A Guide to the Autographs of the Early 90s

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A recent discussion of Alexandre Daigle (of all players) got me thinking about the first autographed cards created by the major companies. To the best of my knowledge, it started with 1990 Upper Deck baseball. As related in Card Sharks by Pete Williams, UD’s VP of Marketing Don Bodow was inspired by Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to create his own version of the golden ticket. That turned out to be a Reggie Jackson autograph. It was a huge hit, and the following season, the phenomenon made its way to hockey.

I wanted to compile what I could on the first major issues, so below is what I put together for 1991 through 1994. (I.e. not Classic, Ultimate, those weird tuxedo draft cards, etc.) Please correct any mistake I made and feel free to provide additional detail, and I’ll update the main thread.

You'll notice I have a category called Difficulty to Acquire. This relates to the difficulty TODAY. The difficulty at the time of these releases was EXTREME for every one of them, despite what now seem like pretty large print runs. Pulling any of these cards from an unopened box remains just shy of impossible. And in at least one instance, perhaps literally impossible.

Here we go!

1991-92 Upper Deck
Continuing with its Heroes theme from the 1990 baseball set, Upper Deck debuted Hockey Heroes and its first member was super sniper Brett Hull. As with the Reggie Jackson auto, Hull signed the checklist card, with featured a painting of him in various uniforms.
Player: Brett Hull
Card: HH9
# Auto’d: 2500
Unique Design: Yes. These appear to be autographed copies of the regular insert card, hand numbered on the bottom right corner of the card front, but the reverse shows a diamond hologram versus the usual oval. (Thanks one20!)
Difficulty to Acquire: High. This card has not lost any of its value, despite the high number of copies. If you want it, expect to pay $100+.
Fun Fact: The first pricing mention of this card came in the Readers Write section of the September 1992 Beckett. It listed at $250-$400. So I stand corrected. It has lost some value.

1991-92 Score
All five of Score’s releases (American, Can 1, Can 2, Bilingual 1, Bilingual 2) gave you the opportunity to pull an autograph from the legendary Bobby Orr. As Score beat Upper Deck to market, this is probably the first autographed insert by a major company.
Player: Bobby Orr
Card(s): All six cards from the Bobby Orr insert set featured an autograph’d version.
# Auto’d: 2500 in total across the 6 cards.
Unique Design: Yes. Each insert had its back altered to accommodate the autograph and features a stylized serial number printed on it. Reminder: the official autograph is on the BACK of the card.
Difficulty to Acquire: High. It’s Bobby Orr. If you want this, you will pay for it.
Fun Fact: A Score advertisement in the September 1991 Beckett proclaimed that a 4 card Bobby Orr insert would be in its 1991 product and that Orr had signed 400 copies of each card for a total of 1600 autos.
Fun Fact 2: Packs of 1991 Score state that a total of 1238 autographed cards (and 270,000 unsigned cards) have been randomly packed in SCORE Canadian 1991. Oddly enough, the American packs also say that, implying that there are no Orrs in the American issue. Presumably, it's a misprint on the American packs. An additional 12 cards (per country, presumably) were available via sweepstakes.

1991-92 Pro Set Series 1
True to form, Pro Set failed to announce its key chase cards and evidently one of them was an autographed card of Patrick Roy. This card was apparently only available in French boxes, despite the card being from the English set. But this is Pro Set, so who really knows?
Player: Patrick Roy
Card: #125 (American)
# Auto’d: 1000 per Beckett
Unique Design: No, it’s a regular card and there are forgeries out there. It looks like Roy himself numbered the cards.
Difficulty to Acquire: Well, depends if what you find is legit or not. Because they’re hard to verify, values tend to be suppressed on this card, but it’s still usually north of $50.

