There was a couple of posts in the obituaries thread when Mike passed away and thought better to make a separate post then derail and reply in that thread with a few things that might help other collectors.

I have been going through all my stuff doing inventory to liquidate and being a collector of Monkees stuff want to add a few other things regarding the Cornerstone Autos.

Far as I am aware all the autos from the 1995 release were all signed with a Gold Sharpe.

First, back in 1996 Rhino came out with a Monkees Limited Edition 4 Autograph Set that was limited and numbered to 100. It had all four autograph cards and a small metal plate on a plague.

Second, back in 2014 an eBay seller was selling 1995 Cornerstone unsigned Auto cards of each of them and had multiples of some of them. So, need to be aware of that as I am sure there are autos out there that never really packed inserted but being sold as such or people will assume, they are. I have even seen a so called “error card” that Micky signed on a Davy card with a Silver Sharpe that I am pretty sure was one of the unsigned cards that got signed well after the Cornerstone release at a Con or concert somewhere.

So, with this said not sure how true or accurate the autograph totals of 250 really is.

I am not an expert in the card collecting world like many others are so the above statements are just my observations with these as I have them in my possession.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
I remember when that set came out. It wasn't too long after I got back into cards. One of the promos was in NSU and another was in "Combo" magazine. I didn't realize how rare the autographs were. They were 1 per 216 packs according to Allender which I think works out to about 2 per case (250 autographs total from each of the Monkees). Probably tougher to match your set now.

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
They all signed for the Cornerstone Monkees set, and what a beautiful 4-card set that was, each band members' eyes surrounded by a black border with the on-card signature in the area beneath them.

I saw Dolenz & Tork play about 5 years ago, and they still had it. Micky is extremely talented, as was Mike. They should absolutely have entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame years ago.

Rest in peace, Mr. Nesmith, you made that wool cap work!

Thanks for the info on these. I have 3 of the 4 -- been looking for a Davy Jones for years.

I'm not sure all of mine are signed in gold though -- need to check that.

Yes, Brimaster, thanks for the observations. I don't check regularly but those Cornerstone autographs don't come up for sale very often. I will watch for non-gold signatures.

Like others, there's a part of me that is concerned about unsigned autograph cards floating out in the market with the potential for forgeries. However, I also like the chance to get the card itself if the signed one is out of reach. Other similarly-thinking collectors are keeping unsigned cards out of circulation using them as placeholders for signed ones or considering then as variants.