Back in 2009, Upper Deck was at the top of the mountain, both in terms of design and content. For that season, there were in upwards of 4 products that featured hard signed autographs of current NFL and HOF/Retired players, and another 4 or 5 that featured on card rookie content. Fast forward to today, and you only have 1 product during the course of the entire year that features hard signed content from current or retired stars, and it costs 500 dollars per box. Topps Five star is widely considered to be an amazing autograph and design product, despite its lack of appreciation by the crowd who values patches above all else. What if I told you that price didn’t need to be an indicator for hard signed autographs, and that for less than 60 bucks a box, Upper Deck accomplished what isn’t available since they left.
Upper Deck released the retro themed 2009 Philadelphia and in the set, the main box hits were the Philadelphia signatures set, which had a pretty wide range of players. In fact, since the release of Philadelphia, a portion of the checklist has yet to get another hard signed card in any product. There were also oversized box toppers, autographed on card by a few retired and rookie stars, as well as National Chicle Minis that had hard signed autographs as well. All of this was available for a price that cost little to nothing compared to recent releases.
The cards looked pretty cool for the price tag people were spending:
2009 UD Philadelphia National Chicle Mini Adrian Peterson Auto
2009 UD Philadelphia Stars Peyton Manning On Card Auto
2009 UD Philadelphia Stars Brandon Marshall Auto
2009 UD Philadelphia National Chicle Mini LaDanian Tomlinson Auto
Philadelphia can currently be had for less than release, sometimes on sale for 39 bucks a box. I wish people cared about hard signed cards as much as I do, and from what I see, not many people really give two craps. They only care about jumbo rookie patches, most of which come from jerseys not worn in a game. That doesn’t make sense to me.
If there was one thing I wish that people would put up a stink about, it has to be sticker autographs in super high end products like National Treasures, Bowman Sterling, Gold Standard, and Triple Threads. If Upper Deck can do it for 60 bucks a box with Philadelphia, 80 bucks a box with Ultimate, and 100 bucks a box for SP Authentic, they should be able to do it for a product that costs more than 200.
I wish that players were more accessible and more available, but I know they are not. Its going to take time to plan out signings to make this work, and from what I can tell, there is not much of a focus on working with even a small group of players that are friendly to the idea. As we have seen in the past, a checklist of on card mixed with stickers CAN work, I hope its something that is used in the future.
Well said. Topps has made many improvements, but still lag with the veteran on-card content. If Upper Deck and Press Pass had NFL licenses I think that’s all I would buy. Both companies do a great job getting on-card autos. Panini could if they wanted to, but I get the impression they don’t care and consumers aren’t making them pay for that attitude.
I just broke a box of 2004 Upper Deck NFL Ultimate Collection because everything out since 2009 has been trash, for the most part. I want a legitimate chance at an ON CARD hall of famer autograph. Well, I hit a Joe Montana Ultimate Signatures 08/25. Well worth it after surveying the carnage of $450 boxes of NT and 5 Star in recent years. So, even without being able to compete in the NFL trading card market, UD makes everybody elses product look like the pile of shit it truly is… 8 years after the fact.
2003 Topps Football has some good on-card autos and you can get boxes on Ebay for $40-$50/box. Pretty sure there isn’t one per box, but your chances are still pretty good.
I’ve been trying to put together the “Record Breakers Autographs” insert set for a few years now. So far, I have the autos (all on-card) of Brett Favre, John Elway, Steve Young, Barry Sanders, LaDainian Tomlinson, Priest Holmes, Clinton Portis, Marvin Harrision, Jimmy Smith, Jason Taylor.
I still need Dan Marino, Derrick Mason, and Michael Strahan. Not part of that particular subset, but I also have the Barry Sanders/Emmitt Smith dual auto.