The sports card industry has turned a corner in collecting in the 21st century.  When I was young, it was quite a find to pull a baseball hero like Pete Rose or Reggie Jackson from a pack of baseball cards.  In 2020, a card is just not enough.  Major sports card companies have been including authentic signatures and uniform swatches into their high-end collector cards.

I have taken that one step further with my own invented company THE CUTTING EDGE.  I create one-of-a-kind family collectibles that I call Family Tree Signatures.  I insert authentic signatures of my relatives onto personally created cards.  I have created six so far:  Frank Showalter Sr., James Showalter, Jacob Showalter, William Whitby, Sarah Whitby, and John F. Whitby.

I enjoy making these and love to show them to family members.  Call me eccentric–I am!  This melds two of my hobbies–sports card/autograph collecting and my own ancestry.  Each card is pressed between lucite plastic to preserve the signature.  I have shown the front, but a look at the back would give you more information about the person and where the signature was obtained.

Check them out!

Frank Showalter 1870-1940

James Showalter 1825-1901

Jacob Showalter 1824-1888 Died from a fall on a ladder.  Rare signature in my collection.  

William Whitby (Gertrude Showalter’s father) 1873-1952

Sarah A. Whitby (Sadie) 1875-1943

John Franklin Whitby (Gerturde’s brother) 1893-1974–my favorite card. John usually signed his letters John or Jack.  This hard to obtain full  signature was from an early 1918 envelope addressed to his mother from a military base in Maryland.  Notice the Pvt. denoting his rank.

Great care is taken to obtain the autograph and maintain the origin of each.