There's been one on "the Bay" for weeks now and the seller can;t get $125. I am surprised and disappointed as I've had one since finding it in the 4th pack I opened from a box I bought when they first came out.

I always thought that one would appreciate in value.

It all depends on who finds it worth the cash or not. If you asked most people who he is, you'll probably get a blank stare.

Something is only worth what another is willing to pay for it. Just because it's not selling doesn't mean it hasn't increased in value. It is worth something, but maybe not as much as we would all like it to be.

Well. . . While these cards were TOUGH to pull, there were still a bunch made -- 250 according to Allender's site, which -- if you are keeping tabs is less than say. . . the non-sport autographs inserted in Topps Allen and Ginter release, or most of the autographs from Donruss/Panini's Americana.

The card has a lot of other things going against it too. . . Boris signed for several other sets -- so there are a couple thousand or more official Boris autographs out there. And this card isn't particularly attractive. . . the autograph is on the back, and the back is blank. All things considered it's kinda fortunate to have the value it does. Lots of equally famous artists signed fewer over all autographs from the FPG and Comic Images sets, and they still bring less money than this Boris auto.

Jon

The Comic Images website no longer has information on cards, but I did find this expired auction for a box from the autograph
edition. The image is fuzzy, but you can see on the sticker where it says that there were 1000 autograph cards in the run, not 250:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

Somewhere I have a saved version of this sticker. When I dig it up I will scan it and post it.

I was probably the seller that had the card listed at $125. I have successfully sold it for $135, $125, and to a regular customer that spends a lot with me, $90. So as far as fantasy art cards, it is one of the most valuable ones there is. Certainly the most valuable one in my collection, since I can't find an Achilleos 1 auto.

Also, don't always go by solely what goes on at ebay. I sold one a year ago for 150 and my one left priced at 175. I haven't seen one at a card show in a long time.

Definitely don't go solely by eBay. A lot of times what something sells for on there depends more on the reputation of the seller than the value of the item, and also on who happens to log in looking for items that particular week. I have seen the "Diving" auto go for as low as $30 or so, and as pointed out, even higher with the right buyer.

Inherently, high-end cards are going to go for higher prices at card shows than on eBay. It is a targeted market, sellers who go to shows can afford to wait for the right buyer to come along, and because of the higher overhead of attending shows the dealer will have no choice but to price the card higher.

All-in-all, it comes down to what the card is worth to you and to the buyer.

o.k., I am not at my new home where I can do a scan, but I have the box. The sticker reads "Special Autograph Series 1000 Artist Autographed Cards Randomly Packed Throughout This Series!"

I need to send a scan of this when I get home so Jeff can update his page.

Gosh Steve, you should be home by now.

My Comic Images expert correspondent told me back in June 2008 (grin) "I swear that it was limited to 250, but I haven't been able to confirm it in NSU or elsewhere". Your eBay link is a lot better. Will fix, thanks!

Now I wonder if there really were any auto cards in the "regular" boxes. I miss all of the *old* box breakdown statistics that used to be stashed at webjon.com. <ducking>

One problem was that Boris was willing to sign cards every time they were stuffed under his nose, and usually the cardmakers hadn't figured out authentication yet. So most pack-pull autos from early Comic Images and FPG were signatures on regular cards, or at least didn't say "congratulations!". (Sadly, once the companies started marking the cards as special, the forgeries began ...)

Your card was an exception because of its blank back, so it couldn't be one of the base cards that somebody got signed at a trade show. It *should* be more valuable than many other Boris signings from the early 90's. Casual collectors might not know the difference, or may not care if they would be just as happy with a personal signing.

The net effect was that Boris signed thousands of cards for mass-market sets, but also signed thousands of cards where the current owner might not have a clue whether it was from a pack or from a con. It was Boris (or another artist, if my memory of the "lore" is fading) who learned this was a problem and started using only a gray sharpie to sign things at shows.

Maybe it was a gold sharpie. I just read the rest of the Boris 1 checklist.