Legendary Pioneers

I was reading through a recent announcement from Upper Deck regarding their 2009 SP Legendary Cuts Baseball set. The first collector who completes the entire Cut Signature set will receive a 1 of 1 Legendary Pioneers Quad Cut signature card containing the signatures of Abner Doubleday, James Naismith, Knute Rockne and Fredrick Stanley. This card is no doubt an amazing and interesting card.

The Cut Signature set consists of 321 cards this year and Upper Deck announced that there are at least 5 autograph cards of each player. They did this to entice collectors to attempt to put together the entire set. I love the Legendary Cuts set, the best box I ever busted was a 2001 SP Legendary Cuts, but this promotion seems a bit ludicrous due to the seriously limited availability. Out of 321 total cards, 138 cards have less then 10 copies. That is 43% of the entire set is limited to less then 10 copies. To make it even worse, 75 cards are limited to 5 copies making it a whooping 23% of the set is limited to just 5 copies of each card.

I do have to say that at least UD is being realistic about the contest, they set a deadline of December 1, 2009 and if nobody has collected the entire set they will be awarding the card to the collector who is furthest along in completing the set. Good luck to all you cut signature collectors and happy hunting.

While I do like this card, I have some problems with it too. I prefer to have an image or photo of the player because it adds some visual appeal to the card. This card does have some strong signatures though, only the Stanley signature is illegible. The smeared “e” in Knute Rockne’s signature really detracts from the card too, I am sure they could have found a better specimen to use for such a special release.