Lou Vigliotti is back! E336

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Sports guy Nation. It's up. Welcome to the episode three thirty six of Sportscardination podcast. I don't know if you caught it.

We did a special episode of Sports Cardination, released it on a Monday. We called it three thirty five A and that Gary Vee. We chopped up some hobby. We have a couple of similarities.

We enjoyed kind of comparing notes and he's obviously his Tops chron v Friends product is out. We talked a little bit about that in the process and how much Carte Blanche did Tops give him. So if you didn't catch three thirty five A with Gary v Oh that was released this past Monday, check that out. This is three thirty six and Lou Vigliotti's back and for the conclusion of our conversation, he's a card collector but has swung heavy into the autograph memorabilia portion, and so this is the second half of that conversation.

So quick commercial break and we'll be back with Lou. For nearly fifty years, Sports Collector's Digest has been the voice of the hobby, bringing you comprehensive coverage of the sports collectible industry from industry news, auction results, market analysis, and in depth stories about collectors and their collections. Sports Collector's Digest has everything you need to know about the hobby. SCD is also your leading source for listings of sports collectible dealers, card shops, card shows, and the latest from the industry's top companies.

To check out all the latest news or to subscribe to the hobby's oldest magazine, visit Sports Collectorsdigest dot com or call one eight hundred eight two nine fifty five sixty one. Now the conclusion of our great conversation with collector Lou Bigliotti. I think whether someone is a full time autograph collector like yourself or or me a little bit on a on a lesser level, I think everyone appreciates, you know, anyone that opens a pack, right they they love to hit, you know, a Mike Trout or an Allen Dela Cruz Auto out of that pack. Whether they're autograph collectors full force or not, they would still would love to own that card or you know, or that piece or you know, if someone's signing for free somewhere.

That line is usually very long, no matter of what status the player that it could be a journeyman baseball player. If it's a free autograph, there's going to be a line there, so people appreciate. I think the personalization of the autograph, that the the interaction right. You're going to be right in front of that person.

You might be able to say a few things and they might respond in kind to you. I think there's something to be said about that that that you can't get in other forms of fashions, and I think that's important, and I think that will never be that will never go away as long as those situations exist. I read a report I wanted to get your take on this. Lewis someone who's you know, I don't know if you would agree being called an expert, but you're you're very knowledgeable about what you do, right.

The FBI has I think this is a high percentage. But the FBI has came out and said that, according to their estimates, seventy five to eighty percent of autographs in the industry, in the hobby, if you will, are not legit. I know what the high number. I just think that number is too high.

Your thoughts on someone who does this. Yeah, you know, I think that's a very high number, probably higher than it really is, but it very The industry is fraught with fraud, if you will, and this I mean, you have these auto pens and so on and so forth, so it's real easy to get a signature copied. One of the things that I like when I get the signature is I always try to get a photo of myself with the individual with the item. To me, that's the best authentication there is.

I know there's companies out there that do the authentication o the signatures and so on, but I try to do that, and I keep a pretty meticul this record of the date, who the signer is, where I got it, and what was signed. So I've got a spreadsheet, you know, that has it all on there. There are items that I've purchased at auctions before I try to though I try to those items though I tried to do my purchasing with the authentification by one of the more reputable or some of the most most reputable authenticators out there. But I just like to have that interaction with the individual and as I said, have the photo the item in the photo with me.

In the book. You'll see a number of photos and some people said, geez, Lou, you're in the book a lot, you. Know, and and it's well, I mean it's you know, it's me and and. Uh and my book.

It's my book, right exactly, so right, so you know, there's a there's a nice photo in there of me and Joe Montana and him signing this. Uh, this one of a kind piece of an artwork. But that's what I'd like to do to prove that, hey, this is authentic. But again, having said that, and the collection that I have, I've sold very very.

Very few pieces. If I do anything with some of the pieces, I put them in charity auctions so that whatever school or whatever can generate some funds from it. The biggest problem I have now is I don't have enough room for everything, so a lot of it's still stored in boxes and so on. And my wife is always saying, boy, I hope nothing happens to you, because I don't know what I'm gonna do with all these things.

But you know, it's just one of those things. And I think the fraud aspect of it is probably growing a little bit, especially since the signatures now is we talked about earlier. You can't read them, you don't know who they are, so scribbling it on ALIGNE it's a lot easier to make that fraud than it is for anything else with a Christine signature. Yeah, that's a great point, you know, to to replicate that.

