I knew there was a reason I stopped collecting baseball cards...

Are we supposed to know what the hell they're talking about? Is it a card signed by Mother Theresa or something? Was this some sort of promotion?

What in the hell is any Mother Theresa anything doing anywhere near any pack of baseball cards?

Are we supposed to know what the hell they're talking about? Is it a card signed by Mother Theresa or something? Was this some sort of promotion?

Well, if you read the article (in fairness, the only reason I did is because like you I didn't know what the hell they were talking about) you'd see there's a photo of the card and it appears that yes, it's actually signed by Mother Theresa. How hilariously lame.

Well, if you read the article ...

I did, and I still can't figure it out. Was it put there on purpose? Is this like a Willy Wonka golden ticket where everyone knew it was out there and really hoping to get it? And if so, why the hell would they have something from Mother Theresa? What a strange industry.

Is the lucky winner wearing a swim cap underneath his hat?

When I asked Mother Theresa to sign a card, she tore it up and spat in my face. "Roid rage," somebody whispered to me.

Mother Theresa is overrated anyway.

I never knew that she played.

I'm just happy that Repoz reminded me of one of my favorite Beatles' songs... it's been years since I heard it.

Is it too much to hope that she originally signed the card so that it be donated to the national trust?

I just went on the Topps site to try and figure out what all these various cards were - there are like six or seven different varieties of cards in this set, some of them are "relic" cards and some of them you apparently can rip (actually tear) to see if you've won a bigger prize. Long story short, I had no idea what they were talking about and couldn't really differentiate between the different kinds of cards. They truly have their own vocabularly now ... I might as well have been reading a horse racing odds chart or speaking Sanskrit for all that I understood.

I didn't know there was still really a new card industry to the point where there were card shows still rolling around. I thought the entire thing was pretty much old cards now.

Mother Theresa is overrated anyway.

Does anyone have her MLEs (Miraculous Life Equivalency)?

I knew there was a reason I stopped collecting baseball cards...

Word.

I think I'd be kinda pissed. Once I was dying of thirst and only had enough change to get one soda. So, I put my 55 cents in and out comes this odd looking can. No soda. It's some Brett Favre t-shirt. I mean, this was '94 and I thought Brett was awesome, but I was so thirsty. So instead of putting a couple quarters in the can so you can get another soda there's a 50 cent piece in there (no, NOT 50 cent's piece, just a 50 cent piece). No soda machine takes that. Jeez.

"no, NOT 50 cent's piece"

As if he'd even be able to fit it in a soda can.

Seriously, isn't selling an autograph of Mother Theresa for profit... really missing the point?

It's been a while since I paid attention to (let alone bought any) baseball cards but as far as I can tell, here is how this strange set of circumstances came to be:

First, you got regular, plain old cards with players on them. Then, they thought it would be special if they put you more in touch with the actual player by embedding autographs, game-used jerseys and equipment, etc. into the card. But more recently, they thought it would blow everyone's socks off if sometimes, instead of baseball players, you got autographs and memorabilia from other famous figures. First it was presidents. Now, the mania has apparently spread to Mother Teresa. Yes, it seems bizarre for a nun to be in a pack of baseball cards, but that novelty is exactly what is appealing to those who are lining up to pay thousands of dollars for this particular card at this moment on eBay.

From the eBay link:

"This is PERFECT for any fan/collector!!"

Are there collectors of MT memorabilia?

(EDIT) And for once, the shipping on an eBay item is actually patently reasonable.

Moral Orel?

Seriously, isn't selling an autograph of Mother Theresa for profit... really missing the point?

Yeah, she's gonna be hella pissed.

As someone raised Catholic, I vote the Vatican buy it. You've heard of the Crusaders using pieces of the 'true cross' and other holy relics on journeys and such, right? They could put MT's baseball card in some church in India and use it to heal the lepers or something.

And for once, the shipping on an eBay item is actually patently reasonable.

Seems like a good idea to pay over $5000 for a holy relic and then tell the guy, "Just put it in the mail."

The funny thing is, the picture on the card shows Mother Teresa leaning on a cane, and on the head of the cane is carved the words F@&* FACE.

The funny thing is, the picture on the card shows Mother Teresa leaning on a cane, and on the head of the cane is carved the words F@&* FACE.

You know, in retrospect, I really believe that card was the beginning of the end for the trading card boom. Error cards, particularly a few high profile error cards such as that one, were the "Mother Teresa" cards of the late 80s/early 90s. Then errors fell out of fashion and the next gimmick became high quality glossy limited print cards which then gave way to the planted autographs which then became pieces of uniforms or whatever which them moved on to this kind of stuff. Now that have to keep outdoing what they before because nobody actually wants the cards anymore, they want the gimmick cards because they're the only thing that actually has any real resell value.

Okay, so from the looks of it Topps took something she signed and put it onto a card and slipped it in a pack. That really is totally weak. I was hoping for stats on the back. Remember Topps' facts from the 60's (?) cards? Did you know in 1972 Mother Theresa healed 421 sick believers breaking Mother Catherine's 1100 year old record? Statisticians however added an asterix to MT's record because Theresa performed her miracles in the newer Western calender.

the error card craze was actually in 1981 with fleer and donruss; a little in '82, and then it faded out. 89 was the ripken card, but it also was upper deck's first year, which showed that people might pay a bit more for a pack of cards.

then donruss did the limited edition inserts, those took off...topps added stadium club, and then finest and the refractor / parallel insert really started. and that knocked the socks off - and promptly finished cannibalizing cards.

