2000 Signed Cards not included in Bowman Draft per player's dad
I've bought and sold on eBay since 1998 and over those 2 plus decades I've sold some things to athletes, celebrities and, my personal favorite, the family members of athletes. That is where this story begins.
Like a lot of collectors, I buy into group breaks for a variety of reasons, to get the cards I am specifically hunting or buying a team that is a good value play. I used to be a prospector and generally anyone who calls themselves that anxiously awaits the annual Bowman Draft checklist to see where some value may be had.
For the 2024 Bowman Draft checklist, I personally liked the Miami Marlins for a variety of reasons. The Marlins had 5 players with "1st Bowman" cards and of those 5, 4 had "1st Bowman" autographs, or maybe all 5 did, except that's not denoted on any checklist to be found.
I liked the Marlins as well simply because they were often one of the top 5 cheapest teams available on most group break sites. Over the course of a few weeks, I was in about 20 cases worth of breaks and ended up with some pretty decent cards. Generally speaking I don't ever like to hold on to pitchers as I have emotional scars still lingering over prospecting Mark Prior, that didn't end well for my pocketbook.
How do YOU collect and why it's ok
In order to recoup some of my initial investment, I simply sell some of the parallels or autos on eBay, once I have them in hand, which is exactly what I did for a lot of Grant Shepardson parallels. Grant is a pitcher who was drafted out of high school in the 5th round, 155th overall.
I listed 4 parallels of Shepardson and received an eBay message in the first 24 hours or so of them being listed. The message read "Hey there! Love the cards of my son!" proceeding to ask if I sell many of his cards. This message happens to have come from Grants father, Paul. Paul proceeds to rattle off the variety of parallels he has and then what he's looking for, including one more printing plate and the all elusive superfractor!
His next comment is what raised an eyebrow. Paul stated "It was fun watching him sign all of them" and then he sent me a picture of an autographed 1/1 superfractor!
Is this collection of autographs illegal!?!?
As you can see, that is indeed a 2024 Bowman Draft Chrome Superfractor Auto 1/1, the problem is that Grant is not listed as a signer for the product per every checklist I've seen, nor is there a single Bowman Draft autographed card with the "Topps Certified Autograph Issue" printed on the front of the card anywhere to be found on any site.
Grants father went on to say he signed 2000 cards, I shared with him how I thought that was odd that Topps/Fanatics had him do that and then not be put in the product. I thought that there was potential that Topps provided extra cards for the player to hand out to friends and family and Grants father said that was not the case at all, specifically saying, "Grant didn't get anything from Topps, card wise. He was paid well for signing them but nothing card related."
I have reached out to Topps, provided the picture and the backstory, but have yet to hear back.
So unlike the 2023 Bowman Chrome superfractor snafu, where multiple 1/1's of the same player were printed and released in the product, we have the opposite here. The 1/1 was made, signed and doesn't appear to be released in one of Topps' flagship products. Will it ever surface? If it does, hopefully it can find its way in to the hands of Grants father, Paul.
I ripped my first pack of cards at 6 years old and pulled a 1977 Topps Tony Dorsett rookie, a huge bonus in that I was a Cowboys fan. I then began to build team sets of my favorite teams. As I grew older, the nuances of collecting and beginning to invest engulfed me. As a sports junkie, cards became a natural conduit to feed my passion for collecting and investing in the stars I saw on TV and read about in box scores. While in high school, I began to set up at card shows and reinvest profits into more cards, for both the PC and additional inventory. Fast forward to the present day, I'd like to think I have one of the biggest Mizzou alumni collections in the world, collecting across any sport where I can find a Mizzou alum on cardboard(not always an easy task to find). I could never get any of my 3 daughters to share the hobby with me, but as a new "Pops", I can't wait to share the hobby with my grandson, he just doesn't know it yet!