Long before counterfeit autographs started popping up I started grabbing scans of unsigned and show signed autographs that I’ve seen around the web — mostly on eBay. This whole unsigned card hunt was prompted by the Motor City Comic Con. I passed by H.M. Wynant’s table. . . he signed cards for one of Rittenhouse’s Twilight Zone sets, and was at his table with a stack of a few hundred unsigned Rittenhouse autograph cards. Now I didn’t examine these, so they could have been ones made for him by the manufacturer that were different than the pack pulled cards. Rumors have circulated that they have done that in the past, but it reminded me of a few years before at the same con seeing Richard Kiel with a large stack of Wild Wild West autograph cards. . . so I started to wonder just what was out there, and I started to watch.

One of the first cards that really caught my eye was a Vanessa Angel Stargate autograph. . . the autograph looked a bit off, it was signed in a different pen, and had various inscriptions. . . then upon closer inspection white lines above and below the ‘card.’ I’m not sure where these cards came from, but it’s safe to say it wasn’t from packs of Stargate.

Of course I found other unsigned cards — the infamous Halle Berry X-Men movie, Cornerstone Kiss cards, even Comic Images Supreme and Heroes, not to mention some uncut sheets. There may not be a ton of stuff I’ve found, but the variety is very wide. Check out the unsigned/show signed gallery.

For a slightly different topic we have altered or after-market sketch cards. Those are sketch cards that have been modified by the artist — or someone else after they were pulled out of a pack. I don’t really want to get into the controversy of the topic, although I think everyone can agree a non-artist modifying a sketch card for profit is obviously a bad thing. Artist editing their own art isn’t as bad, but what about artists edited or destroying other artist’s work? Here we have a Jay Lynch card that is WAY better than anything pack inserted by Lynch, so I had to take a look at the auction — it’s graded so it has to be pack-pulled and legit, right? Here is the text from the auction listing:

2005 TOPPS JAY LYNCH BONY TONY SKETCH CARD PSA 9 MINT

I OBTAINED THIS CARD IN A TRADE A FEW YEARS BACK! HAD NO IDEA THE BACKGROUND JUST THOUGHT IT WAS A AWESOME 1 OF A KIND LYNCH

WHICH IT IS

THIS CARD IS AWESOME JAY LYNCH REALLY BREAKS OUT THE DETAIL FOR THIS CARD

THANKS TO MY BRO GPK COLLECTOR ON THE UG I NOW NO THE TRUE HISTORY OF HOW THIS CARD CAME ABOUT

THIS WAS ORIGINALLY A DON PERLIN PENCIL SKETCH THAT WAS TURNED INTO THIS BONY TONY PIECE OF ART BY JAY

THEN IT WAS SENT INTO PSA AND WAS AUTHENICATED AND GRADED 9 MINT

HOPE THIS GETS INTO THE RIGHT HANDS OF A SKETCH COLLECTOR THAT WILL APPRECIATE IT’S RAREITY AND DETAIL

ULTRA RARE AND MINT

This just cracks me up. . . first off someone destroyed a Don Perlin sketch — which at the time were selling for well over $100. Then PSA graded it. . . what are they grading — the condition of the card, perhaps, but not that it’s a legitimate pack-pulled sketch on the card. The seller of this auction clearly though he was getting a pack pulled sketch so most likely someone was getting a Lynch commission simply to flip it for more money, and of course it’s Ultra Rare. . . except I’ve seen a bunch of Lynch after markets on this set — mostly his own work that he’s added more to.

These are just more examples illustrating why it’s so important to know a lot about a card before you buy it.

I am always looking for pics of more unsigned and show signed cards — if you have any send ‘em over and I’ll get ‘em added to the gallery.

Happy Collecting!

Jon