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Friday, May 15, 2015

Fail Friday: Topps botching Mike Piazza autos

I don't own the cards in this post. I just stumbled upon something intriguing while browsing eBay and figured I'd get a post out of it. (Turns out this is old news.. made the rounds on Twitter and a blog or two back in December 2014.. but screw it, I've already drafted this post, so here it is.)

I'm in the market for a Piazza auto to cap off that PC as I creep up to 100 different cards of the guy.

This Mike Piazza auto from 2014 Topps Supreme caught my eye:


Check out that signature. That's not Mike Piazza's signature!

This is Mike Piazza's signature...


Veeeery different (nowhere near as legible).

Topps obviously mixed up auto-stickers of Mike Piazza, the HOF-caliber catcher and Mike Piazza, the meager minor league pitcher


Yeah, see? That's clearly the guy who signed the sticker on the card at the top of this post. I actually own this one (it was $2), and I've shown it and mocked the unfortunate photo choice on the blog before.

They're cousins that share the same name.

Looks like the mistake is confined to this 25-run card. They have sold for around $60 a pop on eBay (with no caveat regarding the auto). I'm curious if the winners are aware of the error. At the time of this post, there aren't any currently on eBay, but you can see 3 such cards in the completed auctions.

Just more proof that sticker-autos suck. The mixup wouldn't have happened if Piazza was signing the actual card, instead of a plain sticker on a sheet. You gotta wonder how often illegible autos get mixed up and nobody notices the difference. I'll bet it happens more often than you'd like to think.

Anyways, thanks for stopping by.

5 comments:

  1. that's hilariously inept.....i wonder if there are issues with ryan braun and pedro martinez autos too?

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  2. I caught this error back too back in the beginning of the year at posted about it. Here's a link from Suzy over at A Cardboard Problem showing how topps made it right for some guy that I believe pulled the card.
    Unfortunately, the wrong autographs were placed on these cards, but Topps will fix the error as they did here: http://www.freedomcardboard.com/forum/showthread.php/143902-UPDATE-Mike-Piazza-Supreme-1-1-Wrong-Autograph?highlight=piazza

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  3. I think Topps was just disappointed someone caught it...

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  4. Man that's almost as brutal as Piazza's defense.

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  5. This happened a few years ago when Magic Johnson signed stickers were placed on Jordan Swagerty cards. What's even crazier is that there's an Arizona State manufactured patch card that Magic signed. Not sure why he'd sign that patch when he went to Michigan St.

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