Jeremiah Trotter Signing Autographs At The Ephrata Lions Club’s 43rd Annual Sports Card Show and Auction

Former Eagles, Redskins, and Buccaneers linebacker Jeremiah Trotter is scheduled to sign autographs at the 43rd Ephrata Lions Club Annual Sports Card Show and Auction.

When: Saturday, March 25, 2023

Where: Ephrata Recreation Center – 130 South Academy Drive, Ephrata, PA 17522

Show Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Autograph Hours: 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Show Admission: $5.00/adult and $1.00 for children under 12

Autograph Price: $25.00 – $35.00 depending on the item

The Ephrata Lions Club Sports Card Show and Auction is the longest running one-day show in the country.

Lots of Phillies, Eagles, Steelers, and Penn State memorabilia spread over (70) vendor tables.

ALERT: Watch Out When Buying These 2022 Topps Stadium Club Baseball Chrome Refractor Autographs

The 2022 Topps Stadium Club Baseball Chrome set consists of (90) cards.

Collectors ripping through their packs/boxes have noticed that the Refractor parallels of these cards contain the Topps autograph COA printed on the back. The only problem is that these specific cards were never meant to have that COA printed on them.

As you can imagine it wouldn’t take much for a scammer to forge the player’s autograph on the front, and attempt to pass it off as the real thing. An individual who didn’t know any better might look at that card, see the COA, and believe the autograph is authentic.

It looks like this is isolated to just the regular non-autographed Refractor parallels. Non-autographed Orange Refractors #’ed/99, Pearl White Refractors #’ed/30, Gold Minted Refractors, and SuperFractors #’ed 1/1 do not have this COA printed on the back.

If you’re looking for an authentic 2022 Topps Stadium Club Baseball Chrome Refractor Autograph not only should it have the COA printed on the back, but the front should have the “TOPPS CERTIFIED AUTOGRAPH ISSUE” message as well. It should also be serial numbered.

A similar situation took place with 2021 Topps Archives Baseball.

Trace McSorley Signing Autographs At The Ephrata Lions Club’s 42nd Annual Sports Card Show and Auction

Former Penn State QB Trace McSorley will be signing autographs at the Ephrata Lions Club’s 42nd Annual Sports Card Show and Auction.

Trace McSorley is currently one of the backup QB’s to Lamar Jackson from the Baltimore Ravens.

The Ephrata Lions Club’s 42nd Annual Sports Card Show and Auction is the longest running one-day show in the country.

Show Details:

When: Saturday, March 26, 2022

Time: 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Where: Ephrata Recreation Center, 130 South Academy Drive, Ephrata, PA 17522

Admission: $5.00/adult, $1.00 for children under 12

Autograph Time: 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Autograph Price: $25.00 to $35.00 – only (200) tickets will be sold

Show Size: 70 tables

ALERT: Watch Out When Buying These 2021 Topps Archives Baseball Autographs

Archives Baseball means retro designs and on-card autographs.

Collectors picking up singles on the secondary market need to carefully watch what they are buying.

Due to a printing error, every 2021 Topps Archives Baseball 1989 Topps Big Minis insert comes with the “Topps Certified Autograph Issue” message printed on the front. The COA which states “The signing of all Topps autograph cards is witnessed by Topps representatives to guarantee authenticity.” also appears on the back.

The 2021 Topps Archives Baseball 1989 Topps Big Minis come in two different formats – autographed and non-autographed. Only the autographed cards are suppose to have the COAs. Unfortunately the non-autographed inserts also have the COAs printed on them, and made their way into the product.

As you can imagine, printing COAs onto cards that weren’t meant to be autographed opens the door for a lot of scammers. Nothing is stopping someone from forging the player’s signature, and passing it off as a pack-pulled autographed card.

The following list of players have legitimate 2021 Topps Archives Baseball 1989 Topps Big Minis autographs:

• Byron Buxton
• Bryce Harper
• Barry Larkin
• Christian Yelich
• Dylan Carlson
• Darryl Strawberry
• Freddie Freeman
• Frank Thomas
• Ichiro
• Joe Carter
• Joe Mauer
• Juan Soto
• Ke’Bryan Hayes
• Kyle Lewis
• Luis Robert
• Mariano Rivera
• Mike Trout
• Pete Alonso
• Paul Goldschmidt
• Rod Carew
• Rickey Henderson
• Yordan Alvarez

That same list of (22) players in addition to (28) others also have non-autographed 2021 Topps Archives Baseball 1989 Topps Big Minis. Those non-autographed cards with the accidental COAs printed on them are what scammers will take advantage of.

Legitimate 2021 Topps Archives Baseball 1989 Topps Big Minis autographs are hand-numbered to (20) copies. It wouldn’t take much for a scammer to hand-number a card they forged a signature on.

Unless you pull the card directly from the pack and/or are an autograph expert, purchasing any of the (22) 2021 Topps Archives Baseball 1989 Topps Big Minis autographs on the secondary market could be an authenticity gamble. You just can’t tell if it came from Topps autographed or was signed by a scammer. Obviously, if you find an autograph out in the wild of someone who isn’t on the above list it most definitely is a fake.

Topps did alert collectors about this mistake.

A similar situation happened with 2018 Panini Illusions Football.

