General Forum

Something I've been thinking on, and I have never seen any actual ideas about this. 

Why did autograph cards not start to get put into packs until 1991? Autograph collecting has been around even longer than card collecting has been, and fake autographs have been applied to cards since, I think, the late 1800s. (By fake I mean facsimilie, like Topps does with the baseball sets, not like a forgery being passed off as real to rip people off)

So why did it take until 1991? At that time several companies began to issue autograph cards and they all seemed to do it at the same time- Fleer and Upper Deck in the NBA, Traks in NASCAR and Upper Deck and possibly others in hockey. I have not really researched baseball and football but I know I've seen talk of an autograph from 1991 UD baseball. I think, but am not 100% sure, that the first autographs in non-sports also came out in 1991.

Was there some sort of law preventing it, that was lifted in 1991? Or did one company start it, and then the other companies all think, in rapid succession, that they should as well? Even once they were introduced, they remained fairly rare until 1996, when they became fairly common. Now it's generally considered "THE" thing to collect in the hobby, but that's really a different topic. 

Are there pack-issued autographs from before 1991? I know there are not in the NBA or NASCAR, but I don't know for sure in other sports or non-sports. 

(As an aside, I know the card companies say that they didn't have the technology to do memorabilia cards before 1996, but really, how hard can it be to cut up a shirt or some other material, and glue a square of it to a piece of cardboard? I think in reality, they just didn't try sooner) Press Pass was the first, with pieces of tire. 

It might have had something to do with the expense of paying the guys to sign, back when packs were still under 50 cents.  Might not have been considered profitable until UD showed up with their $1 + packs.

Or...maybe it's as simple as nobody ever thought of it.

Actually, Star Company was issuing sets that had the top card autographed (albeit, not random inserts like 1991) starting in 1983. Well before I started with them.

I don't know the answer to your query, but whoever came up with the idea of sticker autos or even worse, redemptions, deserves <things I'm probably not allowed to say here>

Score actually started in 91 i believe, but after I read Billy's post i searced and came across another article that talked about memorabillia value and how most cards/jerseys don't hold value and it mentioned that Emmitt Smith actually started inserting microchips in the jerseys, that year all of the Cowboys had chips inserted in the jerseys, so when they sold as game/player worn you could scan the chip on the app and it can be authenticated since fraud was huge back then. pretty neat though, either way now its way over produced-- i rather have a very limited production of them-- and actually on card and not sticker

You see this often in business.  Ideas emerging from different sources at or around the same time, and in retrospect obvious value.  It's an arms race that almost looks like coersion.  Baseball cards started not as a stand alone item, but quite obviously a value add to gum and cigerettes.  Obviously those represent different decades of time.  This site shows that evolution, once baseball cards became a stand alone product the first innovations came in the form of buttons, discs, promotional items, and even stickers.  These were met with varying layers of success.  It's my theory that what caused the boom, and then bust of baseball cards in 1980-94 was the baby-boomer generation returning to baseball cards from their youth with disposible incomes and children in tow.  You can see that as products both stablized and new companies entered the market.  The 1980's was a free for all.  Card companies focused on price per pack, availability and style.  They began to replicate the items that the baby-boomer generation saught out in the cards from their own youth, the values that had stood up to 30 years of valuation.

Signatures where added by a player to a card in a kids hand.  What little market demand was being met in a direct way.  

I would argue it was upper deck that changed the course in 89 more than any other brand.  Their fresh style, improved photography, and stronger card stock, gave the market something it had, in my opinion, been lacking, a true premier value .And with that changed the course of baseball cards.  Topps responded with Stadium Club, Fleer with Ultra, Donruss with Leaf/Elite so on and so forth.  With the launch of the premier cards the arms race was changed from collecting everything to specialization.  You can see Topps bringing out the variant idea in '92 with the Gold Cards, and Gold Winner.  So...

I would propose, that the arms race for the premier card in a crowded field, that had established a now acceptable stand alone product, caused co-innovation which led to parrallels, inserts, premium Card brands, and ultimately, Autos.  Followed shortly by game used and finally numbered sets...  

To answer your quesiton as why 91', because the market was sufficently(ahem...overly) saturated with makers, who now were experimenting with ideas in the premium space, to meet an evolving demand for the high end collector.  Aka an arms race. Evolution is forced, not welcomed.  And so Autographs began to be added to cards.  

The question that is most intriguing is what is next.  Leaf is trying to sell guarunteed PSA's.  I got a few epic ideas if Topps wants to look me up...

-Drew

I agree that person should have suffered some concequences but they probably were promoted got a six figure raise and retired to some remote pacific island of paradise.

Personally I'd add in jersey cards, relic cards and cut signature cards that came from cut-up cards, but many collectors really enjoy those things so like the folding relic booklets and rip cards they have become a semi-staple variant in our hobby.

Cut autos have taken some mystique away.  The player didnt touch that card.  Their pen touched a little sticker which is on your card.  Thats meh.  But you can alway still take a normal card to the player and get it signed, so you at least have recourse.  I doubt the guy who came up with it is rich.  I am sure he retired with an underfunded 401k, and lives a middle class existence in florida or Arizona...

but like the auto and relic cards, MFR's have to keep changing and doing something different to keep the demand going.. with technology today- i am waiting for the first 15 sec video clip of an action play on a card. with the card thickness, you can easily put a chip and a screen on one. Big step from a hologram- i don't recall ever seeing one like that, anyone else?

My opinion: It wasn't part of trading card production earlier because it wasn't needed. There were only a few card producers and people bought what they made. Why weren't cool inserts included earlier? Why didn't Topps make 10 different barnds earlier? I think it's because they didn't have to in order to sell their product. Addition of rarer subsets, multiple brands and autographs are all ways to entice consumers to keep buying more and collecting more.