sly - you're making too much sense
we stopped doing fan signs years ago because the time investment vs what we saw in return didnt make sense. we do them, but only for the biggest of the big, that way it also makes them special. at a minimum 90% of them will never be seen, maybe more. for the most part, i would imagine its surfers showing their buddies and what not. also, its pretty easy to set up an auto one like melissafansigns.com.
but hey, if people volunteer to do them, people will volunteer to take them.