Have any opinions on Cut Autos? Personally I am typically not a fan unless it is a player that is deceased and can not longer sign cards for our hobby. Even then, I am not a fan of cutting up other memorabilia or cards to fit them into a new card. Despite my ho-humness, I have picked up a few of these over the years.
The first cut Auto I picked up is from former Giants reliever Gary Lavelle. Lavelle was a solid relief pitcher for a few years with the Giants around the time I started following the game. This card was limited to 24 copies and is the first card of Lavelle (minus some coaching cards from 2000-2004) since his last card from his playing days in 1987.
Next up is a cut auto from former Giants pitcher and 1967 Cy Young award winning pitcher Mike McCormick. Mike has had some Heritage cards pop up over the years but this is the first auto I have tracked down of the former star.
My final cut came from buying a pack of Leaf History of baseball. I can't remember the price but you were guaranteed a cut auto and I was happy to get this nice Pete Rose card. I have it in my HOF collection even though he isn't officially in. My position on players going in based on what they did on the diamond is not limited to Barry Bonds, to me it is crazy that some of the best players of the game are not celebrated at a museum dedicated to celebrating the best players.
As you can see, all 3 of these that are a part of my collection are on white backgrounds and not cut out of cards. I can't say I wouldn't accept one like that into my collection, but a crisp clear auto like these look much better in my opinion. As to my original question, I would call myself a fair weathered fan of cut autos.
I agree about it being good when the player is someone who is deceased or can no longer sign. But I HATE it when a company buys in person or TTM autos on old cards slices the auto out to use as a cut signature.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't really though about this. I never pull them, so I never cared about them. I guess I would say I'm indifferent.
ReplyDeleteYeah, hate them. Seems like destroying something historical is just down right wrong.
ReplyDeleteI don't really like them. A few Willie Stargell autos that I have are cut autos. One looks pretty cool (looks like the auto came from an 8x10), the other looks like a 5 year old arts and craft project. Looked a lot better when I was buying it off Ebay.
ReplyDeleteI'm caught somewhere in the middle. There's a huge part of me that wishes these were never created. I really dislike the ones that were once part of a photo, letter, or a form of a document. But I've got to admit... if one of our cardboard colleagues decided to take their signed index cards and turn them into custom cards, I'd definitely be giving them props. Unfortunately card companies took something that was sort of a cool novelty item and went overboard... flooding the market. In short... if manufacturers stopped producing them, I wouldn't shed a tear.
ReplyDeleteLike yourself I can tolerate cut autos if they're players who are no longer with us. Guys in the T206 sets are a good example. But if it's still an active/living player I see no point since card companies could easily ask them to sign some cards or stickers.
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