Apparently there was an estate sale at Dart and hundreds of unsigned cards were sold.

In this picture:

Complete sets of Sabrina the Teenage Witch
Steve and Terri Irwin
Richard Hatch from Battlestar Galactica
Both Titanic autographs

Looks like these have been being sold since January.

Sets of Munsters too: 203804045605
Blank Rudolph sketches: 203826551418

very cool

There were a few unsigned Titanic A1 Millvina Dean autograph cards already on the market over the past several years - slow sellers at $10. I see someone trying to get $20 and another trying to get $100. Good luck with that.

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

Was I the only one who had to Google Millvina Dean?

I thought she was in the movie. Duh!

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
There were a few unsigned Titanic A1 Millvina Dean autograph cards already on the market over the past several years - slow sellers at $10. I see someone trying to get $20 and another trying to get $100. Good luck with that.

Not sure if the picture is showing up for everyone -- it's a photo on Facebook, but there look to be 100+ of each of the unsigned cards.

Saw some of this on ebay and was wondering what the deal was.

Kinda makes you wonder what Dart was planning to do with these after the cards were officially released? Steve and Richard are no longer with us but it wont stop attempts at forgeries.

Yeah, it is unfortunate that these are still around.

A few people -- myself included have suggested that the unsigned cards be hole punched before selling.

I haven't seen the dealer who is selling these cards respond to that.

Or at least stamp them "SAMPLE" in the autograph space. In 2000 Dynamic Forces randomly inserted unsigned autograph cards in packs after they handwrote "Sample" in the space.

The Millvina Dean A1 was a $50-60 card twenty years ago (I think I bought it for $35 when it was new) but I saw one sell recently for $125. People are trying to get a lot more. Many who would want that card already have it so I don't see a lot of money in faking signatures on those unsigned cards.

Someone might try a few of the Richard Hatch and Steve Irwin cards and maybe the Terri Irwin card as she's still in the public eye from her current TV show. However, with word and that photo of the stacks of unsigned cards getting out, it makes it a little tougher on forgers. Dealers and collectors are going to be more wary of any sudden appearance of even a few more of those cards than what has been already on the market.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:
Yeah, it is unfortunate that these are still around.

A few people -- myself included have suggested that the unsigned cards be hole punched before selling.

I haven't seen the dealer who is selling these cards respond to that.

The dealer has responded that hole punching or otherwise altering the cards would destroy their value, so it seems these will make their way on to the market.

I think it all just ended up in a box and was forgotten about. A better time to sell some of that stuff would have been 15-20 years ago or right after Steve Irwin died. Companies throw out stuff like that all the time, but sometimes, someone runs across an old box of flyers/trade show extras in storage.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:
Saw some of this on ebay and was wondering what the deal was.

Kinda makes you wonder what Dart was planning to do with these after the cards were officially released? Steve and Richard are no longer with us but it wont stop attempts at forgeries.

Forgeries have hit eBay. . . This specific auction has already been shut down: 334401903118

https://www.ebay.com/itm/33440...rksid=p2047675.l2557

So this sets up the perfect situation that almost requires third-party grading and signature authentication if its Steve Irwin or other better names. It's the worse combination. The authentic autograph card, that may not have an authentic signature. And then you still have to hope that the authenticator gets it right.

To me, if the card makers can't bring themselves to destroy something that maybe they can sell, they have to at least void (punch or stamp or clip) the blank cards before they let them out the door. That way they all become in the same condition and there is no loss of value, as the voiding just becomes part of the production. Unfortunately individual sellers can't take that step even in good faith, as it will make their inventory an inferior self made variant.

Voiding unsigned certified cards is a simple solution that protects everyone, yet it has seemingly been rejected by all card manufacturers.

It's the same with preview sets and the like which are hand numbered out of whatever...25/100.

The company then lets loose loads of unnumbered ones. What do they think is going to happen to them? Somebody will straight away write a number in the space and bingo there are now two 25/100.

