I've wondered how many autograph card copies (or most chase cards) are kept by a card company in case one or more replacements need to be sent out. I think it might be a rather small number like 10-15 for every 150-250. I assume the owner might keep one for himself but I don't know if he would keep one of everything. Any extras might be quietly given to employees or maybe a deal is made with a big buyer. Every once in a while, an ex-employee of a card company offers some interesting things.

In the case of as few as 8 cards, I think there might be just a couple depending on the number of them on an uncut sheet. When there's that few, people can try to keep track of how many go up for sale.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
Raven, if you scroll down on this article to the bottom, there is a photo of the Ford auto

This article says that only 7 were made, not 8


https://www.cardboardconnectio...ard-collecting-guide

That's a good article because it shows the increasing quantity of the various Harrison Ford certified autograph cards that have been made. I'm sure that it's not exactly current, so there are more out there now.

The way I read it, the 7 cards refer to his signatures in Indiana Jones Masterpieces. It doesn't give any numbers for the signatures in Indiana Jones Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. My numbers for Crystal Skull were taken from Allenders list, which are usually pretty accurate. But hey, a couple more or less hardly matter.

The thing is, we know all these cards weren't packed out. They never are. If they made only 8, it would be great if 5 got out, probably less than that. The maker will say they need to hold back replacements, there will be favorite son buyers and the owner/maker itself will want to keep a copy or two for their own benefit. So when production is this low, its even way lower than that for available autograph cards. I think the Star Wars Stellar sets are the products that really boosted Fords autograph card number.

BTW I see one of Ford's IJ Heritage cards up on BIN right now for only $25,000. Maybe it's a bargain, I wouldn't know.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
In the case of as few as 8 cards, I think there might be just a couple depending on the number of them on an uncut sheet. When there's that few, people can try to keep track of how many go up for sale.

[/QUOTE]

Yeah, sometimes you hear of a couple of the really rare ones, if they turn up on eBay or are consigned to a bigger auctioneer. A lot of the times you don't because the sales are kept private and/or the owners don't make announcements. Not every collector wants to show off or be so public about what they are holding.

As far as tracking them goes, no matter how short printed it is the card has to be numbered or you just can't tell if you are looking at the same one or a stock photo. I have hardly ever seen anyone try to run down and document card appearances.

For example I have no idea how many of those Emilia Clarke cuts have actually turned up in GoT boxes. How many of the Gal Gadot CZX autograph cards were found and what is still missing? There is no way to know or to confirm any released data. If its a valuable 1/1 you have "Power Ball" odds of ever finding it, which is none.

The only real tracking effort I ever saw on the collector side of it was that list of Buffy Stake cards that is on Card Talk some place. I think the last I saw quite a few numbers have never been seen for sale, even though the card has held good demand. Like it or not, we have to just accept that really short-printed hits are being made in the stated range and that hopefully at least most of them are being packed out.

I try to keep track of some cards but it's easy to lose track for a few weeks that turns into a few months when other things are happening. I see that some others are watching for certain cards and going back years using websites that record sales. I think someone was watching for transactions of that George Lucas autograph.

Yeah, I've read that Buffy Stake thread.

http://nonsportupdate.infopop....427018896#2427018896

Yeah, I see you found it again. As of the last update in 2017 only 45 of those 107 Stake cards were seen and a few of those changed hands more than once. So 62 are technically unconfirmed, but most of them are probably embedded in private collections, you could assume.

Would anyone care to bet that Stake card #1 never left Inkworks when they were made? Who knows where it could have gone after the fall, but I would venture to guess that at least #1 and maybe a few other copies were never seeded into the product.

Has anyone ever pulled #1 of a serial numbered card (or the last one) from a pack? I think I saw someone offer something like #99 out of 100 of something on Ebay. Yeah, maybe the owner or someone else in the company keeps #1 or it's in a frame on display somewhere in the offices. I think I have a promo that is maybe #4 of 100.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
http://nonsportupdate.infopop....427018896#2427018896

Yeah, I see you found it again. As of the last update in 2017 only 45 of those 107 Stake cards were seen and a few of those changed hands more than once. So 62 are technically unconfirmed, but most of them are probably embedded in private collections, you could assume.

