CASH FOR AN AUTOGRAPH

It is amazing how far the dollar pushes for an autograph. I have no problem people who do sell as they provide a service for many that never get an opportunity to go after a star themselves either because they do not have the know how or the star is never in their area. My son and a couple of collectors and I decided that we all wanted to get RICK DERRINGER on a few albums that we had collected to personally autograph them after his show. Derringer has been around for some time notably playing with Johnny and Edgar Winters and also a  fairly successful solo career  Before the show many of the patrons paid 75 dollars to have a meet and greet( That's right 75 dollars) which involved a few hand shakes, a hello and if you had it signing a few autographs.  As people who read this blog are very aware that a Meet and Greet with Rock Musicians is becoming very popular and also standard with all of them.  They range from 75 dollars to a 1000 dollars but that is a another issue. Well after the show Derringer comes out and sits at a table to sign what others may have brought for him to sign. At this venue that is a regular practice and almost all have done it in the past. As we approached the table, what we believe was his wife tells everyone, : If you want anything signed YOU have to buy an item on the table of either a photo for 10 dollars or a CD for 20. I have met him twice before and have never seen him do that before. As much as I feel that is pure Bullshit its a good marketing payday for them . If you have 1 item it sure is NOT worth it but in our case we had 5 albums between the two of us and had no choice.We managed a few photos with him though believe it or not it was a bit difficult as his wife kept trying to distract him or get in the way. We finally persevered and turned out to be a good night especially as one of the graphers who goes by HOTDOG was celebrating his Birthday. For that reason money was no object and nothing or no one was going to damper the moment.