OnCardAuto.com - a sticker-free website

[illadef5]

By Juan Martinez (illadef5)

An autograph is an autograph, but not when it's a sticker auto. More than any other topic in sports cards over the past few years, sticker autos have been biggest concern among collectors. Ever since we first encountered the sticker auto, there has been a growing resentment towards them. The complaints are plentiful; not enough room for players to sign; autographs that are cut off; upside-down placement of sticker and so on.

Honestly, sticker autos are fighting a losing battle in gaining favor with collectors. Yet card companies continue to use them; even infamously used once in the most popular basketball card set there is, Exquisite Collection. While we could get into an argument about the economics about why stickers need to exist, I'd much rather chase after the autographs that are on-card than waste my time bickering over the internet. If only there was a site that featured nothing but on-card autographs. Hey, wait a minute....

Brett Marks is not a fan of the sticker auto. The founder of oncardauto.com, a site dedicated to the hard-signed autographed cards, Marks provides collectors with a easy to navigate virtual library of on-cards autos from the past several seasons. Using the site's search engine, I was able to locate every Alonzo Mourning on-card auto starting from the 2006-07 season to the current 2008-09 easily (and easily depressing myself because I know how expensive each of them are). The site's clean look and user friendly interface make it a must-visit for any collector looking to find out if they have missing cards in their collection. While not every card is pictured, it is interesting to see the progress of each set built through eBay scans and helpful readers. It's almost like collecting the cards themselves, but infinitely cheaper.

The following is a short email interview I conducted with Marks a few weeks ago about the site and the plans he has for it in the future.

I guess the obvious first question would be do you hate sticker autos?

I think it's safe to say I'm not a lover of them.

I just don't see the point of sticker autos, cut autos or anything else that isn't on-card for that matter; they're so impersonal, they look tacky & have many disadvantages to having the auto on the card, which includes things such as: less freedom to sign (which commonly ends up with autos being cut off), stickers being put upside down & in the case of cut-autos, the auto being cut off where the company places the remaining part of the card over the small piece of cardboard the player signed on.

What inspired you to create the site and what are your goals with it moving forward?

Well I noticed there were a lot of people who collect sets - as they do - & I thought it would be a good idea to set up a site which would help them find what on-card autograph sets were available; & at the same time showcasing all the nice on-card autograph sets out there (and sticking it (non pun intended) to all the sticker autograph sets out there).

Card companies justify the use of stickers and cut autos by saying they cut down on redemptions and speed up the production cycle. Do you agree with their logic or would you rather all autographs be on-card regardless of delays?

I do understand their reasoning for doing it, but that doesn't mean I have to like them.

What would cut down on delays would be for the companies to cut down in their product range - we don't need 30 different products a year - & this would buy them more time to get the cards back from the players.
People are always going to want autographs so I wouldn't cut down on them drastically, but I think we could afford to cut down on the amount of autograph cards that are produced & work on some nice insert designs, similar to the ones from the 90's.

Are cards with autograph stickers "autographed cards?"

Technically, no they aren't..... I will borrow a quote I read on a forum a little while ago which made me nod my head in agreement.. "If I peel the sticker off the card & put it on my coffee mug, does that make my coffee mug an autographed coffee mug!?".

No it doesn't, plain & simple.

I know from personal experience that some people take offense to using scans of cards that are not "your card." Have you run into any issues or snags with the site such as that?

[N]o I haven't. I get a lot of images from ebay, but if I'm going to go through peoples collections I will generally ask their permission before I use them; I've had several helpful members email & PM me through card forums helping me out with their images, so I am grateful to them for that.

I've found that sometimes, finding a scan of a really rare card is just as tough as finding the actual card. Have you turned to other means besides eBay to search for those scans?

At the moment I don't actively search out images I don't have, as getting all the sets added to the site is my main priority, but as I stated above sometimes other users of the site may email me with images I don't have, so that is always good when that happens. :)

As of right now, your site is all basketball autographs. Will we see other sports represented in the future, and if so, when?

To be honest I would like to get other sports added ASAP. However unfortunately I am a one-man-team at the moment & adding all the sets to the site takes an incredible amount of time (particularly the image sourcing/editing), so it's taking longer than I would like to get other sports added.

With news that Panini will be the exclusive home of NBA licensed cards for the foreseeable future and Upper Deck moving into the more nebulous world of non-licensed cards in order to keep pumping out Michael Jordan and LeBron James autographs, will you feature non-licensed cards on your site?

That's a good question & one I haven't really out much thought into.... as of this time I don't plan on adding unlicensed card data to the site, but that could change depending on user feedback.

What would you rather have: a great looking autograph that's slightly cut-off because it's on a sticker or a terrible give-up autograph but it's hard-signed?

I think this is a trick question Juan LOL..... I would have to see the cards to decide, but going by what you say, *maybe* the sticker autograph. Now I feel dirty! :(

And this is where you shamelessly pimp yourself, Where can people find the site and any other links you may have?

You can find us @ www.oncardauto.com - be sure to also check out our blog & keep updated on the happenings on the site! :)

[Pheebs888]

OnCardAuto.com - A Sticker-Free Website
By Juan Martinez aka illadef5

An autograph is an autograph, but not when it's a sticker auto. More than any other topic in sports cards over the past few years, sticker autos have been the biggest concern among collectors. Ever since we first encountered the sticker auto, there has been a growing resentment towards it. The complaints are plentiful; not enough room for players to sign; autographs that are cut off; upside-down placement of sticker and so on.

