Card of the Day: 2007 National Treasures All Decade Cuts Walter Payton

Everyone knows that cut signatures on trading cards often come from old checks or letters. But who ever thought that a cut signature would come from an on-card autographed trading card?

Such is the case with this 2007 Walter Payton cut signature card. Expert Payton collectors can instantly recognize where that particular cut signature came from.

The signature came from a 1995 phone card that commemorated the tenth anniversary of the 1985 Super Bowl Bears. An interesting tactic by Donruss.



Will we be seeing Reggie Jackson cuts from his 1990 Upper Deck autograph card someday? I would hope not, as cutting up a card as legendary as that is just plain foolish.

I don't see the idea of using cut signatures from past card releases becoming a tradition with card companies because there aren't too many player's who have authentic autos that have died. This could be instituted in later years when more of these legends pass on, but with all of the other items athletes sign today, it still isn't likely.

The funny about this is that the cut signature sells for far more than the original autograph does. There is a good reason: the 2007 card is numbered to 34 while the phone card had 25,000 (I'm unsure if all 25,000 were autographs, but I have not seen one that isn't).

Unless you are a super collector of Payton, a hardcore Bears collector or building this cut signature set, there is no reason to buy this card. If you want the autograph of Payton, just go and pick up the original card for about $200-$250 less.

The same phone card was also used in other cut signature sets within 2007 National Treasures.

The TriStar Signa Cuts baseball set from 2008 also used a similar tactic, but not on every card. Some cards feature cuts from old baseball cards, but others show signatures taken from other pictures. Nonetheless, the cards did not come out well. Is this the type of Jack Morris autograph you want to add to your collection?



My dad, probably one of the biggest Joe Charboneau collectors in the world (not that it's very big as he has something like 40 cards max), didn't even like the Charboneau that was in this set so that tells you something about these cards. I understand it isn't their fault and all, but still, contact these living players and try to make something work.