Elon senior turns sports memorabilia hobby into autograph business

Weekend trips across the country and a growing list of big-name athletes have turned Shaan Gandhi’s sports memorabilia hobby into a real business while he was still finishing his degree at Elon University. Through his company, SAGAutographs, Gandhi has moved from collecting signed items himself to coordinating autograph signings for fans and collectors at a scale that reaches far beyond Alamance County.

Gandhi’s model is straightforward but ambitious: he serves as a middleman between fans who want items signed and athletes willing to do the signing. That niche has put him in business with some of the biggest names in sports memorabilia, including Barry Sanders, Larry Bird, Allen Iverson and Stephen Curry. For a student based in Elon, the operation has required more than enthusiasm for collectibles. It has meant travel, scheduling, relationship-building and the kind of coordination that usually sits closer to a small agency than a campus hobby.

What makes Gandhi’s work notable locally is not just the celebrity names attached to it, but the way it has been built alongside his college life. He has balanced classes, friendships and internships while also managing the logistics of autograph events and the travel that comes with them. That combination shows how a student entrepreneur in Elon can use the college years to develop a business with national reach, not just a side project for extra spending money.

For Alamance County, Gandhi’s business offers a practical test case for whether the area can support young founders before graduation and keep them after they earn their degrees. Elon University gives him the campus base, but the business itself depends on the ability to connect collectors, athletes and signed merchandise buyers across the country. In that sense, SAGAutographs reflects a broader economic lesson: local talent does not have to wait for a corporate job or a distant market to start building something of value.

As Gandhi continues to grow the company, his path suggests that entrepreneurship in Elon can be more than classroom theory. It can mean real revenue, real travel and real national connections built from a student’s idea, one signing at a time.