At the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago this summer, a collector walked up to the Memory Lane booth and asked how many autographed Taylor Swift CD insert cards were for sale.
“A lot,” dealer Dan Wulkan responded in a brutally honest way. “They are not rare.”
The collector still walked away with three slabbed Swift autographs.
“It doesn’t really matter how (many) there are,” Wulkan said. “If she signed 500,000, it still wouldn’t be enough for all her fans.”
As Swift releases her 12th studio album “Life of a Showgirl,” she is, without a doubt, the most popular artist in America and among the world's most famous people.
On the heels of her Eras Tour, she is now worth $1.6 billion, according to Forbes, and her engagement to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has made her more relevant, if that’s even possible.
And still, despite signing so many autographs — Swift has sold autographed albums as part of her marketing strategy — the appetite hasn’t be satiated.
Every day on eBay, 20-40 Swift autographs are sold in the $125-$200 range.
“For the past couple of years, Taylor Swift consistently held the title of the most authenticated signature at JSA,” said Jimmy Spence, whose autograph authentication company has a whopping 25,301 Swift signatures in its historical database. “The sheer volume of signed CDs, covers and flats created for her presales was unprecedented.”
Collector Patrick Ryan was very public about his Taylor Swift flips. He bought roughly 400 signed “Folklore” albums for $50 each from flippers who originally purchased them on her website for $20.
After getting them authenticated and slabbed, Ryan turned around and sold them for $300 an auto. All in all, he says he made four times what he spent.
“I think her stuff is still very cheap relative to her popularity,” Ryan said. “I do think we will look back in 10 years and find it laughable that you could go on eBay and buy hundreds of her signatures for $150 in 2025, let alone $50 in 2020.”
Kevin Keating, the chief autograph authenticator at PSA, also says volume is brisk, but “early signed items pre-dating her fame are very rare and probably undervalued.”
Last December, a handwritten piece of paper with lyrics from her single “Tim McGraw” signed by the star and writer Liz Rose, sold at Goldin Auctions for a whopping $87,840.
What was astounding about the price is the piece wasn’t authenticated as originally written in 2006, when she recorded the song; it was simply the lyrics in her hand with no date attached.
The search for early tickets to Swift concerts has also become commonplace, though many ticket collectors have found it to be a difficult quest.
PSA has only graded 14 total tickets from before 2009. The earliest is a signed $12 ticket from Dec. 10, 2006, to see Swift at the Brandin Iron Saloon in San Bernadino, Calif., three days before she turned 17.
According to an account from the local newspaper, she stood at the door and took pictures and autographs until all requests were satisfied.
Wulkan, who estimates he sold 80 Swift autographs at The National, says he can start to see the huge supply of Swift autographs slowly drying out.
The signed albums for purchase are winding up more in the hands of the fans after her handlers solved the bot programs written by autograph hounds. That’s combined with the fact the superstar has become virtually impossible to land for an in-person autograph.
“There was someone out there who was offering a meet and greet, that came with autographs for $250,000,” Wulkan said. “And I don’t think that offer even got to her.”
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectibles market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.