Book It, Buzz: Landing Coach Prime ink for next to nothing

For years now, autographed books coming direct from the publishers -- or direct from the authors themselves -- have been an affordable way to collect ink from notable names in all realms of pop culture.

It's not a perfect system with stamped autos, fakes and autopens sometimes in the mix -- a problem for publishers to catch as they are not authenticators -- but thanks to dedicated collectors on the Blowout Cards Forum and elsewhere, those problems often get caught and fixed ... or at least become well-known enough to avoid if it's an issue that goes uncorrected.

Getting ink in-person is always best -- book tours still happen, of course -- but landing autographed editions from publishers, online sellers or celebs themselves via their websites or other appearances are common.

Our latest subject and autograph in this ongoing series? Former MLB and legendary NFL player turned college football coach Deion Sanders.

THE RUNDOWN ... 
The Book: Elevate and Dominate: 21 Ways To Win On And Off The Field
The Authors: Deion Sanders
The Specs: released by Gallery/13A on March 12, 2024 (288 pages)
The Price: $14.99 ($29.99 cover price)
The Spot: barnesandnoble.com (sale is over)

Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This is the kind of book that I actually don't put that much stock in -- don't care about celeb motivation books and I only opened the cover to see that the ink was there -- but this was, hands down, the absolute cheapest way to add an autograph of the Pro Football Hall of Famer, former MLB player and now college football coach and NIL icon, Coach Prime. The sale was a slasher deal during the summer and these are now sold out -- I'd still watch big chain's sites around Black Friday for stuff like this -- but I suspect there will be copies around elsewhere. This book also covers something for him in the here and now rather than in the Neon Deion days.

Why this item: Sanders has signed plenty of autographed cards though the years but since he's a spark plug for driving attention they're not often found affordably -- or at least low enough that I'd casually grab one -- and thanks to years of ink and parallels there are actually more than 1,300 different choices out there. Granted, many of those are likely lower-volume cards, too, but I'll take this bigger and directly signed auto for about the price of some packs.

Chase ink on cards: As I mentioned above there are plenty of autos to be found, but the cheapest on one site where I buy is $100. That's not worth it for my collecting tastes.

The Bottom Line: A big name added to the stash on the cheap works for me.

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Follow Buzz on Twitter @BlowoutBuzz or send email to BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com. 

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