Selling Broadway Playbills/Posters...where is the line?

[StickIt]

Posted: 2/22/14 at 5:53pm

This might be an odd topic but I've been trying to find a neat birthday gift for a theatre loving friend and took to eBay. Of course, there's a lot of stuff and that's cool with me, I personally don't see a problem with selling a Playbill you don't want to somebody who collects them or reselling a sweatshirt that didn't fit or whatever reason it may be. I guess my question mostly concerns signed items, like Playbills and posters. If you're the kind of person who collects signed things and autographs, I think it's great to go to the stage door after a show and to get a neat souvenir. And similarly, I do understand sometimes you have to downsize your collection or you're moving and can't take certain things and end up parting with them.

But I'm just wondering what the general consensus around here is on professional autograph hounds. I don't mean the polite, friendly people who go to the stagedoor once or twice and get something signed, I mean the people who harass the performers, stalk them when they leave from other exits instead of the stagedoor, come back repeatedly five, six, seven times to get items signed without even seeing the show just to sell them for exorbitant prices on eBay. Obviously, there's nothing illegal about this behavior, unless they get to aggressive or harassing with their "target", but I always felt kind of icky about it. To me, people making insane money off of fans and people who love things when they had no part in creating the show, the product, etc. is a little...off? I don't know if I'm explaining myself right but to basically take actors who are giving their all to give a great performance and who come out the stage door out of no obligation to do so but just to be kind and greet their audience and fans and abuse their time to collect signatures and then go make money off of them is sketchy to me. Especially when some people charge 250$ for a poster or much much more.

I'm not trying to assert that this is the only correct view, I just wanted to hear other views. What do you think about professional autograph hounds? Have you ever witnessed any aggressive behavior? Have you ever sold your collectibles?

[loliveve]

Posted: 2/22/14 at 6:45pm

I think the line is drawn with simply standing at the stage door versus hounding actors for an autograph or hunting down performers at other exits and stuff. If someone goes 4-5 times and is polite at the stage door, whatever. Personally, I find it much less creepy than the people who go to the stage door just to chat up the cast again and again...and again, as if they are friends with the cast but not really.

I admit that I went back to a stage door a few times trying to get a window card signed by most of the cast members, and without going into details on how it happened, I talked a cast member who asked if I could come back the next day (which made it the 3rd time), and he got 5 of the cast members to come out so they could sign my window card (no kidding- they came up to me and asked: "are you ---?" and "is your name--?") ... I thought that was pretty awesome of the cast member to arrange that. But I wasn't trying to get the autographs just so I could sell it, and I think he knew that.

Honestly, also, I kind of assumed that a lot of the window cards on eBay were purchased as part of BC/EFA fundraising. If shows would do (as Wicked did in the fall) and offer signed window cards for a donation plus the cost of shipping, I think it would reduce the re-selling on eBay. But for people who don't live in NYC and can't come during the collection periods, eBay may be the only option for getting a cast-signed window card, and people take advantage of that.