Like you just said, there's a lot of bean A, Derek Jeter or Mariano Rivera if you've ever seen nose and yeah, they made it ease. That's another reason, Like I wish people took a little more pride or a little more effort in this signature, like you, I think that number is a little high. It doesn't mean it's not an issue or not a problem in the industry. But you know, seventy five percent is three Fords.

I don't think it's three Fords. You know. If you ask me, and it's just off the top of my head, i'd probably say between forty and fifty percent. It's probably a good guess.

Yeah, I don't seventy three out of Ford. Like I own stuff and I've had stuff that I've submitted for authentication, and my percentages are a lot better than that. Out of your collection. What percentage is in person to you just purchasing it without getting the autograph.

I'd probably say about sixty sixty five percent is probably me doing that. Others are as I mentioned to reputable places. I mean there was one and I mentioned this in the book Jeff Road Show Memorabilia and if everything is authenticated by the top places. And some of these are some older pieces of Casey Stengel piece, Clark Griffith piece, who was you know, president and owner of the Washington Senators at the time.

This goes back nineteen forty seven. So some of that that I that I went into to purchase some of the older, older pieces were through the auction, through the auction houses, reputable auction places and authentications. But you know, I spent a lot of time and a lot of money at the shows. Now I shouldn't say a lot of money, because back then they weren't nearly the cost that it is today.

When I looked at a recent show and I saw some of the signatures and some of the I should say, some of the prices for some of the signatures, it just blows my mind. You know, you try to get a Tom Brady today, right, it's minimum six hundred bucks to sign a mini helmet. Now, I would never dream of paying that kind of money. You probably saw a reference a couple of times I paid ninety nine dollars to get a signature, and I thought that was outrageous.

And these are Will you know, Will Chamberlain and some of the other big names. So but yeah, I try to make sure that I'm the one that's doing it and getting the autograph and making it more personal if you will. And I do have a number of pieces that are personalized. And you know, people say, well, geez, that attracts from the value of it because it's made out the loop, and it's like, yeah, I know that.

But to me, as I mentioned earlier, it's artwork. For me, it's a it's something that I can look at and I can admire and people can admire. And if it's made out to me and it happens to be a big name signature and the value is not as great, so be it. That's not why I went into doing this.

I went in as a as a hobby, in with my with my with my son and my daughter and my wife accompanied me at shows, and it was just fun to do. And I didn't do it for profit. Yeah, and here's the other thing with that. It's still the persons signature there, you know, it says to lou Best whatever it said.

Yeah, the signature is still there. We sort of people forget about that part. And like you said, you're not looking at it is just dollar sides, right, It's that that memory of meeting that athlete or person and the exchange you may have had with them. And so it's you know, like you said, you didn't you didn't get into it for for dollar side.

That's that's part of it. That just comes naturally. But that wasn't your motive vation for collecting autographs. And I think I think for people who don't either don't appreciate the autograph or don't do that, sometimes they lose sight of that.

You know, it's just hey, what's that worth? What's that worth? What's that worth? And I get it. It doesn't make them, you know, a bad person. It's just a different a different way of looking at it than than me or you might if if they don't really collect autographs. So you know, it just kind of comes.

It's just kind of par uh for the for the course. You know, one thing about the book you kind of said you know why you you you where the inspiration claim to right, it's just sharing these stories with people and then you're like, hey, I could just share this in print and and and that's the aspect of the book that I appreciated the most, Lou was was the stories that that made these superstar athletes like person real people, right. It makes some human there's get inside. It, and you did.

You did a wonderful job of that. Uh and it really comes out and like you know, I think sometimes we read whether it be a sports book, a hobby book, or just any book. And I know I said this before we went on. You know, I think sometimes the book lacks some of that personal touch and details and interaction, right, it just becomes too almost too formal.

This is the you did the opposite And I think that's what I enjoyed when I read it. Like I said, I read it, I read it. I think two days I was I was good and I gave myself a week And I'm not gonna likely and I've said this before on the show. I'm not a huge reader.

I know how to read and all that. I just a book's got to capture my attention for me to like keep going and finish it. Obviously yours did that. I think a big reason is the way you told those stories and those interactions that you can't get you know.

