That's what U.S. Soccer international and current New York Red Bull, Dax McCarty called me when he signed an autograph for me this past February.
I called him over when he got off the team bus and asked him if he'd sign my card. He walked over to me and I handed him my card and Sharpie. He said to me as he began signing, "just one?" I told him "yes, I never ask for more than one and this is the only time I will ever ask for your autograph." He seemed to like that answer as he smiled and said "you're a rare breed. I wish more people were like you."
I'm not posting this to bash those who ask for multiple items to be signed. I get why a lot of people do it. Some are set collectors, trying to get every card in that particular set signed, others are collecting for themselves and friends/relatives who may not be able to attend, and then there are those who just want every card that they get signed.
Those are typically the honest collectors. Of course, there are people who get autographs and then post them immediately for sale on eBay and Instagram.
I'm not a fan of the latter. While I don't seek out autographs on eBay, I do follow a lot of collectors on Instagram. Sadly, many have their eBay store links in their profiles. I refuse to follow any of those people.
Even when autograph collecting became a hobby for me back in 1992, I was a one-and-done collector from the start. I can remember that memorable day when it all began. I was on the practice putting green at my local golf course. An employee approached me and asked if I liked baseball and then told me that Blue Jays pitcher, David Wells was golfing that day. I immediately ran home (the course was less than half a mile from my house), and went straight to the W's in my alphabetized box of baseball cards. Instead of just grabbing all of my Wells' cards, I went through and picked the one that I thought would look best with an autograph.
I think I kept the "1 per" policy going because I didn't want to carry a ton of baseball cards to spring training and Minor League games. I just wanted to focus on getting as many different players autographs, rather than getting the same people over and over.
While I have kept this policy of mine going for several years and have no intention of ever breaking it; it does make opening packs of cards less enjoyable.
I recently bought a pack of 2016 Bowman Baseball. Six of the cards in the pack were of players that I already had autographs of.
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| Yoenis Cespedes |
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| Anthony Alford |
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| Jung Ho Kang |
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| Alen Hanson |
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| Andrew Knapp |
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| Nick Williams |
A lot of collectors would be happy with this pack and would look forward to getting these new cards signed. As for me, I flip through the pack and mumble to myself, "already have his" as I place them in a separate pile and then make them available on my Sportlots page.
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| Yoenis Cespedes |
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| Anthony Alford |
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| Jung Ho Kang |
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| Alen Hanson |
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| Andrew Knapp |
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| Nick Williams |
I like being a rare breed. My box of cards of players that I don't have autographs of is big enough. I don't need to add players that I already have to it.
