With the Rookie Premiere in the books, we are starting to get a good idea of some of the stuff that is going to be headed our way during this year’s card season. Autographs have been the main focus, especially with Topps ramping up their availability of on card autographs from the rookie class. One element of these autographs that is also making a stronger push for more inclusion in this year’s products is the multisigned card, a factor that may not be the best thing for this class.
Multisigned cards have been around for ages. There are thousands upon thousands of them released each year, almost to the point of nauseum with some products. Although there are some of them that are testaments to the awesomeness of the concept, there are tons more that leave you scratching your head as to why the cards continually show up. The question becomes why are these cards the focus of the company when so many of the rookies at the premiere fizzle out before they can justify their appearance on thousands of cards over the course of the year.
The most telling example of the answer to this question focuses on the way players are grouped for these multi auto cards. Team affiliation and draft order are the most commonly used scenarios, rather than potential as superstars within the league. For this reason alone, I usually avoid dual and triple autos like the plague, if not only because of how many of the rookies don’t pan out.
Check out some of these GREAT examples:
Upper Deck Exquisite Dual Auto – PERFECT PAIRING
Upper Deck Classic Dual Auto – PERFECT PAIRING
Upper Deck The Cup Dual Auto – PERFECT PAIRING
Check out some of these LESS GREAT examples:
Upper Deck Exquisite Dual Auto – VALUE DIMINISHED PAIRING
Upper Deck SP Signature Dual Auto – HORRID PAIRING
Panini Contenders Dual Auto – VALUE DIMINISHED PAIRING
I have actually only pursued the purchase of one dual auto during the course of my collecting career, and it was a card that featured Adrian Peterson and Emmitt Smith. You all can probably guess as to why I wanted this card. Other than that, Peterson has been on cards with Reggie Bush, Toby Gerhart, hell even John David Booty, all of which I have passed on for obvious reasons.
The rule of thumb should always be, “DOES THIS SECOND (OR THIRD, OR FOURTH PLAYER) add any potential value to this card at this specific moment? If the answer is even slightly in doubt, the card should not be made. Dan Marino and Joe Montana on one card is one thing, but Cam Newton and Ricky Stanzi is completely different.
Bottom line, multi-signed cards are becoming as common as autos themselves, only further proving how a good idea is always exploited to the point of exhaustion.
I actually dislike most auto cards as well, but for different reasons. Namely, that usually the cards aren’t cohesive (ie. the two players on the card have no logical reason for being featured on a card together).
So while your idea of a great multiple auto card might be just sticking as many great players on one card as possible I personally prefer when some more thought being put into the card other than just “how much could this thing sell for”.
That’s why I think your example of a horrid card (the OU alumni card) to me is actually an excellent concept, whereas your example of an excellent card (Lebron and Kobe) is actually a lousy card because it’s an example of two superstars being jammed together in an attempt to generate value.
Anyway, just my two cents, I’m sure many people would agree with your point of view. I just really hope that companies realize that there are collectors out there who like to see some thought go in to these designs and prefer cohesion (teams, alumni, positions, milestones) and not just “these guys are both really really famous”.
LeBron and Boozer were on the same team at the time the card was made and both gave Cleveland the shaft when they left. I think the pairing makes complete sense.
The Emmitt/Adrian card is one of 3 or 4 worthwhile cards in a product filled with multi autos. What a failed rookie, sticker dump product SP Signature was!
I think that this problem is reflective of the fact that card companies do very little research into how and why people collect/buy their products.
Most people are fans of specific teams/cities/colleges, and are therefore primarily interested in having players grouped accordingly. For example, I’m from San Francisco. I support the Giants, 49ers, and Sharks (not an NBA fan). Am I interest in a card of Tim Lincecum grouped with players from other teams? Not a bit. Am I interested in a card of Tim Lincecum grouped with Matt Cain and Juan Marichal. Heck yeah. Am in interested in a card of Joe Montana and Dan Marino. No. A card of Joe Montana with Steve Young and Jerry Rice. You bet. Or how about a Mays/McCovey/Marichal triple auto? Or a Montana/Mays card? Now those would be cool! Or if you are from Boston, how about a Bird/Orr/Brady/Yaz quad auto.
Card companies need to learn to think the way collectors think. Until they do, they will continue to make cards and products nobody really wants.
I think team affiliation makes the most sense with dual autos as a majority of card collectors are team collectors to an extent. I would much rather have, for instance, a Peyton Manning and Reggie Wayne dual as apposed to a Manning and Brady dual. Also, I don’t like when I see a dual of a historic player coupled with a player that is not from the same franchise (Bench with Mauer). That Oklahoma card makes perfect sense to me as it will attract Sooner fans who will actually appreciate both players as one of their own.
Why are the dual signature cards of bad pairings put out, to sell the product that they are dishing to the collector. The AP auto with that scrub, well any collector would love to pull a AP auto, even if it has someone of less interest on the card with him. They probabably have 5000 scrub autos to the maybe 500 AP autos, so how do they remedy the situation, with the dual auto that the company knows someone will pay for, just for the good auto. The AP and ES auto is a great looking card, but how many people could afford it, for every superstar there are scrubs, and for every collector, there is a level of expense, it will always be supply and demand, no matter how stupid the card may be.
Adam, your incessant desire to criticize nearly every single aspect of the hobby has once again drawn you from the one good point that should come from this post. I think you were trying to make the point that rookie duals are a bad idea because of how many rookies fizzle. This is a valid point. However you take it to the extreme and go on to basically include all dual autos except ones with the highest of the high value guys. As many of the previous comments have shown, that is not always what guys are looking for. Some collectors like to collect a theme, whether it be their alma mater, their hometown teams, whatever. They dont just want to have a card because its worth 500 bucks even though they could care less about one or both guys on it.
I think it’s worth mentioning that Press Pass does a decent job of pairing their multi-autos (usually by school affiliation). I just purchased my first Press Pass auto card ever and it is a card the other companies would never produce:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p4340.l2557&rt=nc&nma=true&item=300563037124&si=V8Omp0QLbe8r2cIhqmI3rN8zv9g%253D&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT
Here, they paired an NFL legend with a lesser know Heisman Trophy winner from the same school. I think Press Pass does a lot of things right; e.g., I’ve never seen a Press Pass sticker auto, and their Legends cards feature some pretty cool old-school players. If they’ll tweak some of their designs I don’t see why their products can’t rival some of the big three products. At the very least they offer a better product than Sage.
As crappy an NFL player as Juaquin Iglesias has been, that Peterson dual card really wouldn’t have been so bad, or at least wouldn’t have had so much of a “why is a superstar on a card with this turd?” factor if Peterson had been pictured in an OU uniform. I can understand the theme of two guys from the same team being on a card, even if there’s a huge difference in star-power there, but for it to work, they need to be in the same uniform. Like even if Iglesias had turned out to be Andre Johnson Jr., that card would still pretty much look like hell as is. So my problem is less with value there and more with aesthetics.