Uh, you know, a book about Willie Mays is gonna talk more about his on the field stuff or maybe some locker room stuff, but not not first hand accounts, so to speak, and that sort of thing. And so, like you said, it gives a human aspect to these encounters and meetings with people. And uh, I think people need that because I think sometimes we lose sight that these athletes are just like you know, just like you or me. Maybe maybe you can hit the ball farther and hit a little harder, but you know, but at the end of the day, right they go to they put they go to bed on the bed like we do, and in the morning they put their pants on one leg at a time as well.

So I think he did a good job bringing out you know, talk about the process of you know, is this number one? Is this your first book? And if it is, talk about the process. Was it was it easy to do? Was it a little more difficult than when you first said I'm going to do this. I talk about like jumping into this thing. So yeah, so, as I mentioned, you know, it was one of these things where you talk to people, they see the item and you tell the.

Story behind it, and then all of a sudden they said, we should put that down and write that down somewhere. So I started about two years ago, just kind of pen and penciling out, if you will, stories, and then and then I put it away and then I picked it back up, and you know, so it was one of these processes we're going back and forth. The book, as you mentioned, though, John, it's not that long, and I purposely did it. It's about one hundred pages and there's about forty photos in this thing.

But I did it purposely this way so that it's not a long drawn out I mean, I have books here that are three hundred pages, and some of these novels and stuff that you know, I'm still working on it two years later, but reading these right. But here's the book and it's, you know, one hundred pages. It's quick. Chapters are short.

So when I started putting this together, it was more for a personal thing. And then I decided, you know what I'm. Going to I'm going to have it published and I'm going to have it published, not to make money, but to tell the story and have something for my kids and my grandkids to go back and look at and say, hey, look, these are some nice stories behind it. There's more memories when I when I did this, you know it.

It started out with how do I go about getting this thing published? So you know, I went to various publishing self publishing. Companies if you will. You know you're not going to see a big name Penguin Books or somebody like that picked this thing up. But I went to a couple of different ones, and I got comfortable with the publisher that actually did at Outskirts Press, and they were helpful throughout the whole story, throughout the whole process.

But when you read the book, I think one of the things that I think you appreciate, and a number of people that have read and. Appreciate it's me telling the story. So I actually when I finished, when I finished my drafts on it, I had a friend who is a professional writer, if you will, an editor, and I. Said, can you take a look at this? And they got it and they looked at it, and they said, we could edit the heck out of this thing, right if we could make it one hundred percent grammatically correct.

We could make it all this different way, and I said, well, that's not what I want. My whole idea behind writing the book is me telling the story. I want somebody to read this and they don't know me, but just picture my voice telling the story about getting this so and I think when you read it, and when other people read it, you see it, it's not I wouldn't call it professional in a sense of editing and so on and so forth. It's an individual myself telling the story of interacting with this individual and their feedback and the banter going back and forth.

So that's how it all started up and developed. It is my first book. I don't know what the second one, if there's a second one, is what it's going to be, because there's other there's other stories behind these what's in here right now. But I'm I'm very happy with the wave came out.

I think, as you said, and I appreciate your words in terms of you know, you enjoying the book and it's a short read. But the stories behind the story. If you will, of getting the autograph is really what I was trying to try to convey in all of this it's. Time for a quick break.

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Sports Combnation has resons. You know you mentioned professionals. Sometimes books can be too professional. I think it can be to a detriment.

I don't you know. I can only speak for myself, lou I. I like the approach. I like the personal experiences, and you shared it literally as it happened, like I wasn't there obviously with you, but reading the way you you laid it out there, I almost felt like I was.

You know, a number of people have said that. A number of people have said I felt like I was standing next to you. When you've got the autograph to tell the story. I could see you know, you standing there with Willie May's doing this.

I could see you standing there with Brooks Robinson doing this. I can see you with with You're a Steeler fan, Rocky Blyer, you know, a phenomenal individual. And you know, first time I met Rocky Buyer was fifty years ago, and I got a signature then, and then from there it just kind of I'd reconnected with it at another time. And when I decided to put the story of Rocky Blyer in the book, you know, I reached out to him and I said, I'm putting this in here.

