Upper Deck Heroes

Upper Deck was one of the first companies to catch on with the ultra premium content.  In going about the beautiful color photos and glossy card stock, they also started doing things like random (albeit crazy rare given the huge overproduction) autographs and eventually they also started doing swatches of game-worn jersey.  One of the earliest and most successful sets was the Upper Deck Heroes autographs.

These cards crossed all sports, and featured a hand-numbered autograph on-card on a printed artwork "Heroes" card.  The ones that I recall fondly featured Hank Aaron, Jerry West, Nolan Ryan, Reggie Jackson, Wayne Gretzky, and Ted Williams, among others.  The set was featured over several years and across multiple sets, and I have managed to pick up several of these through the years by way of the glorious internet.  My favorite of the set is Ted Williams, because he didn't really sign a lot of autographs before he passed away.  But they are all really neat, and all feature really great artwork in addition to on-card signatures.  Really something that I wish they could bring back.