Have you ever wanted a Joe DiMaggio cut signature but
you want it to be as ugly as possible? Well, I have found the card for you.
This 2013 Cut Signature Book Silver Vol. II JSA certified autograph is about as
ugly as you can get and still be called a DiMaggio signature.
The signature does appear to be authentic and it is
certified by JSA, even though they have had their issues, but it starts with
the “Chop it in half!” attitude, toss in that it was signed with a felt tip
marker (which bleeds anyway) but somewhere along the line liquid got involved
turning this in to a Joe DiMaggio watercolor art project.
It isn’t even really a deal at $80 because if you wait
and watch there is a good chance you can find one of the very cool 1993 Pinnacle autograph cards for an additional $30 ungraded. The
last ten 1993 Pinnacle DiMaggio autograph cards (graded and ungraded) sold for
an average of $127.60, with two of them in December selling for under $100
each.
Do you have $7,250 burning a hole in your pocket and are
willing to take a chance walking away sucking wind?
2015 Super Break Box Breakers Edition just went live and each box comes with 10
items and while a checklist has not been released by Super Break the sales
materials show the product contains autographs from athletes, Presidents,
inventors and other famous personalities.
Something to take in to consideration is that this is a typical high end repack product, there are buyback cards as well as redemptions for full sized autographed jerseys, balls, hats, gloves, bats, etc. The web site also lists odd descriptions like "Light Activated Talking Boxes" and "Custom Wrapped Items" so I am guessing there are plenty of surprises to be found.
What I find the coolest are "The Bar" pieces, they are oversized cards that are slabbed and graded with one of a kind original sketch card artwork with cut signatures. The back of the card includes an image of the original document from where the cut signature came from. The promo materials shows a Babe Ruth "Bar" card that contains a cut signature plus some of his hair and a Frank Sinatra "Bar" card piece that includes the center of a 45-rpm record with Sinatra's signature.
So far there are only 6 "The Bar" autograph pieces for auction from this release; 3 Presidents (Teddy Roosevelt, FDR & Nixon), a painter (Salvador Dali) and an actor (John Wayne) all with BIN prices at $3,000 or higher and there is a Kris Bryant autographed baseball redemption card sitting at $179 with no bids.
Looking at what is available the cards don’t look too
bad design-wise but when you consider the amount you are putting out to buy a
box, even if you do not plan to sell any of the cards, the value just may not
be there unless you pull one of the hot boxes. I would love to open a box
because I do think it is very cool product but with my luck I would end up pulling 9
dummy blank cards, with EAS tags still attached, and a tissue that Babe Ruth
used to pull gum off of his shoe.
At the price that the current individual cards are selling for there is no way that I would even consider hunting any down. The prices are so high because the sellers are trying to recoup their cost back and while the sketch art is unique and one of a kind the prices are artificially high.
Is it strange that whenever I see Salvador Dali my mind automatically cuts to Terry Jones' character (Bendy arm man) in Monty Python's Meaning of Life "Find The Fish" scene?
There are badly designed sets and then there are sets
that are hideously designed. TriStar has created the later with the upcoming
franken-cuts disaster 2014 TriStar Signa Cuts Football Draft Choice Edition set
for an early May release. Each box will run $60 and contains 1 cut signature
card.
TriStar apparently is trying to cash in on the 2014 NFL
Draft class and they seem to have rushed in to this haphazardly and without a
plan. The designs look like someone with a rudimentary understanding of MS
Paint had full design control and someone with a pair of kid-friendly left
handed scissors was in charge of procuring the cut signatures.
Because they used different cuts the design is not
uniform, there are cuts from photographs, 3x5 cards, programs, in-person
signatures and from other cards. You gotta love the use of the 2012 Fleer Retro
Rookie Sensations Russell Wilson cut signature. The only way to make a non-NFL
sticker autographed card better is to cut it in half and toss it in a framed
card.
The only saving grace for the product is the randomly
inserted Draft Tickets which can be exchanged for full sized items (autographed
footballs and framed 8x10 photos) autographed items.
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.
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!"
Leaf’s
next cut signature product to be released will be the 2012 Leaf Cut Signature
Edition, set to hit shelves on November 15, 2012 with boxes running between
$85-100 each. Boxes will contain one card, which will be encapsulated by
Beckett.
Previous
releases contained a variety of popular culture figures and this release is no
different. This product will include cut signatures from musicians,
politicians, actors, authors, comedians and major cultural figures.
Some
of the announced signatures on the checklist:
Tupac
Shakur John
Lennon Bill
Clinton U.S.
Grant Steve
McQueen George
Reeves Ernest
Hemingway W.C.
Fields Brigham
Young Walt
Disney There
will also be dual cut signatures, some of the announced cuts on the checklist: Stan
Laurel/Oliver Hardy Pat
Nixon/Richard Nixon Muhammad
Ali/Will Smith
Jimi Hendrix
Janis Joplin
Nelson Mandela
Elvis Presley
Tupac Shakur
I apologize about the quality of the images, I took them from Leaf's sales materials so they are a bit pixelated.
