Video game “celebrity” autographed cards are the next big thing

Would you pay fifteen dollars for a Steve Wiebe autographed card?  How about 30 bucks for Billy Mitchell’s John Hancock?

Baseball card collectors looking for a piece of Albert Pujols’ laundry in Topps’ Allen and Ginter set are being treated to a small piece of video game history… and chances are they probably don’t care.

Most of them are probably wondering who the hell Mitchell and Wiebe even are. Granted, the stars of The King of Kong aren’t that high on the video game royalty hierarchy, but if Topps got some of the biggest names in the industry to sign a few cards, we might see the start of a new hobby craze.

Not everybody has the ability to fly to Japan and stalk Shigeru Miyamoto or Hideo Kojima for an autograph, but everybody would have a shot at pulling one from a pack of cards. The potential market value for the Mario creator’s signature is huge, considering a signed GBA from a few years back sold for over two thousand dollars.

Often times, autographed items will not sell for as much as they should because there is the problem of authenticity. Just because you posted a cute story on your eBay listing that you met Cliffy B at a bar and you just happened to have a copy of Gears Of War 2 with you doesn’t make your item “authentic” in the eyes of most people.

Cards from companies like Topps solve this issue because they have no choice but to make sure these autographs are legitimate, even if it means flying a representative out to Japan (I know, crappy job, right?) to get them done.

So what type of sales would we see if there was ever an autographed video game celebrity set? They could even fill out the checklist with people with a peripheral involvement in the industry (Jimmy Fallon, Vin Diesel, Jack Black, Bo Jackson, etc.) to entice other collectors in the mix.

Below is a list of video game personalities that I feel would sell for a little bit more than thirty dollars.  I can only imagine the system loyalty flame wars that would start if somehow a Jack Tretton card sold more than a Reggie Fils-Aime.

Half the fun in this set is seeing how much fans drive up the prices of certain people to establish dominance in the hobby.

Shigeru Miyamoto, Hideo Kojima, Bill Gates, Ken Kutaragi, Yuji Naka, Will Wright, Cliff Bleszinski, Reggie Fils-Aime, Tetsuya Nomura, Nolan Busnell, Tim Schafer, Ken Levine, Koji Igarashi, Satoru Iwata, Kaz Hirai, Warren Spector, Phil Harrison, Peter Moore, Geoff Keighley, Jade Raymond, John Carmack, Sid Meier, Morgan Webb, Adam Sessler, Dan Hsu, The Housers, Nobuo Uematsu, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Gunpei Yokoi (I’ll admit I had to look at wikipedia for some of these names)

Trading card companies are always looking for ways to bring in different audiences into collecting; this is a potential huge money maker for them.  Make it happen, Topps, just don’t bring in “event-worn” clothing memorabilia in the mix.

A piece of Peter Moore’s shirt doesn’t sound appealing to anybody, not to mention all of the perverts who would drive up the price for a piece of uh… something from Jade Raymond.