Why does Topps love to destroy history?
 

Here is an ebay auction with a chase card bearing a signature of "heodore roosevel"
Why must they cut up a letter and then destroy the signature on top of that?
F--- Topps,
from a Theodore Roosevelt collector

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TOPPS-TRIPPL...item3380ca2315

Truly disgusting.

Chopping the end off a common Mickey Mantle signature is bad enough. Chopping up a Theodore Roosevelt autograph is nearly criminal.

The mind boggling aspect is this signature on a letter with routine content might be $700 give or take. The same signature cut up and out of context on a cheesy card and they are asking $2,500?

http://www.comiccollecting.org/forum...n_e_screwy.gif

Absolutely disgusting...showed to wife and her words exactly; "they're destroying history"

Richard you are 100 percent correct and those that have also agreed, you are all correct. I agree with everyone that said it is sad.
I have this one question. You have ten Lou Gehrig's autographs.Topps calls on the phone and offers you a more than fair price. Do you say no I wont take your money or do you say yes?
Be honest. Yes or No nothing else. What ever they do with those autographs are up to them.:confused:

Maybe the other $1800 is made up from that awesome authentic piece of White House floorboard embedded in it also.

On the Roosevelt auto for example, are the ends actually cut off or are they hidden under that fancy matte? Also, has anyone torn one of those cards apart to see how the auto is mounted? Are they taped or glued,or just there, held in tight by the pressure of the cardboard front and backs?

Well, it's 1/1 this way. ;)

I hope Topps at least buys the signatures as cuts. Has anyone spotted a before item that got made into a card?

Answering hypothetical questions is pointless.
Give me 10 good Gehrig autographs and I will have 10 happy customers.

John - these cards sell for such a ridiculous premium, when compared to a cut autograph, that nobody would actually take them apart to try to answer what you are asking. Why pay $2500 for an autograph that appears to be short two letters? You can pay a whole lot less for a much better example.
Just because some card company created a totally phony shortage by labeling the "thing" 1/1? Is that worth the premium that sellers try to sell it for. This is just the greater fool theory at its finest example.

I have not.
However, in the example I cited of Theodore Roosevelt, it is much easier to find a letter or document signed by him than it is to find a cut signature.

Right. With the exception of card companies, I have not heard of any dealer or collector cutting apart a letter signed by a president to make a "cut." They are sold and collected in letter form.

And for $2500 I can get some nice signed pieces, yes plural, of Theodore Roosevelt, instead of one cut of "heodore roosevel"

Coach's corner does that w their Hysterical autographs. (Note: NOT historical:)).

I'm with you on the chopping of a letter and the incomplete auto, but you must not understand why people collect baseball cards and why they hold any value at all.

Autographs? ZERO intrinsic value. Trading cards? ZERO intrinsic value. The value of these things is socially constructed, and it happens to be multiplied at their intersection. Greater fool theory? Lots of people think we members of this board are all fools for putting values on slips of paper that used to go in the trash. If people approached these things rationally, there would be no autograph dealers at all.

You are right in many respects Wayne but I can sell a Theodore Roosevelt autograph all over the civilized world but I could only sell a rookie card of Mike Trout in the good old USA. So autograph dealers might survive a bit longer than baseball card dealers in a rational world :);):D. But this is not a rational world, so why me worry?? :D

A fool and his money are soon parted!

Their products have become so non-compelling that even in despite of the lack of any meaningful competition they still have to have these "gimmick" cards to sell it. IMO

It's actually come full circle in a way: Originally, kids bought packs to get the bubble gum, and would flip, thumbtack, or subject to their spokes the rest of the cards in the pack. Now, they buy packs for the insert, and still could pretty much care less about the base cards in the pack. It's just that now, the "inserts" are slightly less edible :)

Someone on a FB page on my feed posted this "pulled beauty". IM SICK

That Jackie Robinson is god awful.

Is the 2/3 the amount of the signature visible?

I would still like to know if the autographs are truly trimmed or just covered by the matte.

Fair question. if trimmed, as many of us suspect, its a travesty, as we have all said.

Whether trimmed or not, isn't the whole thing glued together? (Meaning, it's a moot point whether they trimmed the graph before sandwiching it between layers of cardstock and glue).

John - if you truly would like to know then there is only one way to find out.
:);):p

I know, I know. I'm going to a card show Saturday and will be looking for something to break apart. I have a few already but not so bad as that Jackie Robinson. I have a Nellie Fox I can crack open but prefer something a little less expensive in case I get carried away with the hammer.

:)

Not to mention that if they ARE just "hidden by matting" and YOU CAN get the stupid fake crap assembled phony "chase card" apart without damage to the signature, the FULL SIGNATURE cut would be worth more than the made up, artificially inflated rare originally purchased crap chase insert "card":)

I don't think you are right there Scott.
The chase cards with cut sigs sell for much more than the individual cut sig.

Oh, I know Richard. Why did I type what I did? haha.

:)