As I recall, there were some unsigned autograph cards from Cornerstone, Imagine, and Comic Images but not that many and some from Inkworks but all these from Dart have to be the most made available later I've seen. I can understand some extras getting forgotten about after the company moves on to the next project. You'd think, though, right after they got all the cards signed that were going to get signed, they would have at least stamped the extras "VOID" or splashed them with water and then tossed them into the garbage if no one had a hole punch handy especially if they had stacks of them because they wouldn't want them getting out even later. I don't see how they would plan to sell them later because the license was going to run out so longterm storage doesn't make sense. That's why I think they intended to mark them somehow or just dump them but no one got around to doing it and the box got buried by other boxes over time and was forgotten about.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
So this sets up the perfect situation that almost requires third-party grading and signature authentication if its Steve Irwin or other better names. It's the worse combination. The authentic autograph card, that may not have an authentic signature. And then you still have to hope that the authenticator gets it right.

To me, if the card makers can't bring themselves to destroy something that maybe they can sell, they have to at least void (punch or stamp or clip) the blank cards before they let them out the door. That way they all become in the same condition and there is no loss of value, as the voiding just becomes part of the production. Unfortunately individual sellers can't take that step even in good faith, as it will make their inventory an inferior self made variant.

Voiding unsigned certified cards is a simple solution that protects everyone, yet it has seemingly been rejected by all card manufacturers.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:
The dealer has responded that hole punching or otherwise altering the cards would destroy their value, so it seems these will make their way on to the market.

I am disappointed that these weren't hole punched.

I don't care if this would be a non-factory alterations. I think as a person who makes their living in this industry you have some responsibility to protect the industry when you have the opportunity.

I also don't think a hole punch is going to dissuade many people who really are looking for a 'filler' in their collection because they don't want to shell out the money for the signed card -- at least not on the Steve Irwin. A hole punch would kill the demand from scammers looking to create forgeries though.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:
The dealer has responded that hole punching or otherwise altering the cards would destroy their value, so it seems these will make their way on to the market.

I am disappointed that these weren't hole punched.

I don't care if this would be a non-factory alterations. I think as a person who makes their living in this industry you have some responsibility to protect the industry when you have the opportunity.

I also don't think a hole punch is going to dissuade many people who really are looking for a 'filler' in their collection because they don't want to shell out the money for the signed card -- at least not on the Steve Irwin. A hole punch would kill the demand from scammers looking to create forgeries though.

It pretty simple...

He's asking $30+ for an unsigned card
He'd probably only get $5 for a punched card.

Money means more than integrity here it seems.

Ed

quote:

Originally posted by Scifi Cards:

Money means more than integrity here it seems.

Ed

Yeah, but you could say the same thing about the card makers, who allow it to happen in the first place and can't even claim ignorance of the consequences.

When they print autograph cards for people who they can't contract, that completed card never existed. When the blank cards get out into the wild, either by accident or usually through a sale or liquidation of the manufacturer's inventory, card collectors know it never existed and will not be fooled.

However others who are less knowledgeable and don't look it up, might be. After all the card says it's a certified autograph and it's not a counterfeit. If questioned there could also be a story about getting it signed at a personal appearance. Now it's truly rare, right?

But the killer is when the autograph card does exist and the blank cards are held over from overproduction or returns on quantity not signed. Once they get out as blank unsigned genuine cards, nobody can trust any of them unless they were the ones who pulled it from the pack. If it's from a bigger name like a Jennifer Garner say, you will have a hard time selling it without a third party authentication.

That's clearly the fault of the card makers and they have done nothing to prevent it from happening in all these years, except for changes with the invention of the sticker signatures. I don't think they have to overproduce the certified cards very much now because they know the exact number of signatures they will use. It would just be for minimal replacement purposes if anything. Still they are probably laying around in maker vaults, just not as dangerous because on-card don't exist if the production used stickers.

I agree with Ed. Hole-punched cards are a tough sell even if it's a card unavailable unpunched. Most collectors consider it damage. I've seen comments by collectors about getting their redemption cards returned with hole-punches and they wish there had been another way to prevent being reused. Only a diehard among completists is going to want one and is going to want it cheap.

Yeah that's true Jess, but that's talking about redeemed and unredeemed redemption cards. Completists wanted both versions. If all the blank autograph cards were voided by the card maker, punched or any other method, they would all be the same. Two versions would not exist and nothing would have a premium or deduction over the other. The card would be identified as a blank and no one could add a bogus signature.

But this discussion is all academic because that's not what happened. Older blank cards, mostly from out of business manufacturers, have been floating around for years. So far the release of newer product missing on-card signatures doesn't seem to be a problem. Or at least I'm not aware of it, if it is. If that starts up in earnest someday, then let's hope the maker does protect collectors and the market by voiding them in some manner before turning them over to other sellers.