Subject = Licensed Non Sport Autograph Cards.

Goal = Create a list of static and dynamic records in which to assign the earliest qualifier who signed a licensed non sport autograph card.
Members add to the list of significant milestones.

Record achievements can include (but not limited to) awards, social group, criminal, humanitarian, economic, military, trading card history....etc.

Basic Rules =

Must be from signers involved with the set when it was made.

This could include many subjects, try not to get too granular. Think words like First, Best, Worst and Most that are clearly quantifiable.

Subjects with no current winner may be added.

Sports signatures must be signing for a non sports card and character.

Submissions are obviously checked by other CT Members for accuracy.

Future Rules can be added for reasons.

A beginner list I have started. Some have answers based on previous threads or ones I believe to be correct.

First to sign sealed set from manufacture. George Romero, Russ Streiner and John Russo 1988 Night of the Living Dead 20th Ann. Image Inc
First to sign inserted in packs
Oldest to sign Gloria Stuart approx 99 (possibly even 100) years old Panini Americana 2011
Earliest born to sign Buddy Ebsen 1908 Twilight Zone 2000 Rittenhouse.
Youngest to sign
First Woman to sign sealed set from manufacture. Michelle Bauer, Bobbie Bresee, Susanne Severeid Scream Queens I 1990 Image Inc
First Woman to sign inserted in packs
First African American (we can list other groups as we run into them)
First Academy Award Winner Chuck Jones 1990 Comic Ball Upper Deck
First Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor/Actress
First Academy Award Minor "Best Short" Chuck Jones 1990 Comic Ball Upper Deck
First Academy Award Technical and Music
Most Academy Awards 9 John Williams Star Wars 30th Ann 2007
Most Actor Academy Awards 2 Cate Blanchett Lord of the Rings FoTR Topps 2001
First Grammy Award Winner
Most Grammy Awards
First Tony Award Winner
Most Tony Awards
First Emmy Award Winner
Most Emmy Awards
First EGOT Jennifer Hudson American Idol Fleer 2004
First Hollywood Walk of Fame George Romero NoTLD 1988
Oldest Hollywood Walk of Fame
First Professional Athlete crossover to sign NS
First Olympic Athlete crossover to sign NS
First Artist
First Musician
First Singer
First Politician
First Astronaut
First Military
Most Non Sport Autograph Cards
Most Non Sport Autograph/Relic or Costume combination cards

Here are some possible answers. Mostly, I only know the year a set was issued, so if two potential "firsts" are in the same year, you'd have to dig deeper to find out when the set was issued in the calendar year. Maybe someone can look at sells sheets for release dates?

Earliest born to sign:
Buddy Ebsen was 4/2/1908. A close second is Milton Berle, 1992 Proline Portraits, b. 7/12/1908

First Artist:
Depending on your definition of "artist", Chuck Jones 1990 Comic Ball again. Or Jim Lee 1991 Comic Images X-Men, or Boris Vallejo 1991 Comic Images Boris.

First Person/African American/Woman to sign inserted in packs:
One of these 1991 sets: 1991 Soaps of ABC, 1991 Twin Peaks (both from Star Pics), or 1991 ProLine Wives. Each has multiple possibles signing.

First Emmy Award Winner:
Piper Laurie, 1991 Twin Peaks, won a 1987 Emmy. Also of note because the Emmy is so far back is Milton Berle, 1992 Proline Portraits, who won a 1950 Emmy for "Most Outstanding Kinescope Personality".

First Grammy Award Winner:
Angelo Badalamenti, 1991 Twin Peaks, won a 1990 Grammy for Twin Peaks theme

Most Academy Awards:
I think John Williams has only 5. Either Dennis Muren (8) or Rick Baker (7) could overtake him if someone would just issue cards for them.


First Academy Award Technical:
Stan Winston, 1998 Inkworks Small Soldiers

First Military
Norman Schwarzkopf, 1991 Historical Images Defenders of Freedom

First Politician:
Al Franken, 1992 SNL

First Astronaut:
Jim Lovell, 1992 Space Shots Series 3 Hologram

First Musician:
See Angelo Badalamenti above. Otherwise, G. E. Smith from 1992 SNL

First Professional Athlete crossover to sign NS:

Heavily dependent on definitions.

Dwayne Johnson/The Rock, 1998 Comic Images WWF Superstarz - Authentic Autographs

OTOH, if you don't think wrestling counts as NS, 2001 Inkworks The Mummy Returns - Autographs

Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1997 SkyBox Batman & Robin Widevision

Charles Napier (former high school coach) 1999 SkyBox Star Trek The Original Series 3

Oldest Hollywood Walk of Fame
Buddy Ebsen is on the Walk of Fame, so I suppose it's him.

