Is that a real LeBron ball? RFID and sports memorabilia.
2009; Volume: 12; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1543-9518
Autores Tópico(s)Digital and Cyber Forensics
ResumoIntroduction Autograph seekers. They are a part of every professional--and often amateur--athlete's life. They are a fixture at sports teams' training camps, host hotels and stadiums, and anywhere these signature collectors know that athletes will have to pass through on their way to or from an event. They also are a part of the well-known athlete's every move, as autograph seekers can make uncomfortable, even impossible, for athletes and their families to enjoy a meal in public or a trip to an amusement park. Many of these autograph hunters are kids, looking to get that one autograph of the professional baseball or football star they admire--the one whose poster they have hanging over their bed. Some of the signature hounds are adults, looking to have literally any athlete they can find sign any team item such as a ball, a bat, a helmet, a jersey, a game program, or so forth, in order to turn an ordinary item into a collectible. The motivation of many of these autograph seekers is indeed innocent, hoping to have a memento of their favorite athlete or sports team for their wall or mantle. The kid who admires his or her favorite sports star, whether it's Tiger Woods, Brett Favre, Kobe Bryant, Alex Rodriguez, or David Beckham, can have a lasting memory not just from the signed item but from their brief encounter with a sports legend. All too often however, the motive for the autograph seeker is money. Indeed, the chance is there to cash-in on an athlete's celebrity, and the players and their teams know it. The worst of the lot are grown-ups who hire children to seek out star's autographs on a paid basis; they work on the premise that the cute kid factor might entice the sports star to stop and sign an item for a 9-year-old child that they wouldn't for a 40-year-old man. As Baseball Hall of Famer Robin Yount commented, There is money to be made out there on autographs, (and) you see more people doing these days for that reason--the business end of it (Olson, 2006, n.p.). Yet, the real truth of the matter is that while a signed article can be a point of personal pride, even perhaps a family heirloom, the actual value of the item to knowledgeable sports memorabilia collectors is very limited. That is because of the need to provide verifiable proof of the autographed item's authenticity. Yes, you may have been at the New Orleans Saints' training camp in Jackson, Mississippi (as my sons and I were this past summer) and personally witnessed star running back Reggie Bush autograph a football. However, if you were to want to sell the ball, as opposed to displaying on a shelf in your son's room, there's no irrefutable proof that could assure the first buyer, let alone subsequent buyers in the future, as to the validity of Bush's signature. Not that this stops autograph seekers from trying day after day to get that elusive personalization of basketballs by LeBron James, footballs by Peyton Manning, baseballs by Derek Jeter, and item after item by a myriad of stars. So disruptive to athlete's lives are some autograph hounds that teams today commonly limit access to their players, not just out of concern for their economic well-being but for their physical safety as well (Maske and Lee, 2007). And, some athletes, such as Michael Jordan, make publicly known that they will not sign an autograph except through the special events (and often private signing days) for agencies they have contracted with to represent them in what has become an increasingly lucrative market for athletes, supplementing, or even exceeding, what they make on the field by simply signing their names (Johns, n.d.; Fisher, 2000). The sports memorabilia market today is a global marketplace, estimated to generate revenues in excess of $5 billion annually (Friess, 2007). Items of sports memorabilia are sold in a variety of venues, including physical and online stores, shows and auctions, and in private sales (Smith, n. …
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