2020/21 Topps UEFA Champions League Museum Collection Auto Contest! – NOW CLOSED

This contest is for a Marco Verratti 2020/21 Topps UEFA Champions League Museum Collection Archival Autographs Sapphire Parallel Auto #’ed/75. Good luck!!!

Contest Details:

• This contest will end Friday, June 4, 2021 @ 7:00 p.m. EST.
• To enter, please leave a comment in this post.
• You can enter once per day.
• The winner will be selected at random.
• Please provide a valid e-mail address when entering.
• U.S. residents only.
• The winner will receive an e-mail when the contest is over.
• The winner has one week to send me their contact information or the contest will be held again.
• Once the contest is over, I will need the winner’s mailing address so I can ship them this card for FREE!!!

Fake ’18 Panini Illusions Football Autographs Start To Surface

Earlier this week I blogged about those elusive missing autographs that have been coming out of 2018 Panini Illusions Football.  I warned you that people would take advantage of that misprinted COA, and start signing them in an attempt to pass them off as the real deal.  Well, that didn’t take too long.  A seller on eBay that goes by “tolpul0” from Twin Falls, ID took a misprinted Sam Darnold card, signed it themselves, and is now selling it as an authentic autograph.  What a total crock!  Its sold too.  Last I saw it had one bid for $20 with a few days to go.  Not only is the autograph a terrible counterfeit, but its on-card.  Authentic pack-pulled examples are all signed on stickers.  PLEASE BE CAREFUL!

It would be nice if those who pulled a misprinted error could exchange the card for something.  The least Panini could do is give an official statement on the matter and/or give us an estimated print run of the errors.

WARNING: Missing Autographs In ’18 Panini Illusions Football

Last night while browsing through the card topics of the day on Twitter, I came across something interesting.

Apparently some of the cards coming out of 2018 Panini Illusions Football contain Panini’s autograph certification message on the back, but lack the actual autograph itself.  Contacting Panini wondering how you can get your autograph hasn’t brought the happiest of news either.  According to those who have talked to Panini on this, you won’t be eligible for an autograph.  These cards were never intended to be autographed, but somehow received Panini’s COA printed on the back.  Its an error.  Some of the players this has happened to include Baker Mayfield, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, and Randy Moss.  Just doing a quick search on eBay shows even more.  From what I’ve seen, this error applies to the Living Legends, Illusionists, and Mystique inserts.

Please be aware of what you’re buying.  It wouldn’t take much for a scammer to forge a signature on the front, and attempt to pass it off as the real thing.  That COA easily opens the door for people to do this.

You have to admit that its pretty ironic that something like this happened with a product called Illusions.

Card of the Day: Rick Ankiel 2000 Topps Gallery Autographs

Upper Deck Bringing Ohtani Autographs To The 39th National

One of my favorite activities to participate in while attending the National Sports Collectors Convention are the wrapper redemption programs.  I mainly focus on Upper Deck and Topps as they both seem to do the best work.  While attending the 2016 National in Atlantic City, I pulled a decent amount of valuable promos from both companies.

Upper Deck is the first manufacturer to give us a glimpse as to what their promos will look like for the National this year.  Have you heard of this guy named Shohei Ohtani?  Only a few people have been hunting for his cards 🙂  From the looks of it, he will have autographs randomly thrown into Upper Deck wrapper redemption packs.  Upper Deck seems to be bringing back the Prominent Cuts theme.  As we get closer to August, more details pertaining to VIP sets and wrapper redemption programs will become available.

I can imagine Topps will have Ohtani autographs too.  They’d be crazy not to have them.  Upper Deck has been using the Prominent Cuts name for National promos for awhile.  One of these years I’d like them to put that Fleer brand into use.  I believe Upper Deck stays away from creating special parallel promos for the National because Topps does that with their products.

The 39th National Sports Collectors Convention takes place 8/1-8/5 in Cleveland at the I-X Center.  Be sure to pickup an official t-shirt beforehand.  TRISTAR has already announced a hefty autograph lineup.

Jim Thome Topps NOW Autographs Beginning To Surface

When it comes to picking up new single cards for my collection, I can be quite picky.  Some collectors have bubble mailers arriving everyday.  That certainly isn’t me.  Former Phillies broadcaster, Harry Kalas, is the main person I collect but he has very few cards.  In fact, at the current time I believe I only need four more cards of his.

I’m a big fan of the Topps NOW program.  Once again, I’m picky about what cards I purchase, but I’ll jump on one when I really like it.  So far I’ve made two Topps NOW purchases this year.  The first is this Jim Thome 2018 National Baseball Hall Of Fame Electee Autograph #’ed 5/49.  I bought this card on 1/25/18 and it arrived on 3/3/18.  Not a bad wait time.  This is the first Topps NOW autographed card I’ve purchased.  These sold out so fast I didn’t think I had a chance at getting one.  Ever since Jim Thome played for the Phillies I’ve been a big fan.  He has a great signature too.  It almost takes up the entire width of the card.  If you weren’t able to buy one directly from Topps, I’m sure some will be hitting the secondary market shortly.

My second Topps NOW buy of 2018 is a Phillies Road To Opening Day Team Set.  Topps keeps track of who buys these sets, and if your team does something special you’ll receive an exclusive card.  This is something that Topps started last year.  I think it adds a fun element, and gives you something to watch for.