by Haunted Man-Shane » Tue Dec 06, 2016 7:15 am
Hartster wrote:FWIW, it's not the conventions that set the price. It's the person.
Oh, I'm aware. It's just the guests are getting outrageous with what they want. And not just for autographs, but for professional photo ops (which are no better than a lame Olan Mills family photo with a famous person thrown in), and even charging crazy prices for photos at the table with your own camera. I've done cons for years and it just gets more and more ridiculous. It wasn't so long ago that most celebs were charging $20-30 and they would take a photo with you for free if you bought something. But now it's getting rare to see anybody (even some rando who was on "Walking Dead" for like one episode) for less than $40, and you better be prepared to shell out another $20+ if you want a photo at the table, too. Sometimes, that table photo is as much as an autograph. I met Debbie Reynolds at a show about 10 years ago, and I think it was $25 which included a photo with her. And she is a LIVING LEGEND (I know she signs TTM, but those sigs are always suspect). I'm sure now it would be about triple that, and that photo would cost extra. These booking agents have gotten incredibly greedy and it's really destroying what this hobby used to be, which was a way for older/genre stars to connect with fans and make a little something after their acting days were mostly in the past. It's absolutely disgusting, but it explains why you see so many of these people at their shows just sitting at a table doing nothing. If you hit up a bigger name, you're not likely to be able to afford to buy many other autographs, and a lot of those lower level celebs price themselves higher than they ought to anyway to compensate for fewer sales, which further alienates fans. I keep waiting for it to all crash down, but so far, it's just continued to get worse.
[quote="Hartster"]FWIW, it's not the conventions that set the price. It's the person.[/quote]
Oh, I'm aware. It's just the guests are getting outrageous with what they want. And not just for autographs, but for professional photo ops (which are no better than a lame Olan Mills family photo with a famous person thrown in), and even charging crazy prices for photos at the table with your own camera. I've done cons for years and it just gets more and more ridiculous. It wasn't so long ago that most celebs were charging $20-30 and they would take a photo with you for free if you bought something. But now it's getting rare to see anybody (even some rando who was on "Walking Dead" for like one episode) for less than $40, and you better be prepared to shell out another $20+ if you want a photo at the table, too. Sometimes, that table photo is as much as an autograph. I met Debbie Reynolds at a show about 10 years ago, and I think it was $25 which included a photo with her. And she is a LIVING LEGEND (I know she signs TTM, but those sigs are always suspect). I'm sure now it would be about triple that, and that photo would cost extra. These booking agents have gotten incredibly greedy and it's really destroying what this hobby used to be, which was a way for older/genre stars to connect with fans and make a little something after their acting days were mostly in the past. It's absolutely disgusting, but it explains why you see so many of these people at their shows just sitting at a table doing nothing. If you hit up a bigger name, you're not likely to be able to afford to buy many other autographs, and a lot of those lower level celebs price themselves higher than they ought to anyway to compensate for fewer sales, which further alienates fans. I keep waiting for it to all crash down, but so far, it's just continued to get worse.
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