Card Company Cut Signature Disasters

[T206Collector]

I should start keeping a library of these things. Other than Gehrig (phew!), the other three are terrible, with the Comiskey being particularly egregious.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/15644758718...mis&media=COPY

And the Sisler is so ridiculous in so many ways -- not only is it a last name cut; but it was carved from a 2011 SP Legendary Cuts. So cut by Upper Deck and then again here. And they didn't even bother to eliminate the partial SP cover with 3/3 in the corner. Really, kind of cute.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

I always wondered what eodore Willia would have to say about all this.

[butchie_t]

I see things like this and I just want to smack the person that figured this to be a good idea right into oblivion.

Maybe a bit harsh, whatever.



Butch

[Smanzari]

If Topps gave this half an ounce of actual thought, they could have fit the whole name in there -- same with the Collins. I'm sure just about everyone would have been ok with them "stacking" the first/last names in the Windows.

[Topnotchsy]

Originally Posted by Smanzari

If Topps gave this half an ounce of actual thought, they could have fit the whole name in there -- same with the Collins. I'm sure just about everyone would have been ok with them "stacking" the first/last names in the Windows.

I've seen a few 'stacked' sigs where they cut it into two pieces of paper and they tend to look horrible.

In general, it should not be that hard for the card companies to put out some sort of offer sheet where they are looking for cut autos of a certain size and are paying XX amount. Doesn't have to be out there for the world even, just major dealers. Have others find the cuts that would fit nicely. The cost of the cuts don't seem like they would be a huge factor in the company profit margins, and nicely done cuts get way more attention and sell for a premium, so that would be a positive.

And it goes without saying I don't want the card companies cutting up anything of real historical significance.

[Smanzari]

Originally Posted by Topnotchsy

I've seen a few 'stacked' sigs where they cut it into two pieces of paper and they tend to look horrible.

In general, it should not be that hard for the card companies to put out some sort of offer sheet where they are looking for cut autos of a certain size and are paying XX amount. Doesn't have to be out there for the world even, just major dealers. Have others find the cuts that would fit nicely. The cost of the cuts don't seem like they would be a huge factor in the company profit margins, and nicely done cuts get way more attention and sell for a premium, so that would be a positive.

And it goes without saying I don't want the card companies cutting up anything of real historical significance.

I hear ya and would prefer not as well, but would be much better than what is presented above IMO

[Topnotchsy]

Originally Posted by Smanzari

I hear ya and would prefer not as well, but would be much better than what is presented above IMO

What is above is an absolute joke, especially given the cost of the product.

[sbfinley]

This is the most "well... someone's an idiot" autograph cut I have ever seen:

[Seven]

Disaster class examples of how terrible these cards can be. I understadn if you want to encapsulate a signed index card within a trading card. What I can't stand is when Letters/Photos are destroyed, by these Frankenstiened cards.

[RICHIEHARRIS]

What a waste! Why can't the use some common sense? Obviously whoever they have cutting and assembling aren't a collector...just punching a clock.
"Oh...It's 5:00...I'll just cut this and cram it in.... Babe Ruth...why did some candy bar company have this signed?"

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

If someone prefers to spend their money on a portion of a HOF plaque inserted into one of these abominations vs. buying an intact plaque, that tells me all I need to know about them and how little I'm willing to spend talking about the hobby with them. Consider it the neck tattoo of sports memorabilia. At least it's a good time saver.

[packs]

Is that Greenberg authentic? Looks very strange for such a common autograph.

[Brent G.]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

If someone prefers to spend their money on a portion of a HOF plaque inserted into one of these abominations vs. buying an intact plaque, that tells me all I need to know about them and how little I'm willing to spend talking about the hobby with them. Consider it the neck tattoo of sports memorabilia. At least it's a good time saver.

Then what is the "face tattoo"??

[bowmanred]

It bothers me that they chose to use unique documents like what appears to be a signed contract. I can't imagine it was cheaper than an index card or clipping. Speaking of clippings, I wonder what happens to the cut-off parts of the autograph.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by Brent G.

