The Beckett Blog

Anyone who thinks the Dallas Cowboys have lost some of their cultish collector following in the 12 years since the team’s last playoff victory should know this: Someone recently paid almost $60 for a 2009 Upper Deck Icons America’s Team autograph of Seventies Cowboy Scott Laidlaw.

Laidlaw, it should be noted, spent just five seasons with Dallas and never rushed for more than 425 yards or scored more than four touchdowns in any one of them.

Someone else paid a similar amount for D.D. Lewis . . . and John Niland. Eddie LeBaron sold for $71. Larry Cole traded hands for $41.

Now as always, there’s nothing quite like the star decal on a helmet to turn semistars into superstars.

Clearly, the Cowboys still have one of the most passionate collector bases in the history of professional sports, and Upper Deck’s new America’s Team cross-brand autograph program that debuted in Icons is driving that point home with virtually every online transaction.

Upper Deck officials deserve credit for deftly handling the 39-card autograph checklist, dotting it largely with nationally obscure, locally beloved former Cowboys who’ve never appeared on certified autograph cards before.

In fact, that’s the case with 16 players in the set (see list below), including the aforementioned Laidlaw, Lewis, Niland and Cole, whose premiere signatures are commanding comparably crazy money on eBay.

In addition to the first-time signers in the America’s Team program, there are a handful of subjects whose certified autograph appearances can best be described as rare. Dan Reeves, for example, hasn’t appeared on an autograph card since 2000. LeBaron’s only previous autograph appearance occurred in 1992 Pro Line Portraits. And Mark Stepnoski, Tom Rafferty and Tony Tolbert have just four autograph cards between them.

It’s the perfect collecting storm, really; an example of what’s possible when a great-looking, UD Legends-like design meets scarce autographs from members of a marquee franchise.

And the storm’s just getting started. The America’s Team program kicked off in Icons but will continue in base-brand Upper Deck, Upper Deck First Edition and SP Signature later in the year.

While much of the program is heavily retail-focused (blasters will include five-card packs of America’s Team base cards and memorabilia cards will fall one per blaster case), the skip-numbered autographed parallels will be found almost exclusively in the hobby channel at a rate of about one every three or four cases. UD officials have confirmed, however, that some autographs will fall in retail products.

The base America’s Team set includes 100 cards. There are also nine memorabilia cards (including Troy Aikman, Roger Staubach, Emmitt Smith and Tony Romo) in addition to the 39-card autograph set.

– Tracy Hackler

America’s Team First-Time Signers
Benny Barnes
Billy Joe Dupree
Bob Breunig
Charlie Waters
Cornell Green
D.D. Lewis
John Niland
George Andrie
Jim Jeffcoat
John Fitzgerald
Larry Cole
Michael Downs
Pat Donovan
Scott Laidlaw
Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson

First Time Since . . .
Dan Reeves (four autographs, first since 2000 Greats of the Game)
Eddie LeBaron (one autograph, 1992 Pro Line Portraits)
Mark Stepnoski (one autograph, 1995 Pro Line Portraits)
Tom Rafferty (two autographs, 2007 Penn State TK Legacy)
Tony Tolbert (one autograph, 1996 Collector’s Edge Cowboybilia)