Another perspective on hypothetical Richard Armitage autographs

[Richard Armitage signs an autograph, weekend of July 14-15, 2012, San Diego, CA. Source: Me, My Thoughts and Richard Armitage]

Went out for a while to visit my favorite beer purveyor. Don’t judge. Beginning Monday at sunset I have to go for a whole week without consuming any fermented grains because G-d said so. Due to my increasing connoisseurship of Belgian fermented grains, accomplishing this will probably be the hardest this year it’s ever been. It’s not the drinking — I could switch to wine — it’s the taste of that beer. Anyway, I digress from the actual point here.

I was seated at the bar chatting with one of my favorite bartenders, Chad, and I asked him how he was, and he said he was okay except he’d been working a lot more the last week. When I asked why, he told me that he and his partner, Lisa, had just rescued a cat and that it cost them $400 to get it fixed and chipped and treated for whatever ailments it had. And they had to get kitty x*nax prescriptions for their other cats so they’d all get along from the beginning. He showed me a bunch of pictures. They were really happy, he said, because the kitten was so affectionate.

I admit I’m not a huge kitten lover but I made appropriate noises. “And,” I said. “If the cats start getting along, you can underdose them and resell some of the drugs on the street.”

He laughed. “I could use it myself, at the moment, with the extra shifts.”

“Oh,” I said, “Is that just because of the expense from the cat? I could tip you more than usual.”

[Richard Armitage signs autographs on the red carpet at the New Zealand premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, November 28, 2012. Source]

He laughed. “You already tip enough,” he said.

Then he told me that he and Lisa had gone recently to an event called Mega-Con and on top of all the other costs for transportation and lodging and food and so on, had spent $700 getting two posters with autographs from the series regulars of the ST:TOS cast, who were apparently all simultaneously present. One for him and Lisa, and another one to sell someday, he said.

“$700?” I said. “For entry to the con? Or the posters cost that much? Were they collectors’ items?”

“No,” Chad said. “For the autographs. It was $35 apiece for the autographs of the regular cast members plus $70 for Sir Patrick Stewart’s.”

[I think I remember that correctly.]

“Wow, really?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Expensive. But totally worth it. Sir Patrick Stewart is just exactly like he seems.” Then he did a kind of imitation of Stewart saying “Make it so!” Chad finished by saying, “Lisa absolutely loved meeting him, and so did I.”

I agreed it might be neat to talk to Sir Patrick Stewart face to face for three minutes, and the conversation turned to other things, like the virtues of St Bernardus vs La Trappe Quadrupel, which I am sure you care about less than I do.

I’m not in search of an autograph, as I’ve said before, but like many fans last fall, had wondered why anyone would pay for an autograph of Richard Armitage’s sold on ebay and gathered by some fairly unpleasant people, if s/he could simply write to ask for one, but suddenly this puts things into a little more perspective.

[Note that in this post, I am neither approving nor disapproving of the activities of amateur or professional autograph collectors.]

[Richard Armitage, with photograph-eager fans on the red carpet at the Tokyo premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, December 1, 2012. Source.]

Does anyone know: is this standard? Fans go to a convention and then pay for autographs of actors on top of that?

If so, then I can see why someone might want to buy one on ebay. Because presumably if someone sells his or her autograph, he isn’t giving it out for free on most occasions. I assume one signs for free on red carpets — but it’s a pain to get to a red carpet, and while it can be wonderful and transformative, as we’ve seen, the results are far from guaranteed, if you’re standing in the wrong place.

Or is the reason that Mega-Con can charge for this that they get all the regulars together in one place and so convention visitors have a hope of getting everything they want at once? Which would be especially attractive, I guess, so the organization charges the fee as a way to cut the numbers of people lining up and keep the actors from suffering too much?

I wonder if Richard Armitage will ever sell his autograph in this way?

Or the dwarves all together? Will there be conventions with all the actors who played the dwarves, each charging $40 for an autograph?

Servetus shakes her head.

[Note that I’m not saying Richard Armitage or anyone else should or shouldn’t sell his autograph. As always, I think Richard Armitage should do what he thinks he needs to do, and doing this kind of thing will neither get him into or out of heaven or my good graces — distinctly different places, I might add. I’m just wondering about everything I learned tonight from Chad.]

~ by Servetus on March 24, 2013.