I've been looking around eBay and there are a lot of signers on non-sport certified autograph cards that I didn't know made it into product. Many of them are on sticker autographs in Pop Century, and many of those are the short printed numbered cards that are so easy to do with stickers. Nevertheless, good autograph collections have expanded to include a lot of big names in the last few years.

My question is, whether you have a large or small collection of certified cards, who are the signers you would consider to be the must-haves? It doesn't matter if you own them or not, and it doesn't matter which card it's on, as long as it's out of licensed product. You can name only one or several people.

As an example, in searching through pricing and demand right now, I have come to the conclusion that a must-have signer in any good autograph collection is Emilia Clarke. I hate to say that because I wouldn't put her on the top of the list myself, but it looks like the market has, so that's what counts.

So who do you think are some of the other autographs you need or want, even if it's just to stay current with popular demand?

Not that I am trying to stay current with popular demand, but I am a big Star Trek TOS and James Bond fan. So, any of the major stars from either of those franchises are high on my want lists. I do have a Daniel Craig and a Roger Moore autograph from a couple of the Bond sets, but no "big" signers from Trek.

Interesting question, I think it's hard to take personal taste and bias out of questions like this. Like Will, I'm not trying to stay 'current with popular demand' either, I buy what appeals. to me.

There a few card groups on facebook though, and similarly on Blowout, where there seem to be more newcomers to the hobby, including those who have leaked over from sports cards, who are very much caught up in whatever hype train is going on at any given moment.

Emilia Clarke autos are definitely 'hot' cards right now. I get it, but don't. I really don't rate her in any respect, but we've seen this all before... remember everyone ALWAYS going on about Angelina Jolie, Jessica Alba Megan Fox? WHY???
Lots more guys in this hobby than girls and 'attractive' actresses usually always pull in higher sold prices than actors.
Emilia Clarke is very much flavour of the moment IMO.

As for my recommendations...

Harrison Ford immediately springs to mind. A decades long bonafide movie star. Huge body of work. Played two of the most iconic fictional movie characters of all time. He's now signed many hundreds of cards but demand still keeps his prices running into several thousands because he's still that popular.

Like Will, I'd agree on the Bond and Trek fronts. Whether you like the films/TV shows or not, Trek has been a constant in global pop culture for 50+ years, and Bond 60+ years.
I've read stories of Roger Moore / Pierce Brosnan visiting non-Western, non-English speaking countries where they can't go anywhere without people shouting "James Bond! James Bond!"

Loads of quality actors in both franchises, but leads Moore, Brosnan and Daniel Craig are cool auto cards to have for Bond.

For Trek, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and Patrick Stewart are the faces of the franchise. Any card from those three are nice to have.

I agree. It's an interesting question. I don't hunt autograph cards a lot though I have some. The first thing I thought of was "Star Trek." It's not just the main cast. Everyone who likes the show has a favorite episode character whether Spock's parents, Harry Mudd, etc. and it's the same with James Bond. Everyone has a favorite villain or "Bond Girl." The great thing is that there are so many actors/actresses from those properties that have signed so we all have a chance to pick up something.

quote:

Originally posted by X:
Emilia Clarke autos are definitely 'hot' cards right now. I get it, but don't. I really don't rate her in any respect, but we've seen this all before... remember everyone ALWAYS going on about Angelina Jolie, Jessica Alba Megan Fox? WHY???

Have to admit I don't get the Emilia Clarke deal, especially as she seems to be a very active signer. I get she was queen of dragons but generally speaking I don't find her to be a very good actress. I think with names like Jolie, Alba and Garner, there is included a rare factor with just how few cards they signed. This leads to one factor I often pay attention to. Something like Frank Oz or Phil Brown having only 1 card in an ocean of autographed Star Wars cards definitely triggers my interest. I will always regret not getting an RDJ card from RA. Great actor, been there through most of his career and played the perfect Iron Man.

One of the very few good things about Pop Century is they tap into celebs that we are not going to find on the traditional NS set. Al Pacino seems to have stopped signing, Chuck Norris has only signed once (so far) and if the DeNiro cards don't massively repeat themselves these are iconic names that certainly make a collection stand out.

I often look for sigs that plug into my long history of watching movies and being a fan of comics.

