Do You Dig The Cut?

Do cut signature products have a place in the hobby? In the past couple of years we have seen releases that are entirely made up of cut signatures. Can these types of releases survive as they are?

We have seen cut signatures included in releases for over a decade, one of my best pulls ever was a Joe DiMaggio cut signature out of a box of 2001 SP Legendary Cuts, but these are inserts and not the entire product.

The most recent cut signature release is Leaf’s 2014 Sports Icons Cut Signatures Edition, which releases today. Each box runs $90 and includes 1 cut signature #/10 or less. The card design looks nice and from the cards that I have seen they have remained rather uniformed (as to cut signature size).

Like most products I think there is a place in the hobby but I can not justify spending $90 for one autograph unless I know for a fact that the autograph is going to be great, I am not asking to double my purchase price or even make my money back I would just want an autograph of a solid player that I could be proud to own. The problem is that people are paying for these one card cut signature products and then trying to recoup their money on the secondary market. A perfect example would be a 2009 Razor Cut Signature Rod Carew #/42 that has a $40 BIN price, but if you do a quick search you can find some nice cards for $15-20 that many Carew fans would prefer.

I do have to admit, this John Wooden cut signature from the 2014 Leaf release is pretty cool because Leaf was able to work Wooden's image in to the cards design.