All has been quiet on the Ichiro front as far as Topps cards go for the past couple of years. It has been even quieter on the Topps autograph front. But that's about to change as Ichiro autographs are coming to 2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Baseball.
Topps made the announcement via their Instagram account. They also confirmed 2015 Topps Archives Will Ferrell autographs there last week.
The card maker has confirmed on Twitter that Ichiro has three different autographs in Allen & Ginter -- one for each of the MLB teams he has played for: Seattle, the Yankees and, currently, the Miami Marlins.
Ichiro will also have autographed card of him featured with the @Yankees and @Marlins in 2015 Topps Allen & Ginter. pic.twitter.com/lwuObvBr6f
— Topps Company (@toppscards) May 12, 2015
In addition to Allen & Ginter, Ichiro autographs will also be in several other products in the coming year such as 2015 Topps Supreme, 2015 Topps Triple Threads, 2015 Topps High Tek, 2015 Topps Five Star and 2015 Topps Dynasty.
During his time with the Mariners, Ichiro had an exclusive deal with Upper Deck for autographs. In recent years, the outfielder has signed cards for both Leaf and Panini. Leaf even did the high-end 2013 Leaf Ichiro Immortals Collection set that focused on his career up to that point.
The last time Ichiro appeared on a Topps card was 2012. The two sides couldn't come to an agreement after that deal expired.
Rather than having blanket MLBPA coverage like Panini, Topps signs players to individual card deals. Sometimes this means players' first Topps cards are delayed. For example, we're still waiting on the first pack-inserted Matt Wieters cards. He's had an eTopps cards and an over-sized print, but never anything found in packs from the card maker. However, the Orioles catcher does have cards with other companies.
Topps hasn't made a formal announcement about their deal with Ichiro yet. It might mean more cards, but at this point all that's confirmed is the Allen & Ginter autograph.
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