I also keep my eyes open for signed art cards. Often I find a signature I like but wow!!! The artwork is awful. Has to be a balanced combination for me to purchase. Such cards as these are one of the few that I actually consider to be a 1 of 1.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
I agree. It's an interesting question. I don't hunt autograph cards a lot though I have some. The first thing I thought of was "Star Trek." It's not just the main cast. Everyone who likes the show has a favorite episode character whether Spock's parents, Harry Mudd, etc. and it's the same with James Bond. Everyone has a favorite villain or "Bond Girl." The great thing is that there are so many actors/actresses from those properties that have signed so we all have a chance to pick up something.

Absolutely agree about Star Trek, particularly TOS through Voyager. All of the captains are great, the main crew for each show are strong and have accessible autograph cards, and lots of excellent guest turns. There are far more 'good quality' autographs, and all are far more accessible for Trek than say Star Wars.

Bond has gone on for so long there is just so much choice and lots of genre crossover (Christopher Lee, Sean Bean, Mads Mikkelsen, Famke Janssen, Michelle Yeoh to name a few).

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:

quote:

Originally posted by X:
Emilia Clarke autos are definitely 'hot' cards right now. I get it, but don't. I really don't rate her in any respect, but we've seen this all before... remember everyone ALWAYS going on about Angelina Jolie, Jessica Alba Megan Fox? WHY???

Have to admit I don't get the Emilia Clarke deal, especially as she seems to be a very active signer. I get she was queen of dragons but generally speaking I don't find her to be a very good actress. I think with names like Jolie, Alba and Garner, there is included a rare factor with just how few cards they signed. This leads to one factor I often pay attention to. Something like Frank Oz or Phil Brown having only 1 card in an ocean of autographed Star Wars cards definitely triggers my interest. I will always regret not getting an RDJ card from RA. Great actor, been there through most of his career and played the perfect Iron Man.

One of the very few good things about Pop Century is they tap into celebs that we are not going to find on the traditional NS set. Al Pacino seems to have stopped signing, Chuck Norris has only signed once (so far) and if the DeNiro cards don't massively repeat themselves these are iconic names that certainly make a collection stand out.

I often look for sigs that plug into my long history of watching movies and being a fan of comics.

I also keep my eyes open for signed art cards. Often I find a signature I like but wow!!! The artwork is awful. Has to be a balanced combination for me to purchase. Such cards as these are one of the few that I actually consider to be a 1 of 1.

I think with Frank Oz, as the Attack of the Clones set was 2002, it was still relatively early days for autograph cards. I certainly expected he'd sign again, not that he'd be a 'one and done' deal.
Wasn't there some controversy over Phil Brown perhaps not signing all of his cards himself due to ill health?

Only have one Pop Century auto - James Gandolfini. Can't remember what year the set was from, but the image is a candid from a Soprano's finale(?) premiere and he's looking very much like Tony Soprano with a nice example of his auto on the stupid sticker so I had to have it.
I really like the unsigned/unreleased inkworks Tony Soprano auto card I have but its a reminder of such a missed opportunity. At least these random Pop Century sets give us chances at names that don't otherwise fit into more 'traditional' releases.



I always meant to pick up a Pop Century Al Pacino (the one with the Godfather II image) but the market has changed and I don't think that will ever happen now. De Niro is an amazing name to sign cards (although always preferred Pacino!) - you'd think there would be more 'buzz' about actors of their stature signing trading cards.

Stan Lee and William Shatner. Both icons that have signed plenty of cards (and everything else).

I'll go with Stephen King and David Bowie, and both of them actually signed on-card which is nice.

I noticed in recent months that the 2017 Sean Connery Bond cut auto by Rittenhouse has increased in price. That is the only Bond card by RA that I do not have. You used to be able to get the card for around $1500 or so but now I only see 2 on ebay for 5 to 6 K with no recent sales at all. Rumor was that only about 40 cards were made

There is one currently on the bay with a BIN price of A$19,999 plus A$ shipping located in Australia.

When RA came out with the Connery cut, I really thought it would easily trade for over $5,000 from the start and said so at the time. It didn't. For quite a while it was in the $1,300 - $1,500 range. I thought it was seriously undervalued, but I still never had any intention of picking it up. Not because it isn't one of the "best" cards, but because I would never spend that kind of money on an autograph. So now it's way more money, but would that matter to me or any other collector who liked that card? Well, it doesn't bother me anyway.

The problem with being a collector of anything is that you want to keep everything. It's all money spent and never returned until you sell and perhaps make a profit. If you are buying for the sole purpose of investment and sale, then you are buying with a different motivation and focus than a collector. Some people say they can be both collector and seller, but they will always lean more to one side than the other. Collectors don't make money; they only spend it.