He said, love it. Let me want to see it. And I sent him a complimentary copy of the book and he came back. To me another, here's an individual who you know, great athlete, great individual, but emails me back and says, hey, read the chapter, love it, this is perfect.

I really like what you did with it. Now. I don't know how many athletes today's athletes would send an email back to me saying I really appreciate what you did. Right.

So that's the kind of thing and people can relate to that when they see it and they hear it. Say to you, what you just mentioned, John is I can almost see there. I can almost pretend I was there. With you on this so and that's makes sense.

That's a mark of a good storyteller, right, And that's what books now in this case, the story is real, Like I know this fiction and nonfiction, right, but all books tell a story or should and and you just did the way you went about and the way you wrote it is to me. I wouldn't have done it any other way. I can't write a book, but if I was, that would be the way I read it out. I got a joke with you here, you know, did you tell before I did all this nice stuff? And Rocky is a great dude from from all the He does he know you're a Ravens fan.

Oh he does, Yeah, he does, he does. And I think I ended the uh, the story about him by saying, you know, he's a great man even though he's a steeler. Yeah, I know. He knew it and he got he got a good kick out of the gotta laugh that one.

Yeah, Yeah, he's uh. And man, if if you know go out and get this book, uh to Collective Dream. But if you don't know about Rocky buyer and I have a little shameless plug here too. Just talk about perseverance, right with that, Uh, gentleman went through just to get back on on the football field, and he was I wouldn't call him, I did you agree with this? I wouldn't call him a superstar.

He was a very good player, but he just loved the game and loved his teammates and wanted to do that again and knew that even that window would be short under normal circumstances, but wanted to get the most. Out of that. He's one of the most you know, maybe not the the the greatest Steeler, but maybe one of the most beloved uh Steelers for for all those reasons and then some and then even after career two, just a very motivational guy that's like, Okay, we can do this, don't give up. And uh you know, anytime there's a Steeler function or an event, he's usually right there as he should be.

And uh, uh you know, kind of a great guy. And and I think him doing that just epitomizes the kind of person and who said, listen, Steelers and Ravens can can get along. You know, look, we're doing an interview in your you're a Ravens fan and uh so, but uh now that that's that's great. You mentioned a part two might we see or a volume two? I should say, might we see? I haven't.

I haven't done anything with it yet. As I look around my my room and my items, I got to figure out which ones are going to be what stories are going to connect right with with people. So that's kind of where I'm at right now. It's it's it's the thought process right now of figuring out who could who could possibly be next in the book.

So we'll have to we'll have to wait and see. There you go. That's called a tease. But let's someone for someone who enjoyed this book the way I did, I'd love to see, you know, learn new stories and new experiences that uh that you had.

I think it's important. I think I think it's important, even not so much for me, who who is old enough to know about some of these guys, but even to a younger set Lou that doesn't know them in the same way that me or you do. That it's an educational aspect to it too, to learn more about what this person did and and their backgrounds that came from and you know, and in many cases a lot of these athletes were born with silver spoons in their mouth. They had to work, uh and earn everything they got.

And I think it's important to to to shine a little light on that side of thing. You know. Do you do you attend? Is it going to the national something you try to do each year? You know, it's been a few years since I've been. I would like to come to this.

The next one, I think I believe the next one is in Chicago or Rosemont. I remember when it was in my backyard in Baltimore. You know, I spent four days there, so so it was much easier to get to. But uh, yeah, I do like that.

And and and interacting not just with the signers, if you will, but the dealers, having conversations with the dealers. They had tremendous stories. Some of these are some of the car dealers and autograph dealers. They have some tremendous stories.

And listen, listen, I'm not a publisher. Or there's an idea maybe for a book too right? Is some you can intermingle others, some of these big time dealers their stories along with yours, and and that could be the volume too right, and take a little bit bigger book and that's okay, you know there you go, well, go ahead. Go ah, No, that's that's a great idea. I was thinking that, you know, along those lines as well, is that you know, I can tell my story, but you know, somebody else's story might also, you know, if I.

Can interwead that or intertwined that with some of my my stories, it might make it maybe a little more interesting. Who knows, you know, is there you know as card collectors, right, we all like, Hey, I'm chasing this car, this is Mike rail card or this is one thing that saluted me up to this point, I'm trying to get it. Do you have something that fits your autographic? Is there an autograph that you have yet to or peace maybe even maybe even like, is there a specific thing that you have yet to acquire that's on your list to obtain? Now? Not really? I mean I helped out a friend who had a ball signed by Lou Garrig and Babe Ruth and they wanted to sell it. They needed to sell it, if you will, and I helped facilitate that through an auction house for them.

