[JustinD]

Originally Posted by oaks1912

Chris,
When the Granny Goose cards were originally distributed in '82, the Signature series could be obtained by two methods. #1) distributed randomly in the bags of chips (Regular,Dip or Bar-B-Q) or #2) Mailing in for random cards. I assembled more than 100 sets back in the season of distribution. The wax wrappers of the potato chip bags were partially transparent, so if you looked closely you could determine the player. I only found one "Signature" series card in looking through well over 1000 bags (that I bought). Another local friend (Lived between where you & I live) found 1 in a bag. I also received one via the mail-in method. They were clearly VERY tough to obtain at the time.

According to the original promotional literature, there were 1,200,000 cards total cards printed, of which 2826 have the (facsimile) signature printed on them. Only 1 Henderson card was printed and distributed. When (if) that card was found the winner would receive a trip to the 1982 World Series.

All of the signature series cards had a 'value' in the day , for other prizes, ranging from pen sets, tickets, gym bags, batting helmet lamps and nylon A's jackets. The contest ended on August 30,1982.

In early 1983, a San Jose based collector (Chris Christiansen) who loved the Granny Goose cards shared a story with me at a show. He told me to be suspicious of any of the 'signature' series cards that may hit the market. That a number of the cards (quantity unknown) were printed up and likely would end up in the hobby. It took several years for me to see them, but complete sets were in circulation during the mid to late 80's. They appeared identical in design, paper stock and the signatures were replicated identical to the examples that I had saved.

The (re) printer was never identified, but likely someone involved with the original promotion had these made up after the promotion had ended.

Seems most logical that there was no counterfeiting or re-printing. The printer contracted would not have run a single card. They would have either ran full sheets of these players or sheets containing the full set run with the additional printing of the signature. It would be most logical that the extras were backdoored at the printer or sent to the packager to have a correct count and extras for damage. These could have then left with an employee after the winner was found or before as long as they hid until the winner was found.

I can’t picture a small time scheme to counterfeit these after the contest in tiny quantities.