Topps Co-Signers Baseball is only entering its second year as a brand in 2007, but the dual signature cards that are the heart of the set have a long history as an insert in different Topps products. There are some intriguing Co-Signers cards on the checklist, like Ryan Howard/David Ortiz and Alex Rodriguez/Mickey Mantle.
On average, collectors can expect three autographed cards in every 12-pack hobby box of 2007 Topps Co-Signers Baseball, one of which should be a dual-signed card. One in every 24 boxes contains a Tri-Signers triple autograph card.
Base Cards and Parallels
Co-Signers has a simple but effective design for its 121-card base set. A color action photo and a black-and-white portrait are set against a white background. Silver foil bars contain the team information at the top and player name at the bottom. Card backs have a color photo and a few lines of stats.
A total of 93 veterans and seven first-year players (sporting the MLB Rookie Card logo) are depicted on 100 common cards. The final 21 base cards are autographed MLB Rookie Cards that are sequentially numbered. Five first-year players appear in both regular and signed versions.
All of the base cards have 13 levels of parallels. Yes, you read that right. Numbering ranges from 275 copies for the most common level, Red, down to a single copy for the most difficult to pull, Hyper Plaid Silver.
The veteran parallels are printed on super thick stock that doubles as a pack-searching countermeasure, and also have a unique twist. Aptly dubbed Changing Faces, the cards substitute a photo of a teammate for the portrait on their regular card. The teammate's name also appears on the top of the card. With 13 levels and two different teammates for each player, that makes a staggering 26 parallels for each veteran.
There's nothing quite that dramatic for the signed rookies, though they still have 13 different colors/levels. I've included them with the other autographed cards in the next section.
A sample box sent by Topps provided a decent start to the base set with 60 commons and one autographed MLB Rookie Card: Glen Perkins of the Twins. It also yielded 10 parallels in all.
Autographed Cards
Naturally the Co-Signers cards are a big draw at one per box on average, but collectors can expect to find two other autographs. One should be one of the autographed rookies mentioned above, while the other could be a rookie parallel or one of several autographed inserts.
Last season's MVP winners Ryan Howard and Justin Morneau highlight the list of 28 Solo Sigs cards, which mostly feature young MLB stars. There's more variety for the pairings on the actual Co-Signers inserts, ranging from current teammates (like Craig Monroe and Curtis Granderson) to retired former teammates (Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry).
Very fortunate collectors can even pull Co-Signers Cut Signatures with legends of the diamond like Mickey Mantle or famous historical figures like Dwight Eisenhower. New for 2007 are Tri-Signers cards which up the ante with 19 different combinations of three autographs each.
Finally, NASA gets some love with 10 Moon Shots astronaut autograph cards. The space explorers can also be found paired up with baseball stars on Moon Shots Dual Autograph cards.
That's a lot of possibilities, but About.com's review box came up a bit short. I pulled a Red autographed rookie parallel of Shawn Riggans but no Co-Signers card or any other signatures. These things do happen, though it's safe to say a collector who actually purchased this box would have been disappointed to find none of the cards that actually give the brand its name.
Box Toppers
A two-card pack inserted in each box contains two more cards in the Alex Rodriguez Road to 500 set that is winding its way through all 2007 Topps baseball products. Career home runs 176 through 200 are in the spotlight this time around.
The Last Word
The lack of a Co-Signers card in my review box is not that big a deal, as it's certainly just a production fluke. It does highlight one of the weaknesses of this year's set though, as so much is riding on the namesake dual autos, and not every combination will knock your socks off. The parallels also define overkill, as there's not much difference between cards numbered to, say, 175, 150 and 125 in the current baseball card climate.
Despite those shortcomings, 2007 Co-Signers Baseball does offer attractive base cards and the promise of three or more signatures per box. Collectors who want autographs without many other extraneous elements may find this set to their liking.