My Favorite Buybacks

I am still going to post more on the 2015 Allen & Ginter set, but thought I would take a quick detour to talk about a few buyback sets from the past that were fun to collect.  As mentioned in my post last night, Ginter is just the latest set to offer collectors a second chance at adding cards to their collection.  Almost every card manufacturer has done something with this concept.  Specifically I have two past favorites.  Here's a look at the two sets:

1. SP Authentic Buybacks- These ran for years in Upper Deck's SP products which spanned from the mid 90s until the mid 2000s.  The buyback cards started to appear in the late 1999s and featured players cards from the mid 90s SP products.  The cards were also autographed and serial numbered.  I know that these are really popular with collectors from this era.  I own a whole slew of them and always am looking for cool copies from unique players.  I have only pulled one of these autographs out of a box, also got the Chirography autographs out of these boxes, but I still have the card.  Always had a special thing for this card.......

Again, there is a wide range of players in this set, but one of the part things about buying/trading for these buybacks is the fact that the autographs are all on card signatures.  The later SP Authentic sets were smack dab in the middle of the sticker autograph era which started in the early 2000s.  There are some great autographs out there from these sets.


2.  Donruss Recollections- These buyback cards started in the early 2000s when Donruss relaunched. I loved these buybacks because there were a lot of cool cards from my middle school and high school years.  Donruss was always a good brand for me.  Not the best looking cards, nor the best designed, but this was always a fun pack of cards.  My favorite Donruss sets are probably the run from 1987 through 1990 and then the sets from the mid 90s.  Similar to the SP Authentic product, there are some really nice high end cards in this set.  If you want to find an autograph with a low print run, that will cost upwards of $100, there are plenty of buybacks from Frank Thomas, Tony Gwynn, and Greg Maddux type players.  The thing I liked most though about the Donruss Recollections was the fact that the cards were a little bit more affordable, but featured more players from the "good player" category.  Take this card for example.....

Carney Lansford is pretty far from a Hall of Famer, but was still a good player for the late 80s A's teams.  I know he played for the Red Sox and Angels too, but I remember him as an A's player.  I pulled this card out of a box which sparked my interest in the Donruss Recollection cards.  Playoff, who owned Donruss at the time of the Recollection cards, was the worst offender of all the sticker autograph users.  One of the coolest things you could pull out of one of their boxes was one of these buybacks.  All of the signatures are on card, with a silver stamp somewhere on the card, and the serial number on the back.  Here's a peak at the serial numbering....

There are other buyback autograph sets out there, but these are two of my favorites mainly because they feature some nice on-card autographs and offer a pretty wide range of players and buyback years.  

What is your favorite buyback product?  Favorite buyback card?