1991-92 Pro Set Series 2
Another Roy auto, again evidently only in the French packs. This time, he’s signing the French version of the card. According to Beckett, Pro Set also packed out a signed Kirk McLean card in its Series 2 American packs. This appears to be a mistake, possibly caused by confusion with the 1992-93 release.
Player: Patrick Roy
Card: #599 French
# Auto’d: 1000 per Beckett, but I’ve seen them numbered into the 3000s.
Unique Design: No, it’s a regular card and there are forgeries out there. It looks like Roy himself numbered the cards.
Difficulty to Acquire: Definitely easier than the Series 1, but the numbering kind of freaks me out. It’s hard to tell if they’re all pack pulled or part of some after market thing. A whole lot of them seem to have been slabbed by GAI, which went bankrupt in 2009. GAI had been accused of authenticating fakes.

1992-93 Score
Following up the apparent success of the Orr campaign, Score got another legend to sign some cards – Maurice Richard! These inserts were issued only in the Canadian version. Americans got nothing.
Player: Maurice Richard
Card(s): There are two unnumbered insert cards, each featuring an autograph’d version
# Auto’d: 1250, for a total of 2500.
Unique Design: Yes. Each insert had its back altered to accommodate the autograph and features a stylized serial number printed on it. Reminder: the official autograph is on the BACK of the card.
Difficulty to Acquire: High. It’s the Rocket, and he’s been dead for some time so there are no new autos coming on the market.

NOTE: winniescards reports that an Artist Proof version exists serial numbered to 10.

1992-93 Ultra
Ultra debuted with chase cards of its spokesman, Jeremy Roenick. There were ten insert cards (plus a mail-in for two more) and these cards could be found with autographs. The number is unknown, but they were supposed to fall 1 per 8000 packs. So good luck!
Player: Jeremy Roenick
Card(s): Any of the ten insert cards could feature an autograph.
# Auto’d: At least 2000, per Beckett.
Unique Design: Yes. These are insert cards with an auto on the cover, a non-flashy black marker. A hand-signed card is potentially difficult to distinguish, but the word FLEER is embossed on the auto card, and it is not on the regular insert. (Thanks one20!)
Difficulty to Acquire: High, although they’re not that expensive because they look like in person autos.

1992-93 Pro Set
Pro Set went out of business to the great sadness of all. They did manage to release a Series 1, but there was no Series 2. Pro Set included an autographed card of Kirk McLean.
Player: Kirk McLean
Card: #239
# Auto’d: 1000
Unique Design: Very! Pro Set changed its design between the prototype and final issues and this card is the prototype version. Thank goodness, because the auto is very bland – doesn’t even look like a Sharpie. No serial or hand number.
Difficulty to Acquire: Well, it doesn’t show up too often, but demand is low. There are allegedly 8000 20 box cases of 1992-93 Pro Set and 2000 jumbo cases. So it’s still a hard pull.

1992-93 Parkhurst
(Thanks to NMarch to alerting me to these.)
While the flagship was burning, Pro Set sunk all its resources into Parkhurst, completing two series and issuing a final series. They also issued signed a deal with Don Cherry to provide his Cherry's Picks, and included him in a Parkie Reprint insert set. He autographed both cards.

Player: Don Cherry
Card: NNO, Cherry's Picks
# Auto'd: Unknown
Unique Design: Not that I can see. It's an autographed checklist card with Cherry giving us his trademark thumbs up. The copy I've seen is signed in silver.
Difficulty to Acquire: Seeing as I had forgotten it existed, it might be pretty hard.

Player: Don Cherry
Card: NNO (101)
# Auto'd: Unknown
Unique Design: Not that I can see. It's an autographed version of the redemption card.
Difficulty to Acquire: It was only packed out in Canadian Series 2 boxes and has a pretty high Beckett value, higher than the Cherry's Pick.

