2003 Upper Deck Mark of Greatness Mark McGwire Autograph

I picked up a very nice and rare autograph for my collection in the middle of the week in a trade.  I'm always in the market for some good McGwire cards, but there are not always a lot of them floating around.  Big Mac has to be one of the stingiest signers of all-time.  He rarely signs and when he does sign he signs in small numbers.  There are non-certified autographs of the former Cardinals and A's slugger, but the he's also the only player I have every heard of getting their own task force to crack down on the overabundance of fake autographs.   In fact, there is a website with a built in McGwire autograph quiz.  Pretty fun.

Needless to say that I do not come across many McGwire signatures for trade and buying the most common certified autographed cards, the overwhelming majority of which have less than 25 print runs, often involves arms, legs, and second mortgages.  Really, they will be in the low 100s for something basic and double or triple that for something rare.  So, if you see a McGwire autograph and it's for trade, or selling for less than $100, it's time to be pro-active.  Really.  Even if you do not like McGwire he always has one of the best secondary card markets because he does not sign.  Rarely.

I saw the card posted and I overwhelmed a friendly Royals collector with a nice low number Brett autograph, one of those cool Alex Gordon 2006 Topps cards, and a sampling of a few other nice young Royals autos and within minutes I had landed myself this very nice piece of cardboard:

2003 Upper Deck Mark of Greatness Mark McGwire Autograph 

This card is actually serial numbered out of 70 which makes it the highest numbered McGwire autograph I have ever seen.  It probably means it's also the highest that's out on the secondary market anywhere.  I also like this card because it has a swatch of McGwire jersey.  Just like his autographs, McGwire relic cards are quite tough.  In fact, I have meet a few really hard core McGwire collectors who swear that a McGwire relic might actually be the tougher pull between that and an autograph.  More on that later.  This is my second certified McGwire autograph in my collection.  My other Big Mac is from the 2002 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection and is not quite as nice as this signature.