A positive example for sticker autographs?
We all know the reasons why trading card manufacturers use stickers for autographs. And we all know the many reasons why collectors often don’t like them.
But is this card, out of the new Donruss Threads baseball set, one example of when stickers can have a positive impact? The set hit hobby shops this week — yet Bernie Mac died in August.
So obviously there were stickers in reserve used to produce new cards. That’s better than cutting up old cards for trapped cut autographs, right?
Tell us what you think.
Chris Olds has collected sports cards and memorabilia since 1987. Before coming to Beckett Media, he wrote about the hobby for the Orlando Sentinel on his blog, SportsStuff, and for the San Antonio Express-News and The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News. Do you have a comment, question or idea? Send e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com.
I still like the “cut” autograph better, but I suppose it’s essentially the same thing. On one hand, it’s pretty cool to have a piece of something unique, like a check, though on the other hand when the sticker was signed at least the person doing the signing knew it was intended for a card.
I noticed the Mac too and immediately thought of the stickers and their purpose. However the card pictured above also shows what, to me, is the single biggest drawback. The ‘B’ has been cut off at the bottom. This is a lesser example of signers going off the edge, but it’s still cut off and it is enough to make me want to pass on that particular card.
I think this is where sticker-graphs really become a disgusting thing. It would reason to believe that Donruss probably has hundreds more of those Bernie Mac stickers sitting around somewhere which means that for years to come they’ll just slap that garbage sticker over some new photo and present it as rare.
I’m still waiting for this to happen in baseball. I’ve been saying this for two years now, but there will be a time when Upper Deck decides to pull out the hundreds of Kirby Puckett stickers sigs it probably has lying in a vault and adhere them to new cards. I think it’s crap. Sure the company could issue a cut signature and impact the hobby the same, but I’d much rather see them do that than to use the supposed endless supply of stickers. I feel the stickers to break a code of unwritten rules.
Oh, heck, now I’m just gonna have to blog about this … Gah!