1992-93 Upper Deck Locker All-Stars
(Thanks to TADontAsk for alerting me to these)
While the Locker All-Stars is not a major set, they do include autographed card(s) from the 1992-93 Upper Deck set, so if you come across one, it will look like it came from a major set. UD had Gordie Howe sign some of his Hockey Heroes cards, and they inserted them at a rate of 1 in 120 Locker sets.
Player: Gordie Howe
Card(s): Hockey Heroes from '92-93 UD
#Auto'd: Unknown, not believed to be serial numbered
Unique Design: While the front of the card is the Hockey Heroes checklist, it can be distinguished by the hologram on back. Instead of a puck, it's a diamond. (Thanks TADon'tAsk!)
Difficulty to Acquire: Should be difficult due to the disinterest in the locker sets, but they are out there and can occasionally be nabbed at low prices.

1993-94 Ultra
Same game as before, except now it’s Adam Oates and now it’s one in ten thousand.
Player: Adam Oates
Card(s): Any of the ten insert cards could feature an autograph.
# Auto’d: At least 2000, per Beckett.
Unique Design: Yes. These are insert cards with an auto on the cover, a non-flashy black marker. A hand-signed card is potentially difficult to distinguish, but the word FLEER is embossed on the auto card, and it is not on the regular insert. (Thanks one20!)
Difficulty to Acquire: Ought to be high, but they don’t sell for much. The most recent sale included the entire insert set with it and still only cracked $20.

1993-94 Pinnacle
Pinnacle had two autographed cards over the course of the year, but I don’t know the details of how they were packed out. I hear Lindros was in the American release and Daigle was in both English and bilingual.
Player: Eric Lindros
Card: NNO
# Auto’d: Unknown
Unique Design: Yes, Eric is the “Center of Attention” and the card does not resemble anything in the set.
Difficulty to Acquire: The card is readily available for $40, possibly much less if you can catch it on an auction.

Player: Alexandre Daigle
Card: 236
# Auto’d: 1500
Unique Design: Yes. On the front, it looks like the base card, but the back is different with a space for the auto. Not serial numbered, but it does state it is one of 1500. Comes in both English and bilingual, so we’re guessing it’s 1500 total autos.
Difficulty to Acquire: I didn’t know this card existed until last week and it doesn’t seem to be around much, but it’s not going to cost anything when it shows up.

1993-94 Leaf
Leaf signed Mario Lemieux to be its spokesman for its inaugural year and did a very nice insert set featuring Super Mario. But the real draw was the autographed card, serial numbered to 2000.
Player: Mario Lemieux
Card: NNO
# Auto’d: 2000
Unique Design: Yes. It features a portrait of Mario on the card front with his auto, and the card back contains a write-up and a pressed serial number.
Difficulty to Acquire: It’s not hard to find, but it’s rare to grab for under $100.

Note: I'm not including the 1993-94 Parkhurst Missing Link or Tall Boys sets as both had autographed insert sets and this post is concentrating on single chase cards.
 
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Another walk down memory lane.... I bought box after box.. trying to get an auto... lol!!! Side note.. Abit later down the history timeline... I was excited to get the ‘97-98 Pinnacle Henderson Summit series auto !!
 
Great idea and nice job on the research!! I’ve wondered about hockey ‘firsts’ in the autograph department, but also game used jerseys and sticks. Will you be doing any lists on those?

Also, any reason you stopped at 93-94 Leaf? Or will you be adding more as your research continues?

Did you happen to save any of the images of these auto cards while browsing for information on them? It would be great to add them to the post if it’s not too much trouble.

Again, fantastic work!
 
The Hull Heroes autograph card from Upper Deck does have a unique design feature. The hologram on the back of the card is in the shape of a diamond, where as the regular non-autographed card has the standard puck shaped hologram the rest of the set uses.
 
Thanks one20! Main thread updated!

zackmak, I stopped at '93-94 because '94-95 saw Be a Player debut, and suddenly there were autographs everywhere. That said, there are probably still some tough chase autographs for a little while longer. Secondly, I started college in 1994 and took a 4 year hiatus from the hobby, and I never built up a familiarity with those years. There are images of virtually everything between the Trading Card Database and eBay. I'm not sure how the Trading Card Database feels about links from forums.
 
Great review! Thank you for taking the time to research and share. :beer:

I have been meaning to get copies of the Score Maurice Richard autographs for my PC. 2020 may finally be the year.
 
