PastPros: rent seeking middleman?

[doughouse]

I just recently started collecting TTM baseball autographs, and I've found the TTM Manager here to be an incredibly fantastic resource.

One thing I've noticed, though, is that I'll see players who for a long time signed TTM autographs for free or for a small fee ($5, $10, etc.) hit a point where they suddenly stop and start returning mail with a note to go through PastPros, where the fees jump to $15, $20, $25. The process remains basically the same, though: you mail your card and a SASE to the player and they send it back to you with a signature, only now you also need to include a copy of your receipt that shows you paid PastPros instead of slipping a five dollar bill into the envelope.

Is there any benefit to the player in all this? They're still signing cards, but now instead of getting cash they get the money from PastPros after, I assume, PastPros takes a cut for their "service." So why do former athletes do this? Is PastPros providing any value on their end? Because as far as I can tell they're certainly not providing any on ours. It just seems they've inserted themselves into the middle of the process and pocket a percentage. I have no problem sending a few bucks to a former player for their trouble, but I'm not interested in giving a single cent to a rent-seeking middleman.

[arfmax]

I believe that players sign with Past Pros to reduce the amount of unsolicited autograph requests that they get. Past Pros also handles the money, so they don't get random personal checks, cash, cashier's checks, money orders, etc, and the player probably has a better method of tracking income for tax purposes. I am assuming that it cuts down on some of the volume of requests, because some "collectors" will mail out a request to any player who signs, not necessarily a favorite player, but the same person may not want to pay for it. There is almost no benefit to the collector, the only benefit is if you pay for it through Past Pros, you are pretty much guaranteed that you will get the autograph back, instead of sending cash through the mail, and never getting anything back. If you don't get anything back, you can complain to Past Pros, and they will probably make it right.

Basically, someone found a new way to make money (like autograph authenticity or card grading) and Past Pros has been going for awhile. I don't like it either, but I also don't like having to pay exorbitant autograph prices at shows, where the money is going to a promoter or company, not the athlete.