the issues of fading and bleeding autographs in the otherwise outstanding 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic set is well documented. it is a shame that some great signatures and combo signatures are so badly ruined. steve garvey was included in the set, and i've acquired most of the variations of his cards. several months ago, i added a couple more to my collection.
this first one was advertised as a silver stitch gold ink signature.
the other version in the lot that i needed was this blue ink leather signatures card
with an autograph that remains bold. i am down to needing just a couple of cards from this set that have a print run of 6 plus four 1/1 versions. i doubt i will add any of them to my collection at this point.
four years after that set was released, panini included garvey in their 2011 playoff contenders set with a similar sweet spot autograph
of course, they called it "sweet signs". this one is also numbered to 25 and i was happy to find it a few months ago with a reasonable buy it now price even though it also looks like it might be suffering from some bleeding of the ink. here's the back:
it's technically a padres card, although the garv looks to be wearing some blue in the (tiny) photo. the most interesting part of the photo, however, is that he is holding an aluminum easton bat. you don't see that too often.
here's hoping your collections stay strong and your autographed cards don't fade away.
Hopefully you didn't have to pay a premium for that "gold" signature.
ReplyDeleteno, i didn't pay too much although it was advertised as gold and the seller wouldn't discount based on it actually being a faded auto.
DeleteI loved these cards so much, and bought a couple boxes of SS classic at the time - pulled a couple of Yankee autos and sold them ASAP. It's such a shame that so many of them have faded but your Garveys look great and that glove auto definitely wont fade.
ReplyDeletei didn't buy any of this in 2007 but i did buy a fair amount in 2003 and walked away with some nice ballpoint autographs that still look great.
DeleteI was at a show today and saw a number of these that still looked good.
ReplyDeletewas that the valley west club show? i missed it for the first time in a few months
DeleteYes, I haven't been there in years so stopped in for awhile.
DeleteI have a couple Sweet Spot autos tucked away in a binder. I haven't checked on them in a while - would be interested to see if/how much they've faded.
ReplyDeletehopefully not at all!
DeleteI just happened to be watching the Garvey episode of "Just Shoot Me" this evening. I thought the photo on the "Sweet Signs" card looked looked like the uniform he was wearing in that episode and sure enough - it is. Here's the full version of the photo on your card: https://m.imdb.com/name/nm0004953/mediaviewer/rm275433728/
ReplyDeletei used to watch that show on occasion but don't recall seeing that episode. i'llhave to check it out. thanks for the tip!
DeleteThe disappearing signatures is truly a tragedy. What makes things worse is that 2007 Sweet Spot Classic is such an awesome design with the stadium in the background. It's my favorite SS autographed card design.
ReplyDeleteit really is a great design
DeleteThe /6 sting especially. I don't recall how many I have, but all in all I probably have 15+ faded Garvey SS from that set.
ReplyDeleteyikes
DeleteI have all of the 1/1s from that set, I believe, by the way. So, you won't likely be adding any of those anytime soon....BUT you never know...
ReplyDeleteyeah like i said i don't plan to add any
DeleteWhen my father-in-law and I would go to Spring Training games and get autographs, we learned never to get a baseball signed with a permanent marker. The ink gets absorbed by the leather over time and fades. Ballpoint pens resist this and are much better!
ReplyDeletetrue story - harmon killebrew and i bonded over this advice at a signing. the guy ahead of me in line handed him a ball and a sharpie and i picked up a ballpoint pen and handed it to killebrew instead and told the guy that his approach was a bad idea. killebrew took the ballpoint pen and told the guy that he agreed with me and that he knew a thing or two about signing baseballs. when it was my turn we talked for a couple of minutes about the various things he had seen at signings and things he had been asked to sign which included a large number of killebrew root beer cans and bottles.
DeleteThat's awesome!
DeleteNice experience. I thin k the issue with the SS cards was the ball material for some of the cards. All of the 1/1 are as pristine as the day they were signed. The leather cards are fine, just some of the white baseballs have bled/faded badly. I have no proof of this, but it seems to make sense.
DeleteI have to look at it this way, the card itself is still numbered to 6 copies. Even if the signature has faded off completely, it was still a limited insert to 6 and I have a copy (or multiples at it were.
I have sometimes wondered how easy it would be to get a nice real leather ball signed and transplant the good piece into one or more of the cards. That would "ruin" them from a purists standpoint, but improve them from an eye appeal perspective.
Since I have a bajillion Garvey autos, it doesn't hurt as bad, but I am still super pissed every time I look at my SS Glove Mike Marshall card /25 that has bled to almost just being a weird blue shadow on the card. Marshall is a near impossible certified autograph and UG had to royally screw up at least 25 of the limited few that exist!