Masako Nozawa's $3000 USD Autographs

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

This is just something that I find fascinating. Masako Nozawa is scheduled to make an appearance at the "Nostalgia Con" in Anaheim in June, and this "FGS autograph" company was selling off a limited number of tickets (90 to be exact) to get a piece of official Dragon Ball merch signed by her. I was curious about this so I checked and saw the $3000 USD price tag and my jaw dropped. https://fgsautographs.com/products/masa ... 91ae&_ss=r
I understand that she's made very few appearances for U.S. events, with only 3 being conventions, if this site is to be believed (https://animecons.com/guests/bio/4662/masako-nozawa). And, her autograph is fairly uncommon in the U.S. from what I can tell, but do you think that it's really worth $3000? Is this just late stage capitalism at its finest? Is her career and legacy as the only Japanese voice of Goku that high of a value?
I understand supply and demand, and that value is decided by the buyers ultimately (the supply sold out in under 2 days), but the cost still seems ludicrous to me. The official Instagram was also hyping up how "you're owning a piece of history" and how "she's unlikely to ever come to a US con again" or "unlikely to sign autographs ever again", and really hinting at her age without mentioning it directly, and it all felt a little bit gross to me.

[Vegeta th3 4th]

Nozawa is scheduled to make an appearance at the "Nostalgia Con", and this "FGS autograph" company was selling off a limited number of tickets to get a piece of official Dragon Ball merch signed by her. I checked and saw the $3000 USD price tag and my jaw dropped. Is this just late stage capitalism at its finest?

Capitalism is basically built on "less for more". People and companies alike will try to get as much $$$ as possible from people while providing as little as possible. Unfortunately, there are countless people around the world who are willing to pay an arm and a leg for the bare minimum. This is not late stage capitalism; this is capitalism in its purist form; it was always meant to be this way. The sad thing is, the biggest supporters of unregulated capitalism are the ones who get hurt the most by it, as we're seeing in the United States right now.

[Jord]

At this point it's more of an investment. Let's say you let her autograph the first volume of the manga and have proof and such. Prices will skyrocket once she dies.

It it fair of morally okay? Nope.
This is how it works however. And that's what the company is betting on.

It works, since it's already sold out.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Yeah, it's disgusting using an actor's advanced age to say "get it now or she could die and you'll regret it".

I don't even think Masako Nozawa would condone it, as she seems like such a sweet lady from all the interviews I've seen.

I was at a convention last year where Veronica Taylor was the guest of honour. People could pay for either an autographed item or a photo with her. I opted for the latter but as she saw I was holding a Pokémon Blu-Ray she was kind enough to just sign it too.

I know conventions are an important source of income for these people but admire actors like that who go out of their way to be kind to fans and don't like seeing them be taken advantage of.

[sangofe]

I wonder if Nozawa herself is aware of the price her autograph is being sold for.

[Jord]

I wonder if Nozawa herself is aware of the price her autograph is being sold for.

In 99% of the cases, the guests know, but most won't publicly comment on it.
That being said, $3,000 is a lot. The most expensive autographs I know are from Mark Hamill. Michael J Fox and some of the Avengers' cast but even those don't even hit the $400 mark, even though they're worldwide far "bigger" names than Nozawa.

[JulieYBM]

Why buy an autograph when you can pay your rent for, like, a month?

[Yuji]

Why buy an autograph when you can pay your rent for, like, a month?

That's how much rent costs in the US?

[JulieYBM]

Why buy an autograph when you can pay your rent for, like, a month?

That's how much rent costs in the US?

It's between $1,500 and $2,000 a month, so depending upon where you live you might be able to eek out two months? But even then, like, that's still a shit ton of money to drop.

[Xeogran]

Wishing Nozawa-san 120 years of life

[sangofe]

Why buy an autograph when you can pay your rent for, like, a month?

That's how much rent costs in the US?

It's between $1,500 and $2,000 a month, so depending upon where you live you might be able to eek out two months? But even then, like, that's still a shit ton of money to drop.

Really? For how big and what's included?

[JulieYBM]

That's how much rent costs in the US?

It's between $1,500 and $2,000 a month, so depending upon where you live you might be able to eek out two months? But even then, like, that's still a shit ton of money to drop.

Really? For how big and what's included?

The lower-end is usually just a single bedroom, refridgerator, sink, and abathroom but often without washer/dryer. Apartments are also often below a thousand square feet, with theft either of cars or break-ins to the apartment regular.

The US sucks lol

[MasenkoHA]

Why buy an autograph when you can pay your rent for, like, a month?

That's how much rent costs in the US?

It's regional based an apartment in like a fly over state is going to be significantly cheaper than an apartment in a coastal state and smaller towns are going to have cheaper places than major metropolitan. My rent is like $550 a month for a studio

Though keep in mind the same areas that have cheaper rent also have jobs that pay way less money

[eledoremassis02]

beyond not worth it, as much as I'd love to get her autograph. Autograph prices have gotten ridiculous over the last 10 years. People I've gotten signed 5 years ago for $70 are $800+ now. Heck, I remember when anime convention autographs were free!

