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Derek Jeter autograph; worth it?

I missed out on another Jeter due to an early auction end time, but I am browsing for more Jeters. Is $289.00 too much for this one?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on December 31, 2013 at 4:18pm

God willing, it's possible Jeter could be signing for the next 50 years and could put hundreds of thousands of authentic autographs into circulation.

If anyone wants to spring for one... Go for it. But I can't bring myself to pay more than $200 for a very common, mass produced signature. If I was going to go for one, it would be a 90s style. No matter what, he won't be signing like that any more.

I am curious to see what happens to demand/value once he retires. Who could serve as a model? Will he go the way of Mattingly? Decent value, but much less than his playing days?

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on December 31, 2013 at 4:27pm

I agree with Mr. Zipper.

I would never pay "Steiner" prices for a Jeter signed ball.

I own eight (8) Derek Jeter rookie (1996) signed baseballs and paid under $180.00 for all of them. I paid $90.00 for a Jeter 1997 circa sig on a baseball.

The deals are out there.

Good luck gents and Happy New Year to all of you!!!

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Permalink Reply by Mike P on December 31, 2013 at 5:45pm

Same to you Chris!

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Permalink Reply by Mike P on December 31, 2013 at 5:31pm

I agree that 90s signatures are the way to go. If you look at the trends of other signatures, the older variations to the athlete's signature goes for more money ie. DiMaggio signed in the 50s vs the 80s/90s. I intended on purchasing one, but missed out on it due to my own error. I went with the above signature because I liked the way it looked compared to other modern signatures; I guess what counts is if you like the piece, not so much the price. Either way, I'm happy but 90s era would definitely be "the year" to get a Jeter if a collector's objective was solely financial.

That's also another reason why Jeter signatures may not be worth as much in the future. Will he do a lot of signings with Steiner? Will he be involved in controversy/tragedy (hopefully not)? Who knows, but it will interesting to see what happens in the future. Look at Mariano Rivera- you could easily find signed baseballs for under $100-150. Now, people are buying them for $250-350 just because he retired. Strange.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on December 31, 2013 at 5:38pm

Rivera is experiencing a bubble now due to the media exposure, etc. I expect it will go down.

Presuming he remains a willing signer, I would anticipate his signature will remain flat or go down eventually.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on December 31, 2013 at 5:46pm

Mike, I only search for Jeter's 1995-1996 signatures because I love the eye appeal of those autographs.

As I get older ( I'll be 60 in a few years), of course, at sometime I will have to sell them due to the fact that no one here will know what to do with my collection. But as long as I'm healthy, the eye appeal of Derek's 1995-1996 signatures will keep me searching for more (at my price) and enjoying the ones already in my collection.

It's a nice relaxing night here on New Year's Eve. My girlfriend and I are both are a bit under the weather, so we decided to stay home, watch episodes of Twilight Zone (yes!!!!) and later on, some Honeymooners episodes. It's funny, I have both of them on DVD, but there is something about watching them on TV.

Be safe everyone.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on December 31, 2013 at 5:51pm

You too, Chris and feel better.

I made homemade sauce and meatballs for dinner and we had a few beers. The little ones just got tucked in and my wife and I are yawning now and will probably be asleep by 11. Lol. How life changes when you have kids!

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on January 1, 2014 at 6:50am

Mike, its a personal decision. If someone is looking for investment pieces, I would not recommend buying Jeter items. If someone is looking for one Jeter piece for their collection, then maybe they could justify the high prices. As Christopher and Zipper said, you can find un-certified Jeter signed balls for half of Steiner's price. You just have to be diligent. But even at that price, I would not consider it a good investment, but it would be a critical part of anyone's baseball collection.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on January 1, 2014 at 7:37am

I agree with, Terrier.

Even after Jeter makes the "Hall," only a small percentage of his autographs are going to rise in value and those would be his early sigs. Early sigs on cards like his 1993 Classic (1200 signed), 1992-4 Sport (1125 signed) and 1992 Little Sun (250 signed) are nice additions to any Jeter collection.

Jeter's "Steiner" sigs will always be flat on the open market IMHO.

Most collectors buy from Steiner because they know they are getting the real deal and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

But if you take the time to learn the various autographs of any athlete/person you want to add to your collection, you can get some great deals.

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on January 1, 2014 at 8:49am

you may recall the situation with Mark McGwire. He went thru a time in the late 90's early 2000's where he would not sign on the sweet spot. so his earlier SS signatures on AL balls rose in price, and any SS full signature Mac on a NL ball (Coleman) sky-rocketed.

He then signed an agreement with Steiner where he signed a large amount of OMLB on the sweet spot, with full Mac signatures and they were being sold for hundreds of dollars, because of the rarity back then. (Mac had several signature styles during that time, one of them was just a "MG" scribble).

We all know about the steroid effect, the fact that he started signing again when he became a hitting coach with the cardinals and now he is doing shows. the result is his signature value plummeted. However, diligent collectors will realize that. similar to what Christopher referred to above with Jeter, there will be certain items that because of the rarity, will rise in value.

One of my favorite items is a 1998 Coleman ball, pure white, signed by Mac during the HR race, on the ss with the STL25 inscription. He only signed that during a limited window of time. I also have a side panel Coleman ball, signed by Mac in late 1998/early 1999 with the "70" inscription. Again, that was only available during a limited time period, although I believe he has started signing with that inscription again. However, his signature has changed so it is relatively easy to identify the older ones. Here is the 1998 ball: This ball was selling for over 500 dollars in the late 90's. I paid $80 for it last year.