Steiner: What's Good For Us is Bad For Regular Fans

Steiner recently announce an exclusive deal with pitching ace Curt Schilling. I love how the spinmeisters at Steiner announce this like it's a good thing for the fans! Yup, now the loyal fans can be assured they'll have to bend over and pay nosebleed prices for signed items. Further, you can now be assured that Steiner will keep him on a tight leash, so need to worry that Schilling might do a local card show near you and sign for reasonable prices! Steiner also means that sanely priced items like signed 8x10s (e.g., items under $100 that regular folks can afford) are most likely out of the question. Not too worry however, a few dozen [well-connected kids] will get a free clinic at Fenway and they'll make some charitable donations... so that should make you feel better about skipping that mortgage payment to buy a signed bat.

Highly-paid executives, Stephen King, Hotel Heiresses and Robber Barons rejoice -- Steiner will have a wide selection of signed bats, game equipment and framed 16x20s starting at what regular folks pay for their monthly car payment!

Here is the release from eSCD.

SCHILLING SIGNS EXCLUSIVE DEAL WITH STEINER
Steiner Sports Marketing has signed an exclusive deal with Red Sox pitching ace Curt Schilling for autographed memorabilia. The contract also gives Steiner exclusive rights for Schilling's signature on trading cards, meaning the company will coordinate all of the Red Sox pitcher's autograph deals with the various baseball card manufacturers.

"This (deal) will help us to penetrate the New England markets," said Steiner Sports CEO Brandon Steiner. "When you think of Curt Schilling the word "superstar" comes to mind, and we are proud to be able to welcome Curt to the Steiner family.

Schilling has already signed individual and team-signed items for Steiner for products relating to the Red Sox World Series championship. In addition to the autograph element of the program, Schilling will host a skills clinic for youngsters at Fenway Park that will be sponsored by Steiner. Meanwhile, Steiner has agreed to make a donation for every win Schilling records in 2005 to the SHADE Foundation, a charitable organization run by Schilling and his wife to help prevent skin cancer in children.

"I look forward to working with the people at Steiner, who particularly impressed me with their willingness to work with me on my commitment to charity," said Schilling. Katie Leighton, Schilling's public relations and marketing director, said the pitcher has been concerned for some time with the number of non-authentic items in the marketplace. "We have been looking for an exclusive deal that would enable fans to know that they have a source through which they can acquire authentic Curt Schilling memorabilia," Leighton said.