Not much room for too many super short production numbers.

Take out Seth's 150 and that leaves roughly 175 each for the other 25 cards. (if everything was even) There are 17 different signers and 9 of them signed two cards including Jason Alexander.

RA must be twisting in the wind over the MacFarlane autopens. Been more than a month and still no word of replacement options. I wonder if the sealed packs are just stuck with whoever has them for now or if dealers/sellers are trying to move them ahead of any resolution? I wonder if collectors think the autopenned card has value simply as a card and, if so, I wonder how much?

Obviously I have nothing to do before the presents are opened.

Steve made a statement about Seth's auto a few weeks ago.

Yes, he said have patience. That is not giving an option.

This is what Steve actually said:

Posted: 12/03/2020 11:42 AM
"Quick update on the Seth cards. We're still trying to work it out to have Seth sign another batch of cards, in his own actual handwriting, to replace the ones signed with the auto-pen. I appreciate everyone's patience and support."

It's been over a month and RA has not yet announced its remediation or even stated that MacFarlane will return another batch of autographed cards for certain. If they knew, than they would say. That is why I said they are twisting in the wind, they are stuck waiting on him.

My questions were, what if anything is happening with the sealed Orville packs right now and is there a market for the autopenned card itself? At least a couple of autopens have been sold individually and some may be still trying to be sold, so are they being traded in hopes of the replacement or just as a limited card with a facsimile auto?

What is your point? They said they are working on it, just because it doesn’t suit you is a reason to complain? A month is not a long time with this type of situation.

There was no complaint. I was asking about how sealed Orville packs and the current MacFarlane card in circulation were being handled right now, prior to RA's establishing guaranteed replacement options. Consider my questions withdrawn. I don't care anymore.

Posted by Steve on the Rittenhouse boards:

"Seth MacFarlane has signed (for real this time) a new batch of cards that we will redeem for the auto-pen cards. More details on that very shortly. Thanks for everyone's patience with this situation."

Fantastic news -- kudos to RA!

Just posted by Steve on the Rittenhouse boards:

"For those who would like to exchange the auto-pen version of Seth MacFarlane's autograph card from The Orville for one of the cards that MacFarlane just signed for us in his own hand, please send your card(s) to Rittenhouse Archives at the following address: Rittenhouse Archives, Attn: S.M. Exchange, 830 Welsh Road #188, Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006. Please allow a minimum of 6-8 weeks for delivery. All requests must be postmarked by December 31, 2021."

Wouldn't it be appropriate if RA returned that autopenned card, with a punch out in a corner of course, along with the new hand signed card?

I know it's good that they have gotten a replacement as an exchange, but that was the original contract wasn't it? Hand signed autographs were what the product was sold on. Returning both cards with the autopen properly marked would be making up for the mistake and inconvenience. Hope RA is listening.

Why would you want the auto pen one back? I'm not being argumentative at alllll. I'm legit curious.

Hey Lynne, exchanging ideas is what it's all about, so fair question.

I think that separate from what would be considered a facsimile signature, you do have a limitedly produced card. Therefore the card itself should have a value. As long as its plainly marked to be the autopenned version to prevent misrepresentation to people who may not know about it, returning that card would be like bonus for the customer inconvenience of having to go through a redemption process. The punched or marked autopen card could establish its own market price for what it is. It could even be considered part of the set for completists. Card collectors being what they are, I don't think anyone would refuse an offer for both cards back.

On the other hand, if those autopenned cards are just exchanged, what happens to them? Do we assume total destruction? What is the value of unmarked autopens that are not exchanged? Will all sealed packs now have to be broken to ensure time for the exchange?

I'm not complaining about RA, they are doing the right thing with the exchange, but if they returned both cards it would add value in my opinion, make the exchange offer more likely to get these cards back, and collectors would appreciate it as a bonus gift. The autopens must be clearly voided though, because you don't want anyone to confuse real and fake signatures in the future. Of course that's just how I see it and it can be viewed different ways.

I think Fleer used to do that back in the day with redemption cards. You would get it back with a hole punched in it so you couldn't try and redeem it again.

quote:

On the other hand, if those autopenned cards are just exchanged, what happens to them? Do we assume total destruction? What is the value of unmarked autopens that are not exchanged? Will all sealed packs now have to be broken to ensure time for the exchange?

This most definitely puts a shelf life on any sealed product.

I have one pack left. If I still have it December 1st, it gets opened to make sure I can still redeem the autopen if it's in there.

This is pretty much the case with ALL redemptions, but considering the desirability of this one auto, it is a no brainer to open anything still sealed before the expiration date.

Ed

Raven, with your permission I'd like to expand on this topic beyond the Orville autograph in a separate thread as I find it a fascinating topic in general..variations..redemptions, errors, etc. I don't have a horse on the race on the Orville but I enjoy the topic itself.

Lynne, I'm sure with all the time you've spent with Trek collectors, you have a lot more experience navigating this hobby than most of us do. Any new threads that provide more opinions or consolidates them about things like card errors, variations, redemptions, fakes and counterfeits would be welcome. Comments about those things are scattered in various threads, but a new place would be a good idea if you can figure out how you want to frame the discussion.

The hard part will be that even knowledgeable card collectors don't always agree about the definition of those terms. There is no universally accepted hobby language and many grey areas that results in opposing opinions that can all be valid, depending on your point of view. So what I'm saying is, good luck with your topic.

quote:

Originally posted by STCardGeek:
Why would you want the auto pen one back? I'm not being argumentative at alllll. I'm legit curious.

Some collectors would want it to have a “complete set” of the autograph cards.
If the auto pen version is returned, there could be 3 varieties of the cards:

- Auto pen from the packs.
- Auto pen that was returned.
- New autograph card that was returned.

I don’t know why, but this kind of reminds me of the 1991 ProLine autopen autograph by Senator Jack Kemp. But I don’t believe there was ever an actual autograph of that card.

Posted today by Steve:

"To be clear, we must receive one card back for each card we send out. And we cannot return the cards that are sent back to us (no hole punches or voids or anything else like that). Sorry to disappoint anyone who wants to have both cards, but that's how it needs to be. Of course, anyone is free to keep the cards they have and not return them to us - or return a portion of what they have and keep a portion, if they have more than one."