Chronicles of Cardfoolery #7: Invisible Ink

[sanjosefuji]

Have you ever scanned a card that looks amazing in person, but looks terrible in the photo? It happens to me on a regular basis. My scanner hates shiny cards... especially ones with silver foil.

But apparently... it loves 2007 Sweet Spot Classic Signatures, because I recently purchased a Pittsburgh Pirates"lot" off of eBay that contained this Al Oliverautograph. And trust me... it looks bad. Real bad. A lot worse than shown in the scan.

It's so bad that I can't tell whether Upper Deck had him sign the sweet spot with black or gold ink. My guess is that he used a black pen that's quickly fading and turning yellow. However I wouldn't be surprised if he signed this card in gold ink, since it's a parallel #'d to 25.

Either way... it's pretty sad that a multitude of 2007 Sweet Spot Classic Signatures are so faded. My Tim Raines card seems to have been signed with disappearing ink.

With each passing day, the pleather that Upper Deck used in 2007 seems to soak up more and more of the ink. One of these days, I'll wake up and the autograph will be completely gone.


It's such a shame too... because 2007's Sweet Spotdesign is one of my favorites. I love the ballparks in the background. Thankfully most of the "bat" and "glove"autographs seem to hold their ink.


But if you have the regular "baseball" versions, you might want to scan your cards right now before their autographs disappear.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

P.S. Today is Al Oliver's67th birthday. Happy Birthday Mr. Oliver!

More...

[moosejaw00]

I have one "disappearing ink" football auto....

[schwood]

Yes sir. It is a shame that all those 2007 Sweet Spots are so faded. Here are a few I have in my collection...

This one is actually in pretty good shape. But again, can't really tell what color pen was used on this one :


This is about the same as the Lynn.


This Yaz is in pretty bad shape. And I think this is an 08 Sweet Spot actually.

[sanjosefuji]

Wow... that's pretty impressive. I have a couple of these Letterman autographs. I'll have to check to see if mine are disappearing too.

I have one "disappearing ink" football auto....

Wow... didn't realize 2008 was worse. With the 2007's... I guess we can tell people they used yellow or gold ink on our cards ;-)

Yes sir. It is a shame that all those 2007 Sweet Spots are so faded. Here are a few I have in my collection...

This one is actually in pretty good shape. But again, can't really tell what color pen was used on this one :


This is about the same as the Lynn.


This Yaz is in pretty bad shape. And I think this is an 08 Sweet Spot actually.

[ctau00]

This sucks, I have a Ron Santo/Ernie Banks dual auto signed in blue and the ink's bled throughout the ball. I think I'd rather have one that's turned gold instead.

[sanjosefuji]

I agree... gold > bleedin' blue.

This sucks, I have a Ron Santo/Ernie Banks dual auto signed in blue and the ink's bled throughout the ball. I think I'd rather have one that's turned gold instead.