Then what is the "face tattoo"??

Hilarious, as I strongly considered using that for the analogy!

But it gets worse than some $20 plaque being desecrated. For "face tattoo", how about document cuts of people like Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, or anything of that sort? A Ruth or Gehrig that was cut from a larger piece of any significance greater than an unthemed album page?

Vintage material should mostly be left alone. Again, I don't care as much if something like an historic autograph was already clipped from a document prior to being put into the insert card, but am not into destroying documents no matter how mundane they may be. If you have something like an album page signed by Pie Traynor and the ubiquitous Joe. E. Brown, I'm not losing any sleep. Same goes for Bing Crosby, who you see on baseball album pages. Bill "Bojangles" Robinson shows up with inordinate frequency as well. It makes sense to separate things like that from the ballplayers' autograph(s), as they are fairly unrelated and cater more to separate crowds than they would in multi-signed formats.

Years ago, I was authenticating a bunch of material at Upper Deck HQ for their cut cards. One item was a unique 8X10 of Rogers Hornsby in a Mets uniform. Seeing as he died the same year as the Mets' first season, there was a narrow window of opportunity for Hornsby to have signed anything to do with the team. A premium item such as an 8X10 is practically unheard of, and this one would have still ranked as the nicest example if it had lived to see the present. UD saw no problem in cutting it up. Hornsby tended to sign largely, too, so somewhere, there's a fugly ogers Hornsb insert card. So disgraceful.

To be fair, I've cut up my fair share of multi-signed album pages over the years. Some of this material found its way into insert cards. At the same time, I certainly never maimed anything of historical significance, such as a championship team piece, nor did I sell anything rendered too large to fit into the standard sized window for such insert cards. No oredcai Brows came from this direction! I couldn't destroy something which carried meaning. I've also never sold any plaques, documents or photos for such a purpose. Just things that were already cuts, or removed from multi-signed pages that had no importance that I could see. I'd rather hang on to the remainders of those pages as opposed to selling them to a company intact when they may not have any use for the rest of the signatures and knowing they would ultimately end up being scrapped.

[Topnotchsy]

Originally Posted by bowmanred

It bothers me that they chose to use unique documents like what appears to be a signed contract. I can't imagine it was cheaper than an index card or clipping. Speaking of clippings, I wonder what happens to the cut-off parts of the autograph.

The Collins on a transfer document is probably the most common and cheapest place to find his signature.

[Topnotchsy]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

Hilarious, as I strongly considered using that for the analogy!

But it gets worse than some $20 plaque being desecrated. For "face tattoo", how about document cuts of people like Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, or anything of that sort? A Ruth or Gehrig that was cut from a larger piece of any significance greater than an unthemed album page?

Vintage material should mostly be left alone. Again, I don't care as much if something like an historic autograph was already clipped from a document prior to being put into the insert card, but am not into destroying documents no matter how mundane they may be. If you have something like an album page signed by Pie Traynor and the ubiquitous Joe. E. Brown, I'm not losing any sleep. Same goes for Bing Crosby, who you see on baseball album pages. Bill "Bojangles" Robinson shows up with inordinate frequency as well. It makes sense to separate things like that from the ballplayers' autograph(s), as they are fairly unrelated and cater more to separate crowds than they would in multi-signed formats.

Years ago, I was authenticating a bunch of material at Upper Deck HQ for their cut cards. One item was a unique 8X10 of Rogers Hornsby in a Mets uniform. Seeing as he died the same year as the Mets' first season, there was a narrow window of opportunity for Hornsby to have signed anything to do with the team. A premium item such as an 8X10 is practically unheard of, and this one would have still ranked as the nicest example if it had lived to see the present. UD saw no problem in cutting it up. Hornsby tended to sign largely, too, so somewhere, there's a fugly ogers Hornsb insert card. So disgraceful.