Would anyone care to bet that Stake card #1 never left Inkworks when they were made? Who knows where it could have gone after the fall, but I would venture to guess that at least #1 and maybe a few other copies were never seeded into the product.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
Has anyone ever pulled #1 of a serial numbered card (or the last one) from a pack?

[/QUOTE]

Offhand I have two Number One autographs that I know of, a Tia Carrere Fans of the Game #1/50 and an Eric Roberts Doctor Who Timeless #1/25. I bought both of them from dealers. No idea if they pulled them from breaks or not, as they are bigger sellers and I have them for a long time.

Like everything else, it matters more if the card has a lot of value. Neither of my #1s is worth that much, but #1 still would have a premium. It's also different if you have a product with a lot of short-printed runs of the same auto card, like 1/5 and 1/10 and 1/25 and 1/50. Pop Century did that, so you can get three or four #1s for the same signer in different ranges. That's just milking it and for common signers the premium is non-existent since no one cares.

Sometimes other numbers could be deemed important to a particular signer and they might earn a good premium too.

Pulled a 1/1 Stallone autograph from Topps 75th.

Never really chased after any specific number as their purpose is to indicate a total. No 1 doesn't even mean that it was the first card produced, cut or stamped.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mykdude,

quote:

Never really chased after any specific number as their purpose is to indicate a total. No 1 doesn't even mean that it was the first card produced, cut or stamped.

Actually, when mechanically stamped 1/x usually means it was the last one stamped.

You set the counter to how many you are making and it ratchets down to 1, where it stops.

Not sure if modern numbering is similar but I would assume so.

Ed

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
Pulled a 1/1 Stallone autograph from Topps 75th.

Never really chased after any specific number as their purpose is to indicate a total. No 1 doesn't even mean that it was the first card produced, cut or stamped.

A 1/1 card is in a different and higher category than the first and last number in a numbered series. So that's a super pull.

Yeah, printed numbers are just another way to push more artificial rarity. The may not coincide with any part of card production or signing order, and mean nothing if they have a slapped on sticker. Still card collectors do seem to like stamped numbers, have favorite numbers and will pay more money for certain numbers. #1 in the series will generally have more demand and carry a premium on a better known card. Last number maybe a bit. I know that I like an imprinted number more than the common unnumbered card, but I rarely see any reason to pay more for it.

There are exceptions when it makes sense though.

One of the things we have mentioned about that RA Sean Connery Bond cut that looked pretty undervalued for a long time is that RA made the mistake of not bothering to imprint any numbers on a cut that was fairly limited. The whole design was not well planned, and it was under $1,500 until recently, when it started to go up. But think how much more early interest a #1 or #7 would have gotten. Make it #001 and #007 and they would have really had something. Foolish cost cutting not to stamp that card.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

Sometimes other numbers could be deemed important to a particular signer and they might earn a good premium too.

I purchased a Casino Royale gold parallel card not so long ago. The machine stamped number was 007 / 125 which i thought was nice to have. I would not have had it had it been any other number.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
I purchased a Casino Royale gold parallel card not so long ago. The machine stamped number was 007 / 125 which i thought was nice to have. I would not have had it had it been any other number.

You can't go wrong with any Bond card stamped #007.

The one that I couldn't understand for the life of me was when somebody on Card Talk started talking about selling a certain box number from Star Trek products and how it was worth so much more money, even though it was just another sealed box to me. I'm no Trekkie, so I'd have to look the number up again, but turns out its the number of the Enterprise or one of those ships.

Now some collectors feel luckier picking certain box numbers out of a case. I like to take lower box numbers myself. Others think better cards are held out of insertion longer and prefer the higher box numbers. Or they like to take consecutive box numbers when together in cases. But the idea of paying a premium on a box just because of its seal number would never occur to me. It means nothing to the contents, but I guess in that case they never open the box to see the cards. Takes all kinds of collectors.

Star Wars cards based on the very first movie specifically numbered to #77 or #1977 out of the larger run may have some added value.