Sadly
without images of the personality the design is lacking that appeal that
collectors are looking for in a cut signature. There are some amazing people here
but they may be overlooked due to the design. If you look at previous releases
you will notice that there are not many active auctions, only a handful have
bids and most of those are below $100 for the card. I am not saying that they
do not sell but you have to wonder if the prices are below where they should
be.
The
other issue with products such as this is finding the right buyer for those
signatures from personalities outside of the main stream. When it comes to pro
athletes, major movie stars or politicians you can usually sell your card with
little issue but when you pull an Alfred Lord Tennyson or Rudyard Kipling you
are put in a very different position when it comes to sales. Even Judy Garland,
H.G. Wells, Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello could be difficult to sell.
2012 Leaf Oval Office has now been released and singles are starting to show up for sale. Most boxes are selling around $1,500-1,600 and the final print number is 261 boxes produced (Though the boxes are marked #/276 for some reason). The checklist includes the 43 Presidents plus 54 multi-cuts and every card is limited to #/5 or less.
These are actually some nice looking card, though well outside of my range, with a small image of the President/Distinguished Person in the upper left corner and a nice large cut placed squarely in the center of the card. The Presidents single cuts are red cards while the dual cuts are blue.
A number of cards will obviously draw some serious attention when they are finally found like these single cuts:
George Washington (1/1)
Thomas Jefferson (1/1) Abraham Lincoln (1/1)
But there are a number of multi-cuts that may draw some big bids if/when they are put up for sale:
George Washington/Abraham Lincoln (1/1)
Abraham Lincoln/Mary Todd Lincoln (1/1) Ronald Reagan/Mikhail Gorbachev (1/1) George H.W. Bush/Saddam Hussein (1/1) FDR/Adolf Hitler (1/1) Ulysses S Grant/ Robert E Lee (1/1) JFK/Fidel Castro (1/1) Gerald Ford/ Sara Jane Moore (1/1)
I know some people have negative feelings towards including people like Hitler, Hussein and Castro (See Famous Fabrics Horrors of War autographs) in an autograph set but no matter how we feel they are part of our country's history and each has a connection with the Presidents. I have to admit I am a bit surprised to see the Ford/Moore cut signatures considering that she attempted to assassinate Ford.
In February we will be seeing the release of the 2012 Famous Fabrics Ink 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW product; this is probably one of the longest product names that I have seen in a long time.
Each box will contain 6 cards- 2 Cut Signatures and 4 Base cards. There are only 240 total boxes to be made and each base card is limited to #/10 with the Cut Signatures limited to #/3 or less. The specific release date or price have not been announced yet but based on similar prior releases expect to see $150-175 per box.
The base set consists of 96 cards over 3 subsets, the Presidents, Presidential Couples and Presidential Pets. The Cut Signature checklist includes single cuts (1 Presidential Cut per box) as well as First Ladies plus there are dual Cut Signatures too including Presidential Couples, Running Mates, Presidential Opponents and Forever Linked. Interestingly there will not be any George Washington cards at all, base set or cut signatures.
Each card will be encased and it appears that numbering will be similar to the 2011 Horrors of War set that Famous Fabrics released last year with each base card having a serial number (#/10) as well as a Series number to signify where it is in the overall master set.
The preview pictures show a generic series number of #/420 on each base card and #/240 on the Cut Signatures but considering a 96-card base set checklist and with base cards #/10 each means that the Series number for the base set should be #/960 and not #/420 as shown also the Cut Signatures should have a Series number of #/480 considering two Cut Signatures per box and 240 boxes made.
In 2008 Leaf
(Razor at the time) released the 2008 Razor Cut Signature: Oval Office Edition, a
$2,500/box release. Each box contained 1 cut signature card and there were 99
boxes made with each card #1/1. The set consisted of single cuts of the US Presidents and dual cuts including multiple US Presidents as well as US Presidents/Vice
Presidents, US Presidents/President's Wives (or mistresses), Presidential competitors
and a couple of Presidents/Assassins (or attempts).
Since 2008 a handful of cards have been sold,
usually for well below the $2,500/box price. Currently there are 2 auctions from
an Australian dealer; they are both set with a BIN price set at $1237 AUD ($1276
USD).
Fast forward 4
years and we see Leaf scheduled to release the 2012 Leaf Oval Office Cut Signature set. They will once again be 1 card/box pack out but there will be
slight differences. There will be a max of 275 boxes but because this is a
product that will be printed based on the number of orders there may actually
be less than the announced 275 boxes. Each card will be numbered to #/5 or less,
another difference compared to the original 1/1 release. No price or release
date has been announced but I would think the $2500/box will probably return.
This set will include single cuts of the 43 US
Presidents along with dual cuts of multiple US Presidents, US Presidents/Vice
Presidents, US Presidents/President's wives and a couple cards that include US
Presidents and foreign leaders like FDR/Hitler, JFK/Castro, Reagan/Gorbachev
and even a Ulysses S Grant/Robert E Lee.
I do want to note that on the sales sheet it states: "Cut Signatures are examples only, actual card styles may differ after production"
