The Yak Shack Forum

Hello,

Just curious if anyone can tell me about these Topps sticker auto cards, like the Heroes set. Are they just reprints of the autos, or are they genuine hand-signed?

Any info would be greatly appreciated :) :) :)
Thanks!

they are genuine hand signed by the actors

The actors sign the stickers and then Topps is free to use them on any card they choose.  When Harrison Ford signed, 10 of the stickers were used for the Stars Wars 30th anniversary set.  Now, Topps is coming out with an Indiana Jones set and guess what?  There will be Harrison Ford cards.  The stickers give the manufacturer more flexibility with how the signatures are used.  Personally, I don't like them because I think the sticker detracts from the look of the card.

I purchased my first sticker auto a couple of weeks ago.  It's a Vince Neil (Motley Crue) auto from the Donruss Americana set.  It's hard to see the signature, because the area behind the sticker wasn't whited out.  I also noticed something odd.  The signature didn't look quite right, so I went looking for other types of autos that he signed.  The singer signs vertically and Topps put the sticker on horizontally!

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v451/kbmum/donrussvinceneilauto.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v451/kbmum/vinceneilsig.jpg)

I'm not a fan of sticker-autos put on cards. I don't know exactly why, but regular autos just seem to be more personal while sticker-autos seem like mass production. And there's not as much room on the sticker for personality to show through, though that hardly makes much difference for 98% of the signatures. It's an interesting subject.

I know that there have been some issues of forgeries and unreturned signing cards in the sports market, and the sticker approach gives the manufacturer more control over the process of guaranteeing authenticity and minimizing the number of "damaged" cards they issue. But it seems to me there are better ways.

Oh well, the companies notice our opinions. Even more, they notice trends for the prices people are paying for the cards. I don't think the Harrison Fords will settle the issue. Will people stop chasing after an autograph set of the middle group who signed 200-1000 copies? Do people care as much about autograph sets if the focus is on sketch cards, and only the true fanatics will build a Master Set (however they define it)? For Heroes, I expect I will stop with the memorabilia set (with the Claire Patch optional).

Cindy - that's a really good point! It's horrendous that they didn't work this out before hand and make sure that his card was made to match the sig...!

It's definitely nicer to have a signed card IMHO