When it comes to collecting, my affiliation lies more with the autographs than the cards themselves. Because autographs are the top of the mountain in terms of collectability, companies will do whatever it takes to get more of them into the products they sell – even if the player is no longer alive or signing. Cut autographs have become a way to introduce value into a product without having a player actually there to sign the cards. It’s a great way to get Walter Payton and Johnny Unitas autographs for the packs, when the players themselves have been dead for years.

The problem has become that due to player image licensing, cuts have become a grossly overused and under-designed element in just about every product they are inserted into. They have gone from awesome pieces of encased sports history, to slips of paper with a cardboard border. It’s a crime against the likenesses of the game’s biggest names, and I cannot tell you how awful it looks each time it is done. Every once in a while there is an exception to the rule, but more often than not, Cuts have become passé.

This week, Panini released their idea of the concept made popular by Leaf’s Bryan Grey, building an entire product around encapsulated cut autographs. However, because there are so many boxes that need to be fulfilled to create a product like this, the cuts are incredibly over produced. Not only that, but the product costs close to 225 dollars a box at most local shops, and when you pull a card that sells for 10 bucks, its hard to justify a box break. There are quite a few big hits in the product, including a dual cut of Elvis and Michael Jackson, but when you don’t have pictures of the celebrities on the card, Im not sure why many people would pay astronomical prices to purchase it.

2011 Limited Cuts – Eddie Mathews /22

2011 Limited Cuts – Warren Spahn /45

2011 Limited Cuts – Happy Chandler /15

Leaf did make waves with the inclusion of a chance to win a Joe Jackson cut (one of seven authenticated examples in existence), but overall, I really don’t see the appeal of products made up entirely of cut autographs with no player affiliation. For me personally, I get that an autograph is an autograph, but when you have to pay more just because it has a Panini border on it, I don’t see the point. I have no problem adding them to a product as long as there is a conceded effort to showcase the reason you are buying the cut itself. Make it special with a nice design and cool player picture, don’t just slap a border on a signed index card.

When companies start cutting up signed old baseball and football cards for these products, you know its bad. When you start including cuts of living players who sign frequently, its worse. It’s a bad thing to believe that we need to exploit the history of the game just because at one point the cuts sold well.