Razor's Cut Signature Mistakes Didn't Start With the Presidents

It's been a few days since word broke that there have been questionable signatures in Razor's Cut Signatures: Oval Office Edition set. Autograph Alert has also provided an update to the story where Razor owner Brian Gray states that he's willing to go to great measures to ensure that things are made good.

But this isn't the first time the authenticity of Razor's cut signatures have come into question. Back around the release of the company's first entertainment release 2008 Cut Signature Edition. A user on Non-Sport Update's Card Talk message board brought to light a potentially fake Carrie Fisher (aka Princess Leia from Star Wars) that was in fact signed by her mother, Debbie Reynolds. You can read the thread here and scroll to the bottom of the page.

Here's the image of the card with the questionable autograph:

And here's a signed photo that Carrie Fisher herself points out the fake signature, which the photo was originally signed with:

Wouldn't you know that the non-sport realm is a pretty tight-knit group and the owner of the Fisher card happened to be reading the thread. So was Razor's Gray. Gray promised to make good and the card's owner, Tom Wright of The Wright Stuff Collectibles took him up on the offer. I contacted Wright and he said that he and Gray agreed two packs of the more than $100-per-pack product was a reasonable replacement. Wright said that he pulled both a Richard Gere 1-of-1 and a President George Bush Sr. from his packs. So it's good to see that Razor does have a track record of following through on this questionable signatures.

That said, when you're charging as much as Razor is for these ultra high-end cards, extra steps for authentication need to be taken. Gray needs to increase the transparency of the sources of the autographs. I, for one, will not even consider buying any of these sets (either in pack form or on the secondary market) until the authenication process is noted on the card itself. A "Razor guarantee" has now been proven potentially wrong on more than one occasion.

So on the one hand, kudos to Brian Gray for making good. But really, should these mistakes have happened in the first place?

Something That Could Be Taken Out of Context

Yesterday's post about sketch cards led me to looking around a little more at some of the new stuff coming in non-sport. Here's a cool nine-card piece by Rich Woodall from Upper Deck's upcoming Marvel Masterpieces III that I found over on Scoundrel Publishing:

This isn't the first time there's been a multi-card image. And other than the bottom-middle card, each as at least one character's face. I also couldn't help but notice the top-middle card of Magneto and Spider-Man's tights and wonder if Marvel thought of the possible context it could be taken as.


Looks a little dirty to me.

Trading Card Oops of the Week: 2008 Finest Football

Yesterday Topps announced another "oops" pertaining to 2008 Finest Football. It seems those serial-numbered base autographed rookies are missing their serial numbers. Oops, indeed. To help fix the problem (and create an added layer of chaos), Topps has set things up for collectors to send in their print errors and have them get serial numbered as well as tagged with an authenticity sticker.

Numbering will be based on the order cards are received, so time it wisely faux one-of-one seekers out there. As a peace offering Topps is tossing in a "2008 hobby pack." Of what brand? That is the mystery of careful language.

Cards will be accepted until March 31, 2009.

Send your non-serial numbered base rookie autographs to:
The Topps Company
ATTN: Consumer Relations
401 York Ave
Duryea, PA 18642

Topps also provided the print run of the Finest rookie autographs:

101. Erik Ainge #/400
102. John David Booty #/40
103. Colt Brennan #/40
104. Brian Brohm #/40
105. Joe Flacco #/40
106. Chad Henne #/150
107. Joshua Johnson #/1999
108. Anthony Morelli #/1499
109. Matt Ryan #/40
110. Andre Woodson #/40
111. Kyle Wright #/750
112. Jamaal Charles #/400
113. Tashard Choice #/400
114. Matt Forte #/1999
115. Mike Hart #/1499
116. Chris Johnson #/1200
117. Felix Jones #/40
118. Darren McFadden #/40
119. Rashard Mendenhall #/40
120. Allen Patrick #/1999
121. Ray Rice #/150
122. Dustin Keller #/400
123. Steve Slaton #/150
124. Kevin Smith #/1999
125. Jonathan Stewart #/40
126. Kevin O'Connell #/150
127. Adrian Arrington #/1999
128. Donnie Avery #/1499
129. Earl Bennett #/750
130. Dexter Jackson #/150
131. Jerome Simpson #/150
132. Keenan Burton #/1999
133. Andre Caldwell #/1999
134. Early Doucet III #/400
135. Harry Douglas #/1999
136. James Hardy #/150
137. Jordy Nelson #/150
138. DeSean Jackson #/400
139. Malcolm Kelly #/400
140. Mario Manningham #/750
141. Limas Sweed #/150
142. Eddie Royal #/1999
143. Devin Thomas #/150
144. John Carlson #/750
145. Chris Long #/150
146. Vernon Gholston #/150
147. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie #/750
148. Keith Rivers #/400
149. Jake Long #/400
150. Glenn Dorsey #/150

Topps Clears Up the Fuk'd Up Bowman Chrome

Is it an error? Is it a variation? Is it a gimmick? People didn't know what to make of the Kosuke Fukudome that showed up in 2008 Bowman Chrome Baseball. On the back there was a note making it look as though the card was supposed to be autographed. Yet no autographed cards surfaced.

The official word from Topps is that it's an error and they never had any intention of having an autographed version in the set. Topps also announced there's a total of 1,900 copies of the card. The Cubs rookie is also on the following parallels: Refractor, X-Fractor (#’d to 250), Blue Refractor (#’d to 150), Gold Refractor (#’d to 50), Orange Refractor (#’d to 25), Red Refractor (#’d to 5) and Superfractor (1 of 1). Just goes to show that when collectors come to expect gimmicks, mistakes and Photoshopped snafu's, they no longer know what to make of something that is (intentionally or not) an error. And that's not the collector's fault.

The Allen & Ginter Mammoth is Woolier Than Once Thought

Turns out the "DNA" card of the woolly mammoth in 2008 Topps Allen & Ginter Baseball is either harrier than they thought, there was a screw up in the Eisner house or the DNA has in fact been used to clone more woolly mammoth cards. Topps hyped the animal hair card as being a one-of-one. In actuality, it's one-of-10 as confirmed by Topps themselves today. I would have figured that the process of gathering the hair, cutting it, printing the cards and putting the hair inside the card may have been a little time consuming to be overlooked and going from making one copy to 10 seeing as how it has been advertised as a one-of-one for months. I guess not.


Other notes from the Topps press release:
• Team Orange: 10 cards, 1:6 boxes
• Fukudome is shortprinted
• The Bigfoot Cabinet Box Topper AUTOgraph with the tire marks is limited to 200 copies.

Bad Hair Day

A warning for those of you planning on busting 2008 Upper Deck Piece of History Baseball starting next week. If you pull a redemption card that says it's good for a "Hair Cut Signature" card, you're only going to get the "Hair Cuts". Upper Deck announced today that they made a small copy error in the redemption cards and that the "Hair Cut Signatures" program was only for 2008 SP Legendary Cuts Baseball.

So instead of getting a creepy card that's been made tolerable by a sweet autograph, you just get a creepy card.