What’s the value of a tattered scrap of cardboard with “Homeless Need Help” scrawled on it?

The going price in St. Paul this week was $10 to $20 if you happened to meet Willie Baronet.

For the past 21 years, Baronet, an artist and a Southern Methodist University advertising professor from Dallas, has been buying the cardboard signs used by homeless people to ask for money. He’s bought hundreds of them, and he uses them in art exhibits and performances about homelessness and the concept of home.

And now, he’s on a monthlong cross-country shopping trip, a mission to drive through 24 U.S. cities from Seattle to New York buying signs.

The project is being funded with $48,000 raised at the Indiegogo crowd source funding site. The end result will be art installations and exhibits, a documentary film and a book with the aim of raising awareness about homelessness and providing information and resources to people who want to help.

700 SIGNS AND COUNTING

On Tuesday, in his 11th city, 14th day, 134th sign and 4,431st mile of his road trip, Baronet climbed out of a rented Dodge Avenger equipped with GoPro cameras near the Dorothy Day Center in downtown St. Paul to scout sign-purchasing locations and meet with Margaret Kelly, a Lutheran pastor who is setting up a new congregation aimed at serving the homeless, near homeless and people in poverty.

Baronet, 54, said he bought his first sign in response to the guilt, discomfort and indecision he felt when seeing a person on the street with a sign asking for money.

“Once I started, it was hard to stop,” he said. He estimates he’s bought about 700 signs, paying about $4 to $40 each.

He said he hopes the art he produces will result in “more awareness and compassion in general.”

“I would love it for people to acknowledge people as human beings,” he said.

“There is a part of me that wants to make people uncomfortable, too,” he said. “I’m trying to put it in a context where they’re less likely to ignore the signs.”

Cardboard signs carried by homeless can be a form of marketing and heartfelt personal expression, according to Baronet, a former ad designer.

He said there are memes in the signs that have spread across the country like variations on the “Will work for food” or “Will work for beer” sentiment.

There are humorous signs: “Family kidnapped by ninjas. Need money for karate lessons,” “Vibrator out of batteries. Help. Urgent.”

And desperate signs: “Hungry,” “Embarrassed mother with three kids. Don’t want to be on the street.”

Baronet said he’s bought signs from pregnant women and veterans. Some signs have elaborate drawings or religious photos. Some are worn and almost unreadable from long use.

“I’ve got signs people have been holding for 15 years,” he said.

“Some of the signs I find most compelling are ones that are just scrawled and look like the emotion and just the pain is in the letters,” he said.

But some signs are wordless.

“One of the signs was just an Indian headdress with a bear claw. Didn’t have a single word on it,” he said. Another person Baronet encountered asked for money by simply holding up a Schlitz malt liquor carton.

Standing on the road with a cardboard sign asking for money is called “signing” or flying a sign, according to those who do it.

‘WILL YOU SELL ME YOUR SIGN?’

This week, when Baronet saw a signer on the Interstate 94 exit ramp at Snelling Avenue in St. Paul, he rolled down his car window to ask, “Hi, sir, will you sell me your sign?”

“Yeah,” said the man.

“How much?” said Baronet.

“I don’t know.”

Baronet offered $10, and the man agreed. Then the man started telling Baronet about his work history and his efforts to get a job at the State Fair.

Another signer on Snelling Avenue told Baronet not to film him, but he agreed to haggle for his sign, at first demanding $50. He ultimately agreed to part with it for $20.

On the exit ramp at I-94 and Lexington Avenue, Baronet offered $20 to a man named George Blanchard who couldn’t at first think of a price for his sign.

“It’s for an art project,” Baronet said.

“I probably would’ve sold it for $2,” Blanchard admitted.

By the time Baronet had parked his car and walked back to Blanchard to talk to him, Blanchard already had another sign out. Baronet bought that, too, for $10.

“That’s my simple sign. I like that one. I think it’s really good,” Blanchard said of the sign which read, “Grateful for any help God bless.”

Blanchard said not everyone gives him money, but he said some smiles he’s gotten from drivers are worth more than cash.

Baronet asked Blanchard a question he’s been asking people across the country: “What does home mean to you?”

“What is home? Well, see now, I haven’t had a home since my wife died,” said Blanchard, 56. “See when me and her were together, she made it a home.”

After chatting for a while, Baronet walked back to his car so that he and his camera crew could get on the road to their next stop, Milwaukee.

By the time they got back to the intersection, Blanchard had another sign out.

Richard Chin can be reached at 651-228-5560. Follow him at twitter.com/RRChin.\

FYI

For more information about Willie Baronet’s project, “We Are All Homeless,” see weareallhomeless.org and www.facebook.com/weareallhomeless.