Looking back, I probably should have just bought the ball myself. And I also did the same thing on a fifty five and fifty six card set and which also had some stark what I call star cards, and one of them was a Mickey Mantle Rookie. Now you know that was it graded out at about two. So it wasn't it wasn't a million dollar card, right or whatever, but you know, it was a few it was.

It was. Decent, very good. But it was one of these things where the individual was looking to cash you in on it and knew that I knew a little bit about these things, and they brought it to me, and through various contacts, I was able to bring for her some some decent dollars and she appreciated that, and the individual who ended up buying it appreciated it. Uh, And again I felt good about doing it.

Again, probably I probably should have kept it in report it myself, but it's just one of those things where would I'd like to have those items, yes, but knowing that I was helping somebody else who could use the money. A little bit more, it all it all worked out for me and worked out for them. Yeah. Well, listen, I appreciate you coming on sharing some of this insight in your stories.

Great book than Collective Dream anyone out there, Uh there there is right there on video. Great. Uh. I love the style, uh you know, sharing those those personal, firsthand experiences.

I think some other writers could kind of take a page out of out of your approach, Lou, and I think it makes for a better read, a better book, and hopefully we get to do it again with a volume too, or yeah, you know, whatever direction you go, And I always give the guests kind of the final word where people can go and get the book, find the book, social media website, whatever you want to put out there for folks to see what you did and what you're doing. Okay, yeah, I mean it's It's available both in published as well as the ebook on Amazon. It's available on Barnes and Noble and other Walmart book sites and so on. You can get it also directly from the publisher itself, Outskirts Press so www dot Outskirtspress dot com slash collective dream.

My contact information is in there. And if anyone does buy it, and whether you enjoy it or don't enjoy it, and you want to drop me a line, I will personally respond back. But again, I took a lot of time, a lot of pride in putting this together. So I hope, I hope you people enjoy it John as much as you did.

And I appreciate you having me on to talk about the book and the experience behind it all. Yeah, and I think they will. Yeah. I mean, you know, unless you're like an extreme book, I think you you will enjoy the book.

I won't see how you you couldn't. And uh, you know, I know you thank me, but thank you for for coming on. I know I made you wait a little bit too, just with the way the schedule was going, so no problem. But now thank you and listen, we'll have you back.

You know. There's some things, uh, we can we can even touch on even even more we can. We can do this again. Yeah, if you want to go into some detail on some of the individual chapters.

We can do that as well. Yeah. Thanks continued success with the book in future books too, So thank you. I appreciate it.

Awesome having Lou on. And I think one thing we can learn from lou right, is I also I always talk about pivoting from your with your collection. Right, you want to try something different, or maybe you don't enjoy something in the same manner you once did, you can go in a different direction. And you know he's a card collector, and you know I decided he's going to go heavy onto the autograph side of the hobby.

Nothing wrong with that, right, And again, you're the CEO of your own hobby company. So whatever direction you want to take you and your company, that's up to you. And that's the beauty, that's that's the fun of the hobby. Even myself, we've been in this forty something years.

Even in the last four to five years, I've started to collect different things or add on to what I already collect, and that's the fun of it. So there you go. All right, we're gonna hear from our Hobby is the People announced for the week, some closing thoughts and wrap up this week's episode. Time for our Hobby is the People Announcer of the week.

What up, everybody, it's your boy Cousin. I's the People's male man, and along with Cousin Tony the Architect, we are Cousins Collectible. Make sure to check us out on the Cousins Collectibles podcast as well as on Instagram a Cousin's underscore collectible. Before we get out of here, we wanted to remind you of a couple things.

First and foremost, remember the Hobby is the people, and as always, keep focused, keep positive, and keep collecting. If you'd like to be the Hobby is the People announcer of the week. To a one four mp three file and send it to Sportscott Nation DC at gmail dot com. Hobby Hotline is the Hobby's only live, interactive calling showing some of your favorite hobby personalities every Saturday eleven am Eastern eight am Pacific to discuss the hottest hobby topics.

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