Hi everybody , long time reader of the site and was going through some non sport cards I purchased a while back . Some I found which are pretty cool are from Famous Fabrics Hooray for Hollywood and Music Music Music sets. Was wondering if the more famous names have any value as they are not a licenced product as such. Thought they were pretty cool at the time and received some pretty big names. Regards AB

Welcome to Card Talk AB.

The Famous Fabrics products may not be everyone's cup of tea because they make for pretty unattractive pasted together cards, however they are not unlicensed. They don't require any specific licensing as it's all "hodge-podge" that skirts properties that have license holders. They are authenticating whatever autographs or materials they use for the card "framing" through their own methods. There is no paying of signers for autographs or for verification. The buyer just has to feel confident that Famous Fabrics has properly authenticated the source document or material.

There are a bunch of Famous Fabrics cards on eBay and other places. Some big names, some commons and even unknowns, by me anyway. Price is whatever someone will pay, like all other cards.

I tried to find a graded Famous Fabric autograph card, but couldn't see one. I think the reason for that might be that in order to grade them, you would have to open the slab that they are already in from the maker. If you did that, aren't you damaging the original product? How could a card be graded mint if you are opening up the original case? And how could it be properly graded if you don't take it out? So I think the problem isn't about licensing, but that these cards may have difficulties getting authenticated or graded by anyone else.

Other than that, as an autograph collector, I would totally buy one if I saw a signer I couldn't get and the price was right.

Thanks for the response. I did actually ask one of the grading companies exactly that once. And didn’t send them in for that very reason that they would have to take them out of the case. Some of the interesting ones I received were Bing Crosby , Roy Orbison and Prince. I also picked up a Clark Gable in the Hooray for Hollywood.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: AB,

Also picked up quite a few of the patches which were pretty cool too

quote:

Originally posted by AB:
Thanks for the response. I did actually ask one of the grading companies exactly that once. And didn’t send them in for that very reason that they would have to take them out of the case.

Yeah, there was some confusion about those holders from the beginning. Famous Fabrics used Beckett holders with labels on some products and people thought that Beckett was involved in the verification. It wasn't and those cards were neither graded or authenticated by Beckett. Its just their trademark on the holder, but the label is merely a description of the card without any mention of grading for card condition or verification.

Matthew Lewis as Neville autograph from OOTP sold for over $300: 374128667637.

The same card sold for $60 in August.

This just seems insane to me. . .

Then again it is a Probstein auction, and the winner has 0 feedback so. . . who knows. The under bidder has lots of feedback and also bid over $300.

Shilling? Insanity? Another RJ Mitte situation?

Back on page 1 of this thread I mentioned James Earl Jones being one card on the climb.

I remember seeing a Heritage JEJ for £40(!) at a Memorabilia show back in 2004?
Everyone wants $1k/£1k for that card now and his other Star Wars cards go even higher, if you can find them. Good luck trying to get his Masterwork or Chrome Perspectives autos from (the last two Topps did before he stopped signing). Now the Obi-Wan series is reminding everyone just how great Vader is again.


I've also been paying attention to Patrick Stewart autos of late, as I was looking for his Insurrection widevision auto. I felt I did well to get one recently for £120 with a very nice example of his signature, as he is getting more expensive across the board.
Similarly, I picked up his Movies style auto from Inflexions for about £75/$95 at end of 2019, just before COVID affected the market. That is now a $300-$350 card going by recent eBay sales.

I also found the below I had commented in a thread from 2014:
Looking at completed eBay listings, just a couple of days ago a Stewart X-Men 3 auto went for £37 and a couple of Trek ones around the £50 mark. I saw an Insurrection Stewart auto (lovely style card) go for about £25 a few months back. [...] his Complete TNG 6-case incentive Locutus card has gone for approx. £65 a pop 3 times in the last couple of months whereas when that came out it was a good £170+

To compare, in last month his X-Men 3 auto has sold for £255/$315, and repeated sales of the TNG Locutus for $350-$465.

How I wish I had started collecting Trek cards back then!

Kirsten Dunst autographs seem to have dried up and have climbed in price.

Early this year these were selling for $250-300.

2 sales in April

$600 (Razor Sealed) 294950287430
$450 374029114490