Youngest to Sign:
Bonnie Wright was 13 in the year that 2004 ArtBox Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was released
Malcolm David Kelly was 13 in the year that 2005 Inkworks Lost Season One was released. Who was youngest would depend on their birthdates and when the sets actually came out.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bill Mullins,

Wrestling to NS could probably have its own category as we have a few I can think of. Glodberg, Dave Bautista, Jesse Ventura (also a political category). I think you are correct with The Rock (Mummy Returns in 2000)

My original thought of "athlete" was team sports.

Did find a Chicago Tribune article which places Twin peaks at late April early June release in 91. This may put Joan Chen as the first Asian.

Tim Meadows and Chris Rock signed for SNL 92

Right, I wanted to make some of the categories dynamic (i.e. youngest to sign) so records could be broken in the future.

Skyler Wexler signed for 2016 Orphan Black and was born in 2006. I guess using a baseline of the card release date would be an easier standard to follow then to guesstimate when the card was actually signed.

However; in this case Orphan Black was released in November of 2016 and her birthday is in November so we know for a fact she was 9.

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

I really like the idea of compiling a database for these categories, as it helps autograph collectors who are focused on licensed card signers with a certain commonality. But by restricting the list to only first records, it means a limited number of answers and fewer people trying to respond.

For instance, a list of teenaged and younger signers could be interesting for future reference. However I think you may have your immediate answer with Wexler at 9 years old. So that ends the category and the discussion right there.

But if you do want some more first records to ponder, might I suggest:

First signer in a language other than English. (I enjoy seeing those oddities.)

First signer to include a drawing or doodle.

First signer to add an unsolicited inscription. (Always a more special looking card for the last two.)

On youngest signers, I immediately thought of a few I have from kids who were appearing in a contemporary series when they signed, and Art Parkinson who played the youngest Stark on "Game of Thrones" turned out to be around 10 when he signed for Rittenhouse.

After a little more thought, I remembered the daughter on "Orphan Black" (Skyler Wexler) and "Dexter" Morgan's son Harrison (Jadon Wells) from that show. It turned out those actors were about 9 when they signed, for Cryptozoic and Breygent, respectively.

So 9 years old is a good baseline for those to begin with, but given all the movie sets from the 2000's (from Topps and Inkworks) in particular, I'm thinking the ultimate answer to that one will be about someone who was around 6 or 7.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

First signer in a language other than English. (I enjoy seeing those oddities.)

How about Mie Hama for Bond.....or Alona Tal for various sets.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
Wrestling to NS could probably have its own category as we have a few I can think of. Glodberg, Dave Bautista, Jesse Ventura (also a political category). I think you are correct with The Rock (Mummy Returns in 2000)

And MMA, like Gina Carano.

quote:

My original thought of "athlete" was team sports.

Which makes things harder.
Burt Reynolds (signed for 2003 Inkworks X-Files) played FB in college, but never played pro.
Dean Cain (2011 Topps American Pie) signed with the Bills, but never played for them. Does that count as a professional athlete?

There are a number of well-known pro athletes who turned to acting or other non-sport careers and who don't have signed non-sports cards as far as I know, but do have signed cards from their sport. The earliest of these that I've found is:

Bill Bradley -- NBA to U.S. Senate -- 1995 Action Packed Hall of Fame
Dick Butkus -- NFL to acting -- 1995 Collectors Edge (numerous)
Others in this category who have later cards include Bob Uecker (MLB to acting), Fred Dryer (NFL to acting), Alex Karras (NFL to acting), Bubba Smith (NFL to acting)

If we use the strictest interpretation -- "earliest signed licensed nonsport card featuring someone who was a professional player in a team sport" -- the best I can come up with is
Joonas Suotamo -- 2016 Topps Chrome Star Wars The Force Awakens
Suotamo played pro basketball in Finland before he took over as Chewbacca when Peter Mayhew's health declined.
I would not at all be surprised to see this beaten, though.

quote:

Tim Meadows and Chris Rock signed for SNL 92.

Derek Frye signed for Star Pics All My Children in 1991.
Phylicia Rashad and Toni Lipps both signed for ProLine Portraits in 1991.

First Singer
1993 Collect-A-Card American Bandstand Jerry Lee Lewis.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

First signer in a language other than English. (I enjoy seeing those oddities.)

How about Mie Hama for Bond.....or Alona Tal for various sets.

Could be Hama. Her one Women of Bond card came out in 2003. Not sure about Tal, but I have her on Supernatural and that may have been later. Tal also added drawings to her Hebrew signature, so she could be mentioned for that too.

Mako's signature is a favorite of mine, but I believe his Conan card is from 2004. The most expensive Non-English ones done not that long ago, which could be considered as another first category of sorts, belongs of course to Gal Gadot.

At first this is what I am looking for....fluid categories until we can lock them down.

I was also thinking about making differences based on early cards that were not unique from base cards and were routinely forged.

Obviously they were legitimate but I think maybe there should be a distinction in category listing.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

First signer in a language other than English. (I enjoy seeing those oddities.)

How about Mie Hama for Bond.....or Alona Tal for various sets.