That's why I never bought the Connery cut, or any autograph cards from Shatner, Craig, Ford, Jolie, Garner, RDJ, Bowie, De Niro, Alba or some of the other "bests" mentioned. If I didn't pull them, wasn't a super fan, and they were expensive back when, I passed.

Now I'm trying to tick off some of the boxes I missed, but only for those "best" signers that have good value on new stuff or stuff I didn't know existed. Often those autographs are on secondary cards or off title/character cards and that's fine because it's the same authentic autograph. So that's another thing to consider.

What are you collecting in a certified autograph card, the card or the autograph? Which is more important to you? Deciding on "best" autograph cards does have a lot to do with market demand, but only up to point where the market has clearly gone nuts.

Definitely the Trek captains. I have a Stewart and Bakula and some of the other main crew through the various series.

Personally, when I first started to really collect cards it was always getting a Lucy Lawless from Xena, that was my holy grail. It's powder puff cheapish stuff now and I own a couple of hers, but that was THE card I wanted.
Duchovny & Anderson X-Files dual is one of my favourite ones.

I think you certainly include Diana Rigg, from the various films/tv she was involved in and her very limited signed cards/cut cards.

I know the Harry Potter autograph cards went a bit crazy in recent times. I suppose any of the trio could go on that list. Even before the madness Daniel Radcliffe cards were going for silly money. Emma Watson is like Emilia Clarke...I don't really get the hype. She's basically a version of Hermione in everything she's done since. I do have a card of hers and Rupert Grint...but they are the sort of cards I wouldn't really miss if I was forced to sell them. I'd rather keep my Maggie Smith and Michael Gambon cards, even if they're worth less.

Totally agree, Raven. I never got a Ian McKellan as Gandalf, but I did get his for Prisoner. I think I paid £20, but a great card for that. I do sometimes fill cast holes in my collection with cards signed for other 'cheaper' sets. It's fun to find up the other titles and there are bargains to be found.

Steve Charendoff was interviewed in the latest issue of the Wrapper and he stated that the Rittenhouse Archives autograph he is fond of is the Robert Downey Jr. on-card autograph. He has never signed again.

I think part of the Emilia Clarke allure with collectors/speculators is that she's done a popular TV show and a "Star Wars" movie so she's probably going to appear in some other popular thing and her cards are going to get an added bump in value.

I haven't watched "Game of Thrones" other than seeing bits while visiting my brother. I know Clarke more for "Han Solo," a movie I've seen twice plus parts of it a couple other times.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:

quote:

Originally posted by X:
Emilia Clarke autos are definitely 'hot' cards right now. I get it, but don't. I really don't rate her in any respect, but we've seen this all before... remember everyone ALWAYS going on about Angelina Jolie, Jessica Alba Megan Fox? WHY???

Have to admit I don't get the Emilia Clarke deal, especially as she seems to be a very active signer. I get she was queen of dragons but generally speaking I don't find her to be a very good actress.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:

Something like Frank Oz or Phil Brown having only 1 card in an ocean of autographed Star Wars cards definitely triggers my interest.

REA currently has a Frank Oz card up for auction.

quote:

Originally posted by X:
Wasn't there some controversy over Phil Brown perhaps not signing all of his cards himself due to ill health?

I had not heard that one, seems a bit odd seeing that the card was signed roughly 5 or 6 years before he passed. I have not seen very many but the one I have seems to match others that have been authenticated. Not the cleanest signatures but enough to tell who signed them.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:
REA currently has a Frank Oz card up for auction.

One sold on ebay last month for $1650 on a true auction. Seems to be the range where it has been holding for awhile.

I started with Doctor Who as "I'll just get The Doctors..."

Then "OK, maybe the companions"

Then "Well, The Master and Davros are iconic villains".

Then "And there's some great support characters"

Cut to having 450 odd Doctor Who auto cards, both from DW and franchises where there's an auto card but the actor didn't sign for their Doctor Who one - so I have Honor Blackman for The Avengers, Ian McKellen for X-Men etc.

Always nice when I can upgrade to a Who card from another franchise. Was recently able to sell my Karen Gillan from Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 and get her rookie Amy Pond card. And being on-card not sticker like the Guardians one was a bonus.

I think you have to include Ian McKellen and John Rhys-Davies(Even though he’s doing some conventions now) from both LOTR issues - Topps and Cryptozoic. Both are not common anymore - 22 years ago they were more plentiful on eBay. The Cryptozoic release didn’t have very many of each, either. I own a McKellen, but not a Rhys-Davies.