Twenty six conversions in A.D. 46!

Big ####### deal. I have a water jug signed by John the Baptist.

Although, I will say that this rookie card should shoot up in value once she is canonized

I have a baseball signed by Jesus, Muhammad, and Nick Johnson.

the error card craze was actually in 1981 with fleer and donruss; a little in '82, and then it faded out. 89 was the ripken card, but it also was upper deck's first year, which showed that people might pay a bit more for a pack of cards.

True, there was an earlier error craze. I remember the 1982 Fleer error of that pitcher in reverse that was still going for $150 in the late 80s. But the late 80s definitely had an error resurgance. Billy Ripken and then the Upper Deck errors were big-time sellers.

A really big part of buying Upper Deck was you could pull a Griffey rookie or a Sheridan/Dale Murphy error and sell them for $40 (the Griffey) or as much as $100 (the errors, for the first few months) right out of the pack. At the time, in the new card market, there was NOTHING you could sell for more than a few bucks out of the pack, and it had been that way for years. Value was exclusively clustered in older rookie cards. The idea that you could buy a pack and instantly have something of value was, in a moment of extreme hyperbole, revolutionary to the card collecting world. I remember going to a card store with a friend of mine, him buying a few packs of UD, pulling a Sheridan error, and the dealer immediately buying it back for $80. We were eleven. That made a big impact. There was literally no other set out there you could sell a new card from for anything more than $2-3. We bought a lot more Upper Deck.

The card companies were then smart (sort of). If you get value you will pay for value, so if they put cards with instant value into the mix people will pay more for a box. Apparently the boxes this card was found in go for around $130 apiece - Topps boxes in the late 80s went for $18.

The Upper Deck high end thing was huge, though, both because of quality and limited print runs. Cards had looked like crap and been way overprinted on crap for years. Topps was the worst but Fleer and Donruss had opened the presses by then too. Then Stadium club and inserts and so on.

Nick Johnson couldn't stay healthy with the help of Jesus and Muhammad.

There is something wrong with a Mother Theresa signed card. Although I must admit to wanting to bid $5000.01 on ebay (yes, I know I can't bid in cent intervals on this item). I figure there is no chance I would win anyway, although with my luck.......

Did you know in 1972 Mother Theresa healed 421 sick believers breaking Mother Catherine's 1100 year old record? Statisticians however added an asterix to MT's record because Theresa performed her miracles in the newer Western calender.


I didn't think that the asterix was ever included in official records, just that Pope Paul IV mistake her for Mother Catherine Elizabeth McAuley figuring his beatification of her would increase the value of Irelands bank notes that he had had hoped to hoard and made a snide comment to the Papal News about maybe putting an asterisk.

Ummm, I'm just not sure what to add to this. Some very funny posts, but like most of you, its basically WTF? Excuse my ignorance but like what someone posted, they just scanned a signature on a card? Can I get the Mozart card, how about Joan of Arc card? For signatures sake I reckon the John Hancock card would be brilliant...I mean look at the prominence of that signature on the declaration of independence!

Hugh,

No, it is not simply a scan of her autograph. The companies find an item which was genuinely signed by the object of the card and cut out the signed portion of the document and then embed it into the card.

The funny thing is, the picture on the card shows Mother Teresa leaning on a cane, and on the head of the cane is carved the words F@&* FACE.

My wife is looking at me like she thinks she ought to be calling 9-1-1. Well done.

I think the error cards had little to do with the death of baseball cards. Errors cards were interesting and all but people were not buying Upper Deck for the errors. They were buying upperdeck because at the time current individual cards were getting a book value in the dollar level. You could pull a Frank Thomas or Ken Griffey and turn around and sell it or crow that it was worth $7. With Topps/Donruss/Fleer the best you could hope for was 1.00 to 2.00 for a current card. Upper Deck killed baseball cards. All the gimmicks came much much later. You didn't have pieces of jerseys and bats in cards in the late 80's or early 90's. The market was dead and then they put all the gimmicks into revive it. Upper Deck killed it because UD was charging a fortune and you had a lot of dumb baby boomers buying them up thinking these tulips were going to be worth a fortune 10 to 20 years down the line just like the baseball cards they collected and threw out when they were kids. I still remember the Beckett issue in which Ryne Sandbergs rookie card shot up from $12 or so (which had been at for years) all the way up to $45 to $60 before collapsing back a couple of years later. So everybody followed Upper Decks lead and everybody got expensive and it killed the youth market and killed the future.

By the way the guy is wearing a normal hat. That is the underpart of his brim that you think is a swimcap.

Seriously, isn't selling an autograph of Mother Theresa for profit... really missing the point?

Not. At. All.

I wouldn't take pride in having anything signed by her, and I have Pete Rose sigs.

Weird, that's two references to Tulipmania on the same day.

I have the "Rookie Stars" card with Mother Teresa, Satan, and Mark Fidrych.

She was on the Miracle Mets, right?

Get Jim Belushi and Regis Philbin to sign it an you'll have a nice trifecta.

Get Jim Belushi and Regis Philbin to sign it an you'll have a nice trifecta.

Eilza Dushku would also be a nice addition.

Eliza Dushku would also be a nice addition to my bedroom.

Fixed.

She was on the Miracle Mets, right?

No, but Mother Teresa is the daughter of Johnny "Grandma" Murphy, and the sister of Wilbert "Uncle Robbie" Robinson.