Sylvester Stallone is appearing at the New York Comic Con next month. You can get his autograph. You can get a photo with him. But neither is free.
How much will they run you? Well, a ticket for an autograph is $395.00. The photo will run you $445.00. That's for a professionally-taken 8-by-10 picture. He'll be there on Sunday at a time to be announced and if you want to redeem your ticket, you'll need to be there when he's there. I have a feeling it won't be all day.
I'm trying to figure out how I feel about this and first off, I think it's a bad career move for the guy. I dunno what his cut is — the agency that arranged this is obviously in for a hefty share — but suppose you multiply any reasonable estimate times the number they're likely to sell. If you're a big star, I can't see it yielding an amount that's worth convincing a lot of people that you don't care about your fans except as a source of money you don't need. The star of Rocky and Rambo now earns a reported $15 million to $20 million a movie.
Then again, he's got as much right to charge megabucks for his signature as anyone has to say, "Are you outta your friggin' mind?"
A rather big star — as big as Stallone, maybe bigger — once told me he felt uncomfortable charging for his autograph. He'd agreed to such arrangements a few times, back when he still vividly recalled being broke and still had a hard time turning down cash for just writing his name. In fact, a couple things made him uncomfy, one being that a lot of the ones he signed were for dealers who viewed it as an investment. He was not signing for someone who loved his work and craved tangible proof of having met him. He was signing for someone who was going to charge even more money to the person who loved his work…and who would not get to meet him. It started feeling too exploitive to him.
Here was the big problem, though: He was getting, I think, $75 to sign things. Having accepted that, he began to have to think too much about signing his name for nothing or even for less. On his way out of one signing, he was approached in the parking lot by a little 10-year-old girl with an autograph book. He wasn't going to say to her, "Sorry, young lady. You have to give me $75." But if he signed for nothing, he was making fools out of all the fans of his who'd just paid three-quarters of a Benjamin.
He also had an offer from a major publisher to issue his autobiography, which was something he really wanted to have happen. The contract called for him to make a half-dozen appearances in bookstores to sign copies…and since all those recipients would pay was the cost of the book, he'd be in effect signing for free in some big, well-publicized appearances. Said he, "How is the guy who just paid $75 going to feel? He's going to feel I swindled him. It's just complicating something that wouldn't be complicated if we didn't drag that kind of money into it."
Then again, when you sign for free or for cheap money, a lot of those autographs wind up on eBay or being sold by dealers for a lot of loot. Why shouldn't that loot go to you? Or at least to your favorite charity?
I don't have an answer to any of this and since it's not a problem I'm likely to have, I don't have to come up with one. I just think it's kinda interesting.
In case you're a huge Sly Stallone fan, here's where you can get your autograph and photo op tickets. Let me know if there's anyone else in line with you. (Thanks to Gary Dunaier for telling me about this. He's not buying a signature either.)