Thanks one20! Main thread updated!

No problem. I try to share the info about the hologram when I can as I have seen many off the regular cards either with an in person or forged signature trying to be passed off as the packed pulled card.

Also, I am not 100% sure on this but I believe both the Roenick and Oates Ultra autographs had a Fleer logo embossed onto the card.
 
No problem. I try to share the info about the hologram when I can as I have seen many off the regular cards either with an in person or forged signature trying to be passed off as the packed pulled card.

Also, I am not 100% sure on this but I believe both the Roenick and Oates Ultra autographs had a Fleer logo embossed onto the card.

You're right! I never saw that before. Thanks!

Mike
 
1992-93 Parkhurst had Don Cherry autographs, I believe it was a NNO Checklist. First autograph I ever pulled from a box of cards. I believe there were Bobby Orr autos in early Parkhurst too, can’t remember the year.
 
1992-93 Parkhurst had Don Cherry autographs, I believe it was a NNO Checklist. First autograph I ever pulled from a box of cards. I believe there were Bobby Orr autos in early Parkhurst too, can’t remember the year.

Thanks! And congrats on the pull!

Looks like the Orr is in the '95-96 set.

Mike
 
You could have added Classic series as having autographs. Great pre-rookie releases that had plenty of on-card autos of star players and potential star players. These were great chase sets and included many draft picks. Their Classic 4-sport had some of the best range of potential stars from the time from all of the major sports of the time.
Value wise, most haven’t held up, but with runs between 1500-5000, or more, they are good sets to chase. Some stars had signed cards in these including Lemieux and Pavel Bure in the 1st year, and a few great players like Kovalev, Yashin, and Gratton in following years. Mogilny, Bossy, and Chellios are in the ‘93 hockey draft picks as autos. Manon Rheaume was featured in a couple of set made by Classic, also. Mind you, they have autos of players like Jeff Rogles, but also have Chris Drury’s older brother, Ted, who was a USA Hockey standout player that Had a 400+ game NHL career as a role player. I think Iginla even has an auto in Classic in ‘94. Just saying that there are gems to be found but plenty of common autos.
 
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Similar to the Hull Heroes, there is a Gordie Howe auto'd version of his 1992-93 Heroes checklist that was inserted into random sets of the 1993 Upper Deck Locker All-Stars. Not sure if that's mainstream enough to be considered for your checklist. I haven't seen one up for sale in a while, as I've been looking for it to help complete my 1993 Upper Deck master set.
 
Also, I am not 100% sure on this but I believe both the Roenick and Oates Ultra autographs had a Fleer logo embossed onto the card.

The Roenick autos have an embossed logo in all of the official autos. Used to have all the 10 different.

Don't know about the Oates, though.

- Sauli
 
Great stuff thanks for sharing. Love those 90's autos. Can someone tell me more about the 1996-97 Pinnacle dufex Bobby Orr autograph? I was about to snag one off ebay and it sold before I could research it.
 
There’s an ad I’ve seen at shows that promoted a dual auto of Bobby Orr and Eric Lindros for 1991 Score that was supposed to be made but never saw the light of day. That would have been an amazing card at the time.
 
Great stuff thanks for sharing. Love those 90's autos. Can someone tell me more about the 1996-97 Pinnacle dufex Bobby Orr autograph? I was about to snag one off ebay and it sold before I could research it.

That's a good question. According to Beckett:

This extremely rare card was produced as a giveaway at a Dallas golf tournament run by Pinnacle. It is believed that fewer than 25 copies of this card exist. The card is an all gold foil laser-etched design using the basic card design from 1996-97 Pinnacle.

According to me:

If this is the card you're looking at, I suspect there are more than 25 copies. There are 3 on eBay as of late (some w/o autograph) and a pile of them went through Worthpoint.

Mike
 
Great research and write-up! Gotta love the challenge of trying to piece together information about the hobby in the 90s!
 

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