Hobby Musings: Astros Seeing Spike In Memorabilia After World Series Win – Last week, I had the chance to catch up with Tristar’s Jeff Rosenberg right before the Astros’ World Series victory over the Dodgers. What had already been a nice spike in popularity for Houston’s memorabilia has only continued to increase. Speaking with Rosenberg again, it became clear just how popular this year’s title team is for memorabilia. Elaborating further, he said: “I anticipated we would get a lot of demand, but I think it’s been even more than I originally thought. We’ve done at least 12 signings with current players since last Wednesday, and it’s been crazy in terms of the amount of requests we’ve been receiving.”
While Tristar has a currently ever-changing inventory of Astros World Series items, the initial demand has continued to center around World Series baseballs signed by members of the team. This is especially true of the baseballs carrying special inscriptions. While there have been some typical inscriptions, Rosenberg revealed some of the team’s players have added custom inscriptions to their signatures. Phrases like “Houston Strong” and “Earned History” have been some of the additional ink to adorn the baseballs.
Players like Josh Reddick, who has become known for his love of professional wrestler Ric Flair’s “Woo” chant has inscribed some of his baseballs with “Wooston, we have a championship.” Astros pitcher Chris Devenski, who has the nickname Devo, also inscribed some of his baseballs with the phrase “Whip It” in honor of the band’s hit song. Rosenberg summed up the demand for World Series baseballs by saying, “So many collectors just want a baseball signed by everyone on the team, and the manager A.J. Hinch”
The Astros’ well-known players like Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and Dallas Keuchel have been getting a lot of demand for their signed items. However, they aren’t the only ones seeing a big spike. Rosenberg noted that Alex Bregman in particular has been getting a tremendous amount of demand from collectors. Thanks in large part to a successful postseason, the Astros infielder has seen his popularity and notoriety increased significantly among fans and collectors alike.
As for World Series MVP George Springer, his memorabilia demand has also spiked considerably. According to Rosenberg, Springer’s demand has always been fairly solid, but it’s now through the roof since he’s been named MVP. He also went as far as saying Springer has raised his memorabilia profile the most with Bregman right behind him.
Houston’s coaching staff, including manager A.J.Hinch, are in demand for signed World Series items. Rosenberg said he can’t fully anticipate what the demand for the coaching staff will be as they haven’t done signings with them yet. That being said, the first signing Tristar did with Hinch yielded good results, so Rosenberg can see the demand being there for the other coaches as well.
Even some of the Astros’ past stars like Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio and Nolan Ryan have been signing 2017 World Series memorabilia. Like the current team members, Bagwell et al have added some of the inscriptions like “Houston Strong” to World Series baseballs. Asking if it was odd to have the past legends sign 2017 World Series memorabilia, Rosenberg replied: “not at all”. According to him, people still love getting the cornerstone franchise guys on current World Series baseballs. Even though they weren’t on the current roster, Rosenberg explained how they’re still considered a part of the team and the Houston community.
For now, Tristar has been involved in phase 1 of rolling out the Astros’ autographed memorabilia. That includes getting typical items like baseballs, bats and photos signed. Once public and private signings with the players start happening, Tristar anticipates some more unique and custom items being unveiled for signatures by fans. Rosenberg said this is something he is looking forward to as he always loves seeing the creative items fans come up with to be signed.
While Tristar hasn’t announced any public or private signing information yet, Rosenberg said the company is planning to start doing so around the beginning of December. One of the big upcoming events will be the February show in Houston, where a primary objective will be to bring players from this year’s title team to come out and meet the fans looking to continue celebrating the Astros’ first title.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for an autographed item for the Astros fan in your life, you can check out Tristar’s website, http://www.tristarproductions.com/, to see what they currently have in stock.
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