Stalking to the next level. It's personal now
It was March 18th and the Washington Capitals were in Nashville for the first time in four years, with NHL powerhouses like league-leading scorer Alexander Ovechkin and veteran Sergei Fedorov. It was a chance of a lifetime for several fans to meet their idolized players as they took on the home team Predators.
A little boy was standing at the curb of the Hilton’s plaza patiently waiting for his favorite player, goaltender Olaf Kolzig, to walk to his morning practice. He was donning his Kolzig jersey, holding tightly to his mother’s hand, with a smile so bright it might as well have been Christmas. Kolzig, known for his devotion to children, quickly came out when he saw that there were a handful of youngsters, including the boy, waiting for some players. However, he had more than he expected when he was bombarded with over 20 people with binders full of unsigned player cards and pictures just waiting to get on eBay. The crowd mowed over to him, almost letting the children, the true reasons the players want to sign, in the dust.
It’s one of the many growing problems with sports today—the “ebayers.” People will do whatever it takes to get a professional player’s autograph, just to turn it around and sell it on eBay for $25. Nashville is especially the problem. It’s a bragging right the city has always used because home players, in this case the Nashville Predators, are so approachable, but it is assumed the opposing team will be too. People will literally fly in from other cities just to meet their favorite player who back home would never leave their house in fear of being bombarded.
However, with the devoted fans come the devoted businessmen, and I use that term loosely. These obsessive heathens arrive with boxes full of pucks, binders full of cards, and tons of other memorabilia to be signed. They flood the security center after a player has broken a stick or a ripped jersey. Many of these people literally have made a career selling their memorabilia on eBay.
People sometimes go incredibly too far just to get an autograph, especially from a big-named player. Similar to Kolzig’s solution, most players will only sign for children who are waiting with their parents. Ebayers that use the Nashville Hilton hide their boxes and exploit their own children to go up to the player and get an autograph. Worse than that, I have witnessed a person fake being crippled and “limped” to get a players autograph. Little did he know, he took the same path as I did and I witnessed him run across the road with no limp at all. A man that is popular in Nashville for wanting autographs fakes being a representative of Hockey Fights Cancer. The president of the booster club is the only person with that right in the state of Tennessee. Needless to say, it wasn't her. It was some guy with a gray beard getting Rick Nash to sign a stack of about 5 jerseys. Within the week they were on eBay going for $200. On March 17th, a handful of the said “stalkers” followed a handful of players, including the leagues shining star Alex Ovechkin, to dinner and waited outside of the restaurant waiting for them to finish their meal.
In Nashville, the Hermitage Hotel and Loew's Vanderbilt have gone to the extremes to make sure ebayers will leave the players at peace. However, the Hilton and Renaissance haven't resorted to that, but desperate times call for desperate measures. If this insidiousness continues, I'm sure that they will find a way to make sure the players are at peace, even if that involves the true fans losing their chance of a lifetime. Then again, the eBayers can always just rent a hotel room together, then they can't deny them entrance (not that I endorse stalking; I'm just noticing the fact that eBayers might be doing something dumb but they have common sense.)
Players of many sports, not just hockey, have always bragged about how much they love Nashville, but if the eBay people keep this up, the insanity will make us lose the “approachability” Nashville has grown to be. I refuse to purchase autographed items from eBay—besides, how do you know if it is a real autograph?
On that note, people actually could make a profession finding fake autographs and fraud eBay sellers. It's actually not hard-- likely, if it's signed in blue ink, it is usually fake. Something as simple as a missed oval in a signature can be the difference from Mark Messier's real autograph and Dr. James Messi, psychiatrist (pun intended because some people are that crazy.) Likely, if the player is dead, it is usually fake. Tim Horton's autograph is NOT a TimBits box. That's work 10 cents, not 10 thousand dollars. Also, look at average prices of memorabilia. If there's a Gordie Howe autograph going for $5,000 US dollars, then there are 20 others going for maybe 300, LIKELY the really expensive one is fake. Consequently, if it's only $4, it is likely a scam too.
On eBay, one man's trash is another man's treasure, but there's a fine line between being trash and exploiting players. Don’t let these insane people ruin it for the devoted fans that idolize these people.
