Donald Trump Sells Out of His Own Signature at $13 a Copy

Donald Trump has been selling his signature for $13 a pop, and he wanted everyone to know it.

The messages have showed up like clockwork on his Facebook and Twitter accounts. “I am signing copies of my book CRIPPLED AMERICA. Order yours now—makes a great holiday gift!” runs the standard copy, which is followed by a link.

Rather than link to an online bookstore, like Amazon, which currently sells the book for $15, the link Trump goes to a Tennessee-based bookseller, which is marketing the book for $28, or $13 more than the listed cover price. The bonus: Along with Trump’s new book, buyers are promised a “numbered, custom bookplate” with Trump’s signature on it, along with a certificate of authenticity.

That puts the value of Trump’s signature at $13, a price that may have been set far too low. As of Friday, after weeks of Trump’s social media promotion, the bookseller, Premiere Collectables, announced that it was no longer taking new orders. “Due to unprecedented demand for signed copies of Crippled America, we have reached the limit of books that Mr. Trump will be able to sign within the next three weeks, and have temporarily suspended sales,” the website now reads.

Trump began marketing his signed books in early December, when he participated in a live-streamed book-signing event promoting the offer. During the Dec. 3 event, Trump signed approximately two dozen books every ten minutes, stopping often for interview questions with conservative radio host Mike Slater. “We’ll have them to you by Christmas,” Trump told his online audience while signing copies of Crippled America. “It’s a very positive book.” (Earlier this week, the website started alerting people that their orders may not be filled by Christmas.)

“You know he’s doing it, there’s no trick,” said Slater during the live signing, confirming Trump’s signature was real. “He’s doing it right here, right now.”

At one point in the interview, Slater told Trump about a hostile question that had recently been asked of Hillary Clinton at a campaign event. “Oh, that’s brutal,” Trump said. “That’s Trumpian.”

Trump has tweeted about the signed copies of his book at least 15 times since Nov. 30. A Trump Facebook post on Dec. 9 advertising the book had 840 shares and nearly 14,000 likes. He has said the profit from his book will go to charity.

Premiere Collectibles hosted the live signing with Trump, which it does not appear to have done with other authors. The company did not respond to calls for comment on the business arrangement with Trump.

During the interview, Trump casually compared the victims in the deadly Paris attacks “sitting ducks.”

“We’re going to save the Second Amendment,” said Trump. “You look at what went on Paris where [they have] one of the toughest gun laws in the world. You cant have a gun. These various places where they did the shooting—they were like sitting ducks. Nobody had a gun.”

“‘Come on over here,’” continued Trump, making his fingers into a gun and pretending to be one of the shooters in the attack that left 130 people dead. “Boom. ‘Come on over here.’ Boom. Just one after another like that. If some people had guns, it would have been a whole different story.”

Trump also talked about other merchandise he has been selling. “We sell the hats on donaldjtrump.com,” said Trump at the end of the book-signing. “The hats are going through the roof. You can’t get them. It’s been an amazing experience.”

Premiere Collectibles also sells autographed copies of other presidential candidates’ biographies or memoirs including Hillary Clinton’s Hard Choices ($250), Sen. Ted Cruz’s A Time for Truth ($28) and Sen. Rand Paul’s Taking a Stand ($40). As of Friday, the Clinton and Paul books were still available. The Cruz book, however, was also sold out.