To be fair, I've cut up my fair share of multi-signed album pages over the years. Some of this material found its way into insert cards. At the same time, I certainly never maimed anything of historical significance, such as a championship team piece, nor did I sell anything rendered too large to fit into the standard sized window for such insert cards. No oredcai Brows came from this direction! I couldn't destroy something which carried meaning. I've also never sold any plaques, documents or photos for such a purpose. Just things that were already cuts, or removed from multi-signed pages that had no importance that I could see. I'd rather hang on to the remainders of those pages as opposed to selling them to a company intact when they may not have any use for the rest of the signatures and knowing they would ultimately end up being scrapped.

If you are open to sharing, I would love to hear what this experience was like.

[holybull]

Wow....unless that is a player named Hank Greenberger with er cut off.....because it is positively not the Hank Greenberg I know and love....lol

[GrayGhost]

Not an authentic Greenberg. Or it could be Hank Greenberg from Iowa, who has a ranch with 300 chickens,

[sbfinley]

Originally Posted by packs

Is that Greenberg authentic? Looks very strange for such a common autograph.

I think someone mentioned before that the Topps Dynasty cut was from a 40’s-50’s actor that eventually changed his stage name due to the baseball player.

[ronniehatesjazz]

Originally Posted by GrayGhost

Not an authentic Greenberg. Or it could be Hank Greenberg from Iowa, who has a ranch with 300 chickens,

Sad for multiple reasons, but imagine the person who opened up that $500 product, that just has one card in it btw, seeing the 1/1 and Hank Greenberg's name, getting all excited, only to pull whatever cover they have for the slow reveal to find that it's an elementary forgery. Just sad all around. However, people buying that product are likely the types to shrug their shoulders and throw it on eBay with a $5k price tag for something that is really just a $100 cut, or in this case worth nothing.

[carlsonjok]

Originally Posted by T206Collector

And the Sisler is so ridiculous in so many ways -- not only is it a last name cut; but it was carved from a 2011 SP Legendary Cuts. So cut by Upper Deck and then again here. And they didn't even bother to eliminate the partial SP cover with 3/3 in the corner. Really, kind of cute.

I am mainly a set builder, but do have two player collections. Cut auto cards annoy me, particularly from unlicensed companies, like Tristar. But there is an issue called Historic Autographs that absolutely infuriates me. Here are images of the one HA I bought.



Two things to note:

1. The flip indicates it is a 20/20, but this serial designation does not appear on the item at all. Which means it was slabbed right off the production line.
2. It isn't even a card. If you look at the upper corners you will see that it is an envelope the cut signature was inserted into.

I get that cutting up a Paul Blair item isn't the same level of egregious as some of the examples up thread. But this came from a set issue that included Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio. When I saw this abomination, I went to my player collection want lists and purged all cut auto cards permanently. I am quite sure no one will notice, but I refuse to participate in such nonsense.

[Beercan collector]

Sure wish card companies would abandon this nonsense ,
Chopping up uniforms , disintegrating bats , Destroying documents

[T206Collector]

Here’s another brutal hack job by Topps. Yikes!

Bring it home for the low price of $6,000….

https://www.ebay.com/itm/326420953385

[T206Collector]

Collins seems to be a favorite of the card company cutters....

[theshleps]

Originally Posted by Topnotchsy

I've seen a few 'stacked' sigs where they cut it into two pieces of paper and they tend to look horrible.

In general, it should not be that hard for the card companies to put out some sort of offer sheet where they are looking for cut autos of a certain size and are paying XX amount. Doesn't have to be out there for the world even, just major dealers. Have others find the cuts that would fit nicely. The cost of the cuts don't seem like they would be a huge factor in the company profit margins, and nicely done cuts get way more attention and sell for a premium, so that would be a positive.

And it goes without saying I don't want the card companies cutting up anything of real historical significance.

When legendary cuts came out the card companies went to the big "dealers" like Ron Gordon, Corcoran, Averitt etc and offered them very generous amounts for cuts of certain hofers but they did state the size. I guess as supply ran out the card companies got desparate and became even stupider