Preview: 2013 Press Pass Platinum Inscription Edition

Another cut signature product is on the horizon, this time it is Press Pass with their 2013 Press Pass Platinum Inscription Edition. It should be hitting shelves by mid-December and will run $90 for a 1 card box. Each card will be slabbed by Beckett, this is a limited production with roughly 2,000 1/1 cards with the highest numbering in the release will be #/9 and included cards will either be the standard 2.5 x 3.5 or over sized 3.5 x 5.25. Card borders are different colors with gray for sports, brown from actors/historical figures and green for cards with inscriptions.

 

The collection includes a large variety of signatures ranging from sports, movie actors, politics, pop culture and historical figures. Some of the people on the checklist that has been announced: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Walter Payton, Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn, Audrey Hepburn, Abraham Lincoln, Marilyn Monroe, Harry Houdini, William Shatner and Burt Reynolds.

 

There will be dual and triple signature cards with some featuring both signatures on one cut while others will have signatures on both sides of the cards. Among the announced multi-cut signatures; Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach (Good, Bad and the Ugly), Buddy Epson and Irene Ryan (Jed and Granny Clampett), Allen Hall Jr. and Tina Louise (Skipper and Ginger).

 

There are some advantages to the Press Pass release, first and foremost is that Press Pass went with a reasonable price point. Many of the cut signature releases that we have seen lately tend to top $100 a box. Another positive is that, from the images that I have seen, almost every cut signature is uniform in size and signed on plain paper or index card. Problems we have seen before include companies using signed baseball cards, pictures or small slivers of unusual shaped paper that were cut down to fit inside the die-cut window which makes for an ugly display piece. A negative with the design is that the name of the personality is not included on the front of the card.

 

Overall this appears to be a nice collection, a pleasant design along with a decent checklist work for Press Pass but on the downside nobody wants to spend $90 on a single cut signature card unless they are guaranteed to pull someone of significance. There are hundreds of cut signature cards available for under $20 with quite a few HOFers, historical figures and top actors in that group and this release will most likely add to the already bloated list of cut signature releases that are not worth the sticker price.

Sports:

Lou Gehrig

Honus Wagner

 

Cy Young

Historical Figures/Actors

Judy Garland

Orson Welles

John Wayne

Inscriptions:

Lou Ferrigno "Hulk"

William Shatner "Star Trek"

Norman Reedus "Walking Dead"

Multi-Cuts:
 I think the cared which include cuts on each side of the card would have made a nicer piece if they were designed as booklets. How cool would The Good, The Bad and The Ugly card have been if you could display all three actors signatures? Even better if it was a tri-fold.

Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams



Paul Michael Glaser and Antonio Fargas



Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach

Over Sized:

 

Paying $90 for a box and pulling this Houdini over sized card would be amazing or as Barney Stinson would say "It would be Legen... wait for it... dary!"