Honestly, sticker autos are fighting a losing battle in gaining favor with collectors. Yet card companies continue to use them: even infamously used once in the most popular basketball card set there is, Exquisite Collection. While we could get into an argument about the economic reasons why stickers need to exist, I'd much rather chase after the autographs that are on card than waste my time bickering over the Internet. If only there was a site that featured nothing but on-card autographs. Hey, wait a minute....

Brett Marks is not a fan of the sticker auto. The founder of oncardauto.com, a site dedicated to the hard-signed autographed cards, Marks provides collectors with an easy to navigate virtual library of on-cards autos from the past several seasons. Using the site's search engine, I was able to locate every Alonzo Mourning on-card auto starting from the 2006-07 season to the current 2008-09 easily (and easily depressing myself because I know how expensive each of them are). The site's clean look and user friendly interface make it a must-visit for any collector looking to find out if they are missing cards in their collection. While not every card is pictured, it is interesting to see the progress of each set built through eBay scans and helpful readers. It's almost like collecting the cards themselves, but infinitely cheaper.

The following is a short email interview I conducted with Marks a few weeks ago about the site and the plans he has for it in the future.

I guess the obvious first question would be do you hate sticker autos?

I think it's safe to say I'm not a lover of them.

I just don't see the point of sticker autos, cut autos or anything else that isn't on-card for that matter; they're so impersonal, they look tacky & have many disadvantages when compared to on-card autographs, which includes things such as: less freedom to sign (which commonly ends up with autos being cut off), stickers being put upside down and in the case of cut-autos, the auto being cut off where the company places the remaining part of the card over the small piece of cardboard the player signed on.

What inspired you to create the site and what are your goals with it moving forward?

Well I noticed there were a lot of people who collect sets - as they do - and I thought it would be a good idea to set up a site which would help them find what on-card autograph sets were available; and at the same time showcasing all the nice on-card autograph sets out there while sticking it (non pun intended) to all the sticker autograph sets out there.

Card companies justify the use of stickers and cut autos by saying they cut down on redemptions and speed up the production cycle. Do you agree with their logic or would you rather all autographs be on card regardless of delays?

I do understand their reasoning for doing it, but that doesn't mean I have to like them.

What would cut down on delays would be for the companies to cut down in their product range - we don't need 30 different products a year - this would buy them more time to get the cards back from the players. People are always going to want autographs so I wouldn't cut down on them drastically, but I think we could afford to cut down on the amount of autograph cards that are produced and work on some nice insert designs, similar to the ones from the 90s.

Are cards with autograph stickers "autographed cards?"

Technically, no they aren't.... I will borrow a quote I read on a forum a little while ago which made me nod my head in agreement: "If I peel the sticker off the card and put it on my coffee mug, does that make my coffee mug an autographed coffee mug!?".

No it doesn't, plain and simple.

I know from personal experience that some people take offense to using scans of cards that are not "your card." Have you run into any issues or snags with the site such as that?

No I haven't. I get a lot of images from eBay, but if I'm going to go through peoples collections’ I will generally ask their permission before I use them. I've had several helpful members email or private message me through card forums helping me out with their images, so I am grateful to them for that.

I've found that sometimes, finding a scan of a really rare card is just as tough as finding the actual card. Have you turned to other means besides eBay to search for those scans?

At the moment I don't actively search out images I don't have, as getting all the sets added to the site is my main priority, but as I stated above sometimes other users of the site may email me with images I don't have, so that is always good when that happens.

As of right now, your site is all basketball autographs. Will we see other sports represented in the future, and if so, when?

To be honest I would like to get other sports added as soon as possible. However unfortunately I am a one-man-team at the moment and adding all the sets to the site takes an incredible amount of time (particularly the image sourcing/editing), so it's taking longer than I would like to get other sports added.

With news that Panini will be the exclusive home of NBA licensed cards for the foreseeable future and Upper Deck moving into the more nebulous world of non-licensed cards in order to keep pumping out Michael Jordan and LeBron James autographs, will you feature non-licensed cards on your site?

That's a good question and one I haven't really put much thought into.... as of this time I don't plan on adding unlicensed card data to the site, but that could change depending on user feedback.

What would you rather have: a great looking autograph that's slightly cut-off because it's on a sticker or a terrible give-up autograph but it's hard-signed?

I think this is a trick question Juan… I would have to see the cards to decide, but going by what you say, *maybe* the sticker autograph. Now I feel dirty!

And this is where you shamelessly pimp yourself, where can people find the site and any other links you may have?

You can find us at www.oncardauto.com - be sure to also check out our blog and keep updated on the happenings on the site!

[Pheebs888]

digg: http://digg.com/basketball/OnCardAut...r_Free_Website
propeller: http://www.propeller.com/story/2009/...orum-articles/
buzz: http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/1:0433...4ed2f05c?usc=1

[Mr. Gribble]

Thanks for the chance to do the interview Juan & hope you all continue to enjoy the site! :)

[mikecancelliere]

nice article. I dont like how in a $200+ product, Topps Sterling, all of your autos are sticker

[Batman72]

I personally don't mind sticker auto's at all. I have a lot more faith in a sticker auto than an on card auto. With all the forgeries on ebay how easy is it to forge an on card auto as opposed to a sticker auto?