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.

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.

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Rolen’s On The Radar

I know it is fairly early into the baseball season, but one player that I did not expect to standout a lot would be Scott Rolen.  As of right now, Rolen is batting .289, with 13 HR and 37 RBI’s.  He has finally taken a leadership role with a team, something that he never really felt like he could do before.  In 1997 he was the NL Rookie of the Year and in 2006 won the World Series with the Cardinals.  If he keeps going at the pace he is at now, its very possible that he could have one hell of a season.

Back in 1997 I attended my very first card show in Lebanon, PA.  Scott Rolen was just a rookie and was signing autographs that day.  When I first arrived, the line was extremely long but I was able to jump to the front after one of the people running it grabbed me while Rolen was walking in.  I got him to sign a baseball before he even sat down.

Unlike a lot of newer players, Rolen only has two rookies…….. technically.  ’95 Bowman and ’95 Bowman’s Best is where you’ll find his rookies.  He does have a Gold Parallel in Bowman and a Refractor in Bowman’s Best, but certain publications don’t consider them true rookies.  I always like to see veteran players who have cooled off for a few years start to get hot again.

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Global Authentication Holdings Announces Launch of Web Based Technology to Thwart Fraud of Online Buyers and Sellers

Source – Market Watch

“SAN CLEMENTE, Calif., Sept 15, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Ault Glazer & Co., Inc. (Pink Sheets: AULT) announced today that Global Authentication Holdings, Inc., (GAI) a wholly owned subsidiary, launched a web based verification service that will take some of the risk out of purchasing collectibles and memorabilia online. The service is available to anyone who has a high quality, no-flash image shot of their collectible or other piece of memorabilia in a well lit environment, and submits it to Global Authentication (GAI) regardless of whether the item was signed or unsigned.

“GAI Digital Review enables a higher level of confidence in the buyer and is simple for any seller to integrate into the selling platform, resulting in a win-win situation for buyer and seller,” said Mike Baker, Director of Grading and Authentication for Global Authentication.

“The process was designed to only take minutes to accomplish yet leave the buyer will a life long reassurance that their purchase is in fact the real deal,” said William Dully, CEO and President of Global Authentication. Dully added “after the snapshot is submitted to Global Authentication via the web, the item is then shipped to Global (GAI) for a formal certification and grading procedure.”

The launch follows the recent announcement (see September 5, 2008 release) of a service which utilizes advanced image optimization hosting for online auctioneers which adds another layer of security to the buyers and sellers of sports cards and other memorabilia.

About Global Authentication, Inc.

Global Authentication, Inc. (“Global”), based in San Clemente, CA, provides grading and authentication services to the collectables industry and on-line shopping communities like EBay, Overstock.com, and Amazon.com, specifically in sports memorabilia products like baseball cards, and signature items where counterfeiting of such items is a particular problem. Global is only one of four authorized companies selected by EBay as part of their Trust and Safety Consortium used to prevent online fraud for buyers of collectables. Global’s service is used for sports collectables including baseball cards, and signature items where counterfeiting of such items is a particular problem. It is also used for other widely collected items such as coins, comic books, and stamps. For more information, go to http://www.gacard.net.

About Ault Glazer & Co., Inc.

Ault Glazer & Co., Inc. ( http://www.aultglazer.com), a holding company, which through its wholly owned subsidiaries and minority interests, is engaged in a number of diverse business activities, which include: merchant banking; corporate lending; shareholder activism; Internet sales and marketing; real estate; healthcare; energy; consumer products & services; insurance and media. It has plans to change its name to Global Sports and Entertainment, Inc. and plans on divesting its assets that are not sports and entertainment related in the coming weeks.”