia collectors aren't even considered fans, seems kind of dismissive of a fan base. Sounds like they are saying we won't you to spend all of your money at the ballpark, on our overpriced food and beverages, not on memorabilia and keepsakes. Instead they are going to have an exclusive week for kids who may or may not give a damn about baseball or the players. It will be a feel good event and an opportunity for a favored minority to get access. :twisted: :twisted:

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Wow.

No. What they are saying is that the autograph party was going to hopefully be bringing in kids -- instead, it was bringing in hounds (majority) who are just trying to get stuff to resale. Chances are, the number of those people in attendance was making it difficult to achieve what the organization had hoped would happen.
Now, they are holding an event for kids only to bolster future interest in the team.

Protip: A good majority of those people showing up probably WERE NOT fans.

Now some Twins fans will realize how good they had it. Most teams don't do near the stuff Twins have been doing for fans and collectors. Twins players still make a lot of appearances during season. Living here in Boston area Red Sox pretty much do none the entire season. I think I saw maybe two signings all last year for current players. Twins fans get that in a week.

This is true. There are three Twins Pro shops in the metro area, and players regularly make appearances on Saturdays during homestands. It's not Mauer and Morneau, but enough of the other guys to get folks to come. Plus there's appearances at Best Buy, Cub Foods, etc. Lots of corporate tie-ins help with that.

Last year's auto party was fairly miserable because the weather was bad. Windy, rainy, not helpful to get autographs. (They were selling hot chocolate on the grounds!) Something like this needs to be completely inside, but something that the current team can do early, quickly, then take off and get ready for the game. Having it anywhere else but the stadium would make that tough. The Plaza is a nice open area for activities, but not for the Auto Party.

The philosophy some of you guys have towards autograph collectors is astounding.

I thinkk there is a big difference between autograph collectors and people who go in to get as many autographs as they can to resell at higher prices.

tikitomoka said:

The philosophy some of you guys have towards autograph collectors is astounding.

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Autograph collectors are not the problem, the people who go solely to re sell are. These are the same guys who go to spring training with a book filled and expect players to sign 9 cards for him and 18 more for the kids he pays $10 each to stand there. The teams are finally seeing through this all and since the hounds have made a business out of selling to fans and collectors the teams are saying hey why not cut out the hounds and we make the money.

This is the same reason Jeter no longer signs ttm, once it got out it got BAD like real bad. Where people where literally sending a new card every day to the point he just stopped. Same thing I think will happen to Mark McGwire I suspect. 1 or 2 is never enough you have people sending every 4 days.

72skywalker said:

I thinkk there is a big difference between autograph collectors and people who go in to get as many autographs as they can to resell at higher prices.

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This is exactly it. I got into getting autographs a couple of years back-some stuff I sell, to try and limit my expenses. Buying baseballs, cards, photos, traveling, gas money, etc adds up, and fast. So, if a guy is worth more to someone else, I will sell it. However, it is not a job, not a source of actual profit, etc. I don't see someone signing, and try to go back 2 or 3 times to get him-which is what your typical "dealer" will do. They see a signature as pure $$$. There is a HUGE difference between a collector-who is happy with 1 item from a player, and a dealer-who is pissed if a player will only sign 1 item(it's less money for the dealer, you know :lol: ).

I commend the Twins on being 100% upfront and honest with their statement-it sucks for the collector, and the fan, but it's simply reality now days. The dealers are slowly ruining the autograph experience, and I don't see that stopping any time soon.

I remember a dealer around here telling me he made $40K a couple years back. I almost fell on the ground I was laughing so hard. The people are, on the whole, really uneducated. They couldn't calculate profit if you gave them step by step instructions. I have seen this guys eBay page numerous times, and there is no freaking way he comes close to $40K in a year. It was one of the funniest things I have heard in a while. Now, is it possible for someone to make $40K in a year just getting autographs? Yeah, but you have to be in the right area to do so, too.

For you guys that graph the Twins a lot. Is it the same old people you see at these events. Can you pick out dealers easy.

Haven't gone to it in 5 years or so, hopefully though this means more FanHQ and other signings, I think the Twins pro-shops cannot hold them any more

Teams don't know the difference between collectors and dealers. What dealer is going to want to spend the hours of standing in line to re-sell autos. I thought I read were people were in line for 7 hours for Mauer's auto at the last signing. The "dealers" would make more money working at a gas station than off autographs.