Could be Hama. Her one Women of Bond card came out in 2003. Not sure about Tal, but I have her on Supernatural and that may have been later. Tal also added drawings to her Hebrew signature, so she could be mentioned for that too.

Mako's signature is a favorite of mine, but I believe his Conan card is from 2004. The most expensive Non-English ones done not that long ago, which could be considered as another first category of sorts, belongs of course to Gal Gadot.

Comic Images 1996 "THE MASTERS OF JAPANIMATION" KOICHI OHATA Autograph card.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/233789660209

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
Comic Images 1996 "THE MASTERS OF JAPANIMATION" KOICHI OHATA Autograph card.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/233789660209

Yes, but he's an anime artist and if you paint non-sport with a very broad brush there are going to be a lot of apples and oranges mixed together on this list of firsts. I mean I wouldn't mix up my comic or artist based sets with movie or TV entertainment sets, even though its all non-sport and crossovers will validly be present. If you don't drill it down to specific rules, it just becomes an argument about who compares with what, like it always does. Without absolute standards, no one ever agrees on anything, and no one can agree on those either.

Austin Lynch was also ~9 when signing for Twin Peaks.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
Comic Images 1996 "THE MASTERS OF JAPANIMATION" KOICHI OHATA Autograph card.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/233789660209

Yes, but he's an anime artist and if you paint non-sport with a very broad brush there are going to be a lot of apples and oranges mixed together on this list of firsts. I mean I wouldn't mix up my comic or artist based sets with movie or TV entertainment sets, even though its all non-sport and crossovers will validly be present. If you don't drill it down to specific rules, it just becomes an argument about who compares with what, like it always does. Without absolute standards, no one ever agrees on anything, and no one can agree on those either.

A Comic Images set from the mid 90's is about as non-sports as non-sports get, especially the art sets. In my view, any cards from their line would have to qualify. This would even include CI's later wrestling issues, lest we forget nearly all people on WWF/WWE cards are characters with made up names played by actors following a script.
(Uhh, spoiler alert on the previous sentence, I guess.)

A list without wrestlers and artists would probably be a lot more user-friendly, though, and let's face it, it's the Film/TV actors & musician autographs most people are interested in, where cards are concerned.

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:

This would even include CI's later wrestling issues, lest we forget nearly all people on WWF/WWE cards are characters with made up names played by actors following a script.
(Uhh, spoiler alert on the previous sentence, I guess.)

I totally agree with you, but have come to a different conclusion, perhaps because I collect autographs more than just the cards. So its an example of the exact same perspective having not the same opinion.

I have many signed photos and cards from quite a few of the all-time great wrestlers. I used to attend personal appearances to get them. However, I lost interest a few years into the whole WWE type industry takeover. That's when characters played by bad actors took over. The "is Wrestling really a sport" thing was all gone. Yes, it was a sport back when it had real people who were talented athletes, but I have no idea what to call it now. I see no entertainment value in it for me either.

There are also no autographs in it for me because they are signing as their characters. If a guy wants to dress up like "Mickey Mouse" and he gives me an autograph that says "Mickey Mouse", who is that? You could say stage names are the same thing, but not really. A stage name is the actor's public identity, but if a wrestler leaves, he/she has no rights to the character and has no identity. For that reason, I stopped collecting wrestling autographs altogether and, although it is non-sport, modern wrestling cards wouldn't qualify for anything to me. They are a separate category/hobby all by themselves, but that's just my view of it.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:
Austin Lynch was also ~9 when signing for Twin Peaks.

Speaking of that 1991 Star Pics Twin Peaks set, Joan Chen signed some of her cards in English (only), and some in Chinese (only). So that might be the hobby's first non-English autograph.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:

If we use the strictest interpretation -- "earliest signed licensed nonsport card featuring someone who was a professional player in a team sport" -- the best I can come up with is
Joonas Suotamo -- 2016 Topps Chrome Star Wars The Force Awakens
Suotamo played pro basketball in Finland before he took over as Chewbacca when Peter Mayhew's health declined.
I would not at all be surprised to see this beaten, though.

Orel Hershiser (LA Dodgers) signed for Razor Poker in 2010

Most Non Sport Autograph Cards
Chris Achilleos signed all the cards in 1994 FPG Chris Achilleos II and in 1995 FPG Chris Achilleos Colossal, for 140 signed cards. I think some of the other 1990s fantasy art sets were similarly signed. But that probably was not the intention of this category.

Likewise, many sets of the last 20 years have had multiple subsets/chase sets/parallel issues that were signed. For example, Tippi Hedren signed in (I think) five different subsets and inserts of 2007 Donruss Americana. Should that count as one, or five?

But even if you limit the count to separate releases, William Shatner has signed a bunch of cards and would be my nominee for "most".

Vinnie Jones, longtime professional soccer player, became an actor and landed the role of Juggernaut in X-Men 3. He signed a card for that movie card set from Rittenhouse Archives, which was issued in 2006.