Sadly tho, people are willing to pay for it and no doubt scalpers are in there as well

[FinalForumPodcast]

Oof. I don't like this...at all.

I'm not HUGE on the paying for autographs thing in general, but I also usually kinda get it:
By and large, on-camera talent (and especially behind-the-mic-talent) isn't paid as well as we'd all like to THINK. They may make more than us, but their benefits and income are less stable. Signing a bunch of autographs at a con and clearing a slew of extra cash is a good way to stabilize their lives because the mega-conglomerate evil corporations who employ them sure as hell won't. I'd rather hand $50 to Bruce Campbell for instance, and get to tell him "Hey. Thanks for all the fun I've had watching you over the years," than $30 to Amazon for the newest Evil Dead II re-re-re-re-release and hope that a third of a cent trickles down to him.

But $3,000 is some "catering only to the wealthy" crap that I find repugnant. The barriers to fandom get more and more expensive, and pretty soon, those of us who don't want to shell out thousands to enjoy the things we like will only have bathroom time at work to look forward to.

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

Oof. I don't like this...at all.

I'm not HUGE on the paying for autographs thing in general, but I also usually kinda get it:
By and large, on-camera talent (and especially behind-the-mic-talent) isn't paid as well as we'd all like to THINK. They may make more than us, but their benefits and income are less stable. Signing a bunch of autographs at a con and clearing a slew of extra cash is a good way to stabilize their lives because the mega-conglomerate evil corporations who employ them sure as hell won't. I'd rather hand $50 to Bruce Campbell for instance, and get to tell him "Hey. Thanks for all the fun I've had watching you over the years," than $30 to Amazon for the newest Evil Dead II re-re-re-re-release and hope that a third of a cent trickles down to him.

But $3,000 is some "catering only to the wealthy" crap that I find repugnant. The barriers to fandom get more and more expensive, and pretty soon, those of us who don't want to shell out thousands to enjoy the things we like will only have bathroom time at work to look forward to.

It feels exploitative of both the fans and Nozawa. I've never payed for someone's autograph, and I don't go to cons in general. But the announcement for Nozawa's autograph got my attention because I figured "it's a once in a lifetime opportunity". After I saw the price I dipped out. I have a lot of admiration for Masako Nozawa, but I'm not paying that much for a signature. And I'd feel a scumbag if I bought something from an old person only to go, "when they die I'll make triple what I paid!"

[FinalForumPodcast]

Oof. I don't like this...at all.

I'm not HUGE on the paying for autographs thing in general, but I also usually kinda get it:
By and large, on-camera talent (and especially behind-the-mic-talent) isn't paid as well as we'd all like to THINK. They may make more than us, but their benefits and income are less stable. Signing a bunch of autographs at a con and clearing a slew of extra cash is a good way to stabilize their lives because the mega-conglomerate evil corporations who employ them sure as hell won't. I'd rather hand $50 to Bruce Campbell for instance, and get to tell him "Hey. Thanks for all the fun I've had watching you over the years," than $30 to Amazon for the newest Evil Dead II re-re-re-re-release and hope that a third of a cent trickles down to him.

But $3,000 is some "catering only to the wealthy" crap that I find repugnant. The barriers to fandom get more and more expensive, and pretty soon, those of us who don't want to shell out thousands to enjoy the things we like will only have bathroom time at work to look forward to.

It feels exploitative of both the fans and Nozawa. I've never payed for someone's autograph, and I don't go to cons in general. But the announcement for Nozawa's autograph got my attention because I figured "it's a once in a lifetime opportunity". After I saw the price I dipped out. I have a lot of admiration for Masako Nozawa, but I'm not paying that much for a signature. And I'd feel a scumbag if I bought something from an old person only to go, "when they die I'll make triple what I paid!"

Agreed.

I've paid for some autographs, but not a lot. I go to cons often to present panels, and if there's someone REALLY cool there, OR I happen to start talking to someone and they are so cool that ultimately, I figure "You know what? They've spent half an hour talking to me for nothing, I should get...something" then I get an autograph.

I get autographs because I really like the person's work, or because they wind up being so nice that I want a memento of the time I talked to them for an hour...not to hold onto it for a few years and hope it appreciates in value so I can sell it for more.

[JulieYBM]

The actors definitely are treating these cons as gigs for their time, which makes sense. They're working—performing for their audiences, so I get wanting compensation for it.

$3,000 is just dumb as hell and obviously just something for creating artificial scarcity, which, considering her age, I understand...but also, literally nobody should bother spending this much money if they're working-class.

[fadeddreams5]

I would absolutely pay this much if it was Toriyama's autograph, but a voice actress from another country? I'll take Sean Schemmel's instead for a fraction of that. lol.

[Jord]

I believe Horikawa has appeared at US events. How much does/did he (or other Japanese voice actors) ask for autographs?
Is it custom to ask money